What I Learned in English 1100-40 in College Essay

From elementary school to high school, I was taught that my writing had to be structured and follow strict criteria. After I arrived in Mr. Mukherjee’s ENG 102 class, I was given the opportunity to express my creative freedom through words and graphical pictures. It can often be difficult and challenging to improve upon my own writing abilities unless motived with an idea in mind. When looking back on my time at ASU, I thought about the goals that I wanted to address for myself and the course goals that my instructor had set for the class. These goals include ones that I had accomplished to the best of my ability and ones that I need to address as well as improve.

This year in our English 1010 class, we covered many different genres and types of writing. We covered how to write personal narratives, how to respond to other students and other forms of writing, and how to professionally write essays. Briefly, we touched down on how to write argumentatively and were also required to create an infographic, wish was probably my favorite assignment. Although I never thought of myself as a strong writer, I believe that this class has greatly improved not only my writing skills, but my thinking skills as well. This was my first English class to be taken through dual enrollment and I believe that it went quite successfully while challenging me as a writer.

Good writing is writing with simplicity. It is taking out every word that adds no meaning, every verb that’s too abstract, and every sentence too full of clutter that it lost it’s meaning. Some may believe adding extra fluff to your paper makes it sound more sophisticated, but William Zinsser, in his article “Simplicity”, argues quite the opposite. He does not see it as fluff, but as fuzz- fuzz that only clogs up the machinery. If we learn how to stay simple yet powerful in our writing, we would be making the job of the reader much easier and more enjoyable.

To begin, I am eager to receive critique and assistance regarding my writing. My hope is to develop into the best writer I can be. Having said that, fearful struck me the moment I registered for this course. Fearing that I would be expected to write essays, papers and that I would fall short in my abilities. Writing a narrative essay, reflective essay, or researching material for a persuasive essay is not something I had done. Fortunately, soon realizing that this is why I am returning to college. English Composition specifically, will guide me through the information that I need to study to become the best writer I can be. Receiving guidance is a necessary part of life, and in college, if I want to develop my skills, receiving analyzes and assistance is essential to my growth. Falling short is an opportunity to fix what is wrong. So my enthusiasm is in learning everything I possibly can to aid in my success.

When writing my papers in English I was never sure what topic, I wanted to write about. I rotated between two, one being “The Mistreatment of Animals in Zoos” and the second and my main topic being “Is College Worth the Cost.” When writing these papers, I noticed something about myself. I had grown as a writer compared to when I first walked into English 1100, I had some writing experience but not much my grammar lacked and I was the queen of sentence fragments. Throughout the semester during English 1100, my writing skills improved. From learning, how to format works cited page correctly to learning how to analyze a source. My writing improved wonders with each paper. My paper I, I struggled extremely with formatting issues and how to

Over the past year I had a chance to develop a deeper understanding of what it takes to develop successful paper. Taking English 1010 was a great experience because it prepares students on becoming better writers through college life. Even though this is my second year in college I was unable to take English 1010 the first year, but taking this class truly show me what college professors are looking for when we are ask to write a successful paper. College professors expect every student to be able to evaluate each topic and be descriptive in their essay.

Your inner voice is crucial when it comes to crafting a strong paper. It is how you craft a powerful story, with the powerful mindset of emotionally driven thoughts. Execute the passion on paper which would represent the seriousness and maturity within. observation I made in Cal Newport’s How To Become a Straight-A Student, related to a quote that really stood out to me. “In order to write a greater paper, you really need to make connections that other people have not made, and the only way to do that in to think.”

As I embark in my journey through the first year composition at SFSU, I intend to maintain my previous academic goals to improve myself by practicing and taking risks. Having the willingness to drastically improve myself through a small set of goals and having the philosophy and ideology from high school literature, I intend to use these tendencies to to be successful in college level English. Reading constantly and using the the writing format as a guide to express my of individuality is what I hope in the long run makes me successful in first year composition.

While writing is an essential part of a student’s success I managed to avoid papers as much as humanly possible. The reason I have avoided writing isn’t that I do not like to write but that I am not comfortable writing papers that are going to be graded because I have a hard time putting down what I am thinking so typically it is a grammatical mess. I often over use or do not use enough punctuation and have poor choice in wording. Throughout the next fifteen weeks my personal goal is to be able to write a paper with proper grammar and be able to balance my paper.

Diction is what separates good writers from great writers. For almost three years I have received a small comment on approximately every essay I wrote. The message read, “ ...up your diction.” (Dayna Hendricks) This small message made my vocabulary sprout its leaves and create a beautiful word tree. This being said, I still have a prolonged journey until I reach my ultimate diction goal. “Besides, proper diction or proper choice of words is important to get the message across.” (Literary devices.net) I have found that readers become more intrigued into reading my essays if my diction content is high. Diction enhances the writing into becoming more elegant and interesting.

First, we must be able to write clearly and concisely for our readers to understand. The author stated that “a commitment to express our ideas, with clarity, directness and precision” (Rose Ragins, B., 2012). Understanding that writing is hard for some of us and it takes practice to become a better writer. “The first challenge of clear writing is to understand your reader” ( Rose Ragins, B., 2012). We have to be able to take the reader on a journey with us in our writing. Furthermore, “some writers use foggy writing which stems from to impress rather than express” (Rose Ragins, B., 2012). The most important part of being a good writer is selecting your words as to not make the reader confused on the point you are making. We as writers have to be careful not to use jargons in our papers and make our writing as simple and understanding as possible for the audience.

Staying on the right path in one’s classes is fundamental as this is one of the most important times in education. Rewarding oneself is one out of the many ways that students can accomplish this difficult, but crucial task. Assignments are to be completed in a timely and organized manner. It is essential that students take the time to grow as writers and change the necessary details to improve their writing skills and adapt to the changing atmosphere from high school to college. During ENC 1101, I am sure that students will undergo various ways of analyzing their writing process just as I did. I learned plenty about my writing during this journey and now I am making changes to improve my process and to become the best writer to my fullest

Unfortunately, “about 60 percent of first-time freshmen do not show entry level proficiency in [college-level English] assessments, even though they have earned at least a B average in the required college preparatory curriculum. As a result, many students must attend remedial classes, which do not count for college credit and add cost and time to earning a degree.” (Kautzer, 2010) In high school, you were given a specific formula, rules, and guidelines to follow in pursuance of a “perfect” paper. Due to vast differences in the expectations of college professors verse high school teachers, be prepared to make changes in your writing styles, structure, process in order to be successful.

Senior year of highschool is time to decide where you will continue your education career, but it is also the last chance for you to fix your writing and study skills. When your annoying English teacher gives you an assignment that looks daunting because the page count and the list of sources we have to use. Not only was this assignment given in the last semester of my high school career, but it was a necessary because I learned key things about writing a paper. The things I learned is what can help me succeed in my college and future careers.

Writing papers is definitely my weakest skill in school. At the beginning of high school, I had already acquired plenty of experience writing and had found my style of writing. High School has given me a chance to further explore different ways to write and allowed me to learn what I do and do not like writing about. This past semester of DE English has felt like the next step in my evolution as a writer.