What I 've Learned Throughout Grade 10

The challenging component this semester was the transition from high school English reading and writing level to college level. It is mainly because High school writing did not have many expectations from students, its main focus was on the ideal five-paragraph essays. As compared to college, writing is mainly geared and focused on one’s ability to thoroughly answer the assigned prompt. Initially, I was not sure if I was capable of handling a fast-paced course, however, I quickly adjusted to the change and I am glad that I chose to stay. In English 10, I have learned many valuable elements that I can incorporate into my everyday writing. I have included my writing from project 2 a rhetorical analysis on, “Black Lives Matter”, which effectively demonstrates my growth as a reader, thinker, and writer.

This English class was the best English class I have ever had. There were no tests, vocabulary quizzes, or in class essays, which made the class less stressful. Before this English class, I was afraid that I would not enjoy writing many essays or writing so many words in one paper. Afterwards, essays have become something that is not so much my favorite task in the world, but it has become more enjoyable to an extent. Professor Sullivan’s class has taught me to formally write a research paper, to analyze a book through responding to different quotes from the story or novel, to understand magical realism, and to understand my own passion for school and how much effort I will be willing to put out in years to come.

Everyone on the planet has a goal set in life, but only a handful attempt to improve to obtain their goal by studying the subject their goal is in. In my English class, English 101 this quarter I was astonished by how much I had progressed as a writer sharpening my writing skills and also learned a lot about writing that I hadn’t learned before. In my writing portfolio for this quarter I had to write an autobiography essay, a research essay, and this reflection essay to develop my writing skills better. The writing assignments were fun to do because it challenged me to work on essays of different styles that were new to me. The essay assignments helped me grow as a better writer that gave me the self-confidence and skills to take on the world on my own.

As I look back on my English 101 experience, I have come to the conclusion that I have learned many new things that have improved my abilities as a writer. I have learned some new techniques that have improved my ways of approaching an essay. I learned all about the rhetorical appeals and how to apply them in my writing and how to look for them in a essay written by a author. I have also learned how to argue both sides of a argument, and how to look for reliable sources and to properly quote and site the author of the essay. I feel as if I have become a better writer and my improved writing skills are shown within each essay.

If exceptional grades and numerous excellence awards are to indicate anything, I have succeeded academically thus far. However, such achievements are only possible because of my work ethic and determination. I pride myself on submitting my best work, pitting myself against my past performances. I remember my tenth grade English class; I was writing essays every week. I took every critique from my teacher and considered it for the next piece. Experience I gained from that class carried over into eleventh grade, where I achieved the highest English grade I have ever made. Even now, I look back at my older essays to help me write, so I know what works and what to avoid. Perseverance through school and desire to improve have carried me well, even through activities outside of my education.

The past two semesters were great experiences. Within this past school year my knowledge as a reader and writer has improved. It felt like it was just yesterday, when I had a lot of difficulty writing and poor reading strategies. Now, as I said before, I am an improved writer and reader. The assignments and class activities over the two semesters were great benefits to me, and helped me make progress towards the first year learning goals.

share some thoughts on my progress in English101. During one of her lectures, Professor Sophia Vilceus once said, “midway through, you will feel less motivated but do not let that discourage you” (Vilceus). Those words became evident whenever an essay, such as, cause and effect or compare and contrast became daunting to complete. Additionally, through her inspiration, I was able to stay encouraged, not only in class but also with learning some things about myself as a writer.

One topic that went quite unexplored during the Socratic Seminars was how we all individually incorporated quotes seamlessly into our essays. As a result, I would like point out that there are multiple ways to seamlessly fit quotes into sentences, such as informing the reader about how the character feels about the event, what exactly the character is talking about, and beginning the sentence containing the quote with paraphrasing. For example, I included as an example in my essay, "Secondly, Ashleigh questions her father's plan on page 4 of Ashes, ' "That's a lot of money. What if Mom finds out?" ' " I inform the reader as to how Ashleigh is feeling about her father's plan. It's simple for the reader to see that Ashleigh is skeptical about

The beginning of my junior year seems like it was such a long time ago. This may be because of how much I have grown since the start of the year. When I began AP English, my writing skills needed improvement. For instance, I often used incorrect grammar and struggled with staying on topic. In just one semester, my writing has improved immensely. The more than I write, the more I learn about how to craft a good paper. I have worked on improving my grammar, using rhetoric, addressing my subject, and many more elements of writing. In addition to improving my writing, I have gained many skills to become a better student. I have learned about effective study techniques and time-management skills that allow me to be the most successful. Since I always try my best, I know that over time I will continue to grow in my studies. This year I have gained countless skills that will help me succeed in English in the future.

I’ve realized that within the process of writing, using quotes to try and help explain ideas and support arguments is important when writing any kind of essay. I think for next time, I am definitely going to use more quotes, but also ones that directly relate to the argument at hand. something I find more difficult is also being able to just write the quotes in smoothly without having so many awkward sentences. I feel like writing is always about practicing, and for quotes, it’s trial and error, and trying to figure out what will work best, but also what sounds nice as well. I think for these three assignments, I did a pretty good job at being able to use quotes nicely.

This semester of writing has been truly interesting for me. Being able to write within a topic that interests me has made the process more exciting and engaging. I can see this growth in my papers this semester, but I feel that other, perhaps, cannot. It is true that the mechanics of my writing have improved and I am more able to articulate my thoughts and position. However, the real improvement, that other may not see, has been in my self-esteem and confidence in my own writing skills. I chose my sixth writing assignment as my example of progress for a variety of reasons. The two most prominent reasons are that it is one of my later assignments, and, therefore, will represent the most recent evidence of my progress and that it received my highest grade of all of my assignments.

This year in Honors Freshman Literature and Composition, I have grown tremendously as a writer. My essays from the beginning of the year to the end have showed that I have greatly progressed in many skills that I have worked on. While I have acquired strengths this year, I also have weaknesses that I hope to improve next year in my writing.

During this semester, I have strengthened my writing by trying new writing techniques, learning about purpose, and finding new ways of combating writers block. My first essay in this class was less focused then the essays I wrote later in

Now that I have completed the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth course Crafting the Essay, I feel I have tremendously grown as a writer. Even after submitting the first assignment, I looked back at a position paper I wrote for school that I received an A+ on, yet I saw several flaws I wished I had changed.

I am a science major and I have always minimized English Language courses because I thought I was already very good at writing. I did not think I would ever really need to use what I would acquire from such a course. When I came to Montgomery College and I was going to take the course English 101, my expectations were that I would have no difficulty scoring good grades in the course and I would learn nothing really helpful from it. This is because in high school, I put very little effort into my English class, but I had impressive scores in writing. I began to understand that I am not as good as I thought I was at writing when I started taking english courses in college. During my previous English course, English 102, I was able to improve certain aspects of my writing which I am glad for. For instance I am confident that my essay structures are well built. But some things in writing remained a challenge for me. I am glad that I am taking an English course that would permit me to work on things I thought I was already good at like awareness in writing essays and proper use of grammar and punctuation