With Most Things In Life, Practice Makes Perfect, Or At

In this chapter, Lunsford details the planning and drafting process for a writer to organize their ideas with either a formal outline or a rough plan. Lunsford reminds writers to be flexible during the drafting process and not to think twice about changing elements of the essay at this point in the process. Lunsford goes on to explain the qualities academic paragraphs must have these include unity, development and coherence. To obtain unity within a paragraph all sentences should relate to the topic sentence of the paragraph. When developing a paragraph it is important to switch between general and specific ideas in the paragraph, while supporting those ideas with details, evidence and examples as required. Ensuring a paragraph is coherent is crucial when developing an academic paragraph. Because readers need to be able to follow a writers ideas easily, Lunsford gives her readers a method to follow to achieve this goal. This method includes using the general to specific ideas, repetition, parallel structures, and using transition words. The author notes that this method should also be used to link paragraphs

When I first started English 101, I saw myself as having a few good strengths and a lot of weaknesses as a writer. Some of my strengths included being able to write a good introduction minus the thesis part. I also saw myself as knowing how to write a good conclusion that summarized what I talked about in my essay and being able to understand a article or essay by knowing what the author was talking about. Some of the improvements I saw in my writing thorough out the semester is learning how to write an essay where I can communicate with the audience with my own personal voice. I also feel I improved on knowing how to properly include quotes and how to find good creditable sources to include in my essay and on how to include both sides of a argument in my paper. Another improvement I found in my papers is learning how to revise them and approach each essay. However, there are some items of writing that I believe I improved on but still needs some work. For example, even though I have learned all about the rhetorical appeals and how to determine them in a essay, I still feel as if I do not know how to properly included them in my essay. I also see myself as improving on knowing how to write a thesis but still need work on

Something that I can also do to help my writing is to always read what I wrote out loud. When I say out loud, I mean out loud! This will help me catch some of the grammatical errors that anyone can easily make, and I can also make sure that what I am writing makes sense. Something else that can help me

Some areas where I need to improve include transitions between paragraphs, being to repetitive, and my conclusions. This class has definitely helped me make my transitions better; however they still could use some improvement. I have to make sure that the reader can comprehend my thought process and that my transitions do not get in the way of the flow of the paper. In some of the rough drafts for my essays I could not find links between paragraphs at all but after work shopping in class I believe that they have significantly improved. I also need to make sure that I do not repeat the same ideas or words too many

I was able to develop and strengthen my writing through the writing of all six of my essays over this semester. I was able to do this by having classmates per edit my work and then go over my essay and revise it. I was able to strengthen my writing skills by being assigned six different essays over this semester.

In the beginning of the term I was assigned an essay that described me as a writer and thinker. With this essay being my first assignment, I was quite stressed with the feeling of failure. After this assignment I learned the importance of the drafting system. After my paper was graded I received it back and noticed multiple mistakes. This was the first step I practiced improving. Writing multiple drafts helped me analysis the material I wrote from another point of view. For example, I was able to eliminate sections that were unrelated from the main point. Building my vocabulary up another step I had focus as a writer and thinker. I used a combination between the dictionary and thesaurus to help me increase my vocabulary. Overtime with experience, I saw improvements in all of these categories that I was struggling

In my first “Who I am as a Writer” paper I stated how one of the areas that I needed to improve was writing. I went into more depth talking about how my writing is not descriptive enough and how I cannot grab the reader's attention. Even though I still need to continue making improvements, I have gotten better in both of these aspects. Compared to my papers in high school my introduction paragraphs have improved.

My vocabulary has improved due to the many words we have learned in English II and I have learned that in order to create the perfect paper, you must have many rough drafts. One of my strengths as a writer has been my editing, which helps me fix the fluidity (one of my weaknesses) of the paper. Another weakness in my writing is not brainstorming before I write. In most instances I am able to start a paper right away but then get stuck after the first or second body paragraph. However, I often fix these mistakes by having multiple peers and mentors read over my drafts. By adding this step to the process of my writing, I am able to produce a stronger paper. My goal in writing for the next year is to improve upon the structure and format of my paper. This could be easily accomplished by learning how to write SCQuIRT paragraph. In the future I hope to be able to build upon my skills as a

In writing this paper, I revised my narrative essay by adding foreshadowing, changing some tense, and deleting unnecessary sentences. I found that these changes made my paper a higher college read.

I believe that one of my greatest strengths when I write is how well I can clearly comprehend a prompt, and answer it correctly and thoroughly. I take time to think about what I am going to write, and structure it well. Along with structuring my writing, my use of vocabulary

I lacked critical thinking skills and I believed everything teachers told me with no questions asked. I never questioned why a certain concept was true. Nor have I asked a teacher to prove to me why we use this method over the next, so I never fully understood the concepts as well as I thought I knew them. Time management was impossible for me. I was involved in so much and I never made enough time for my studies.Cramming concept after concept on the day before an exam and pulling all nighters day after day was not enough for me. Something had to give. My grades weren’t improving and my knowledge in each course wasn’t up to par.

Through this class, I have learned that theses that are vague or contain sweeping generalizations will not properly tie the essay all together; instead, it will make the paper seem disorderly. My first essay initially contained a thesis that was extremely vague and could have been applicable to almost any story. This first thesis was, “This shift changes everything for her.” Upon much revision, I was able to articulate a well-crafted thesis, shown in my First Revised Essay exhibit. My new thesis is, “The once impetuous, egocentric girl realizes her lack of affluence and fortune leaving her exasperated and wanting to improve her circumstances. This shift exploited her ignorance to the socioeconomic gap between her community and the wealth around her.” After several revisions, my thesis provides Sylvia’s characteristics before and after her epiphany, while identifying the event that provoked this change. This affords a clear indication of how Sylvia was affected by her epiphany, and allows a platform for the following paragraphs to build off

My areas for improvement as a writer are grammar and wording. Since English is not my primary language, I have many flaws on my writing techniques. Sometimes, my sentence becomes wordy or awkward if I could not explain something what I thought. Also, I have a hard time distinguishing what or when to use proper articles in front of the noun, or what preposition should be used in front of particular phrases or verbs.

Overall I think that my most of my writing habits have improved and for the ones that have not I know what they are and what I need to do to improve them. My strengths that I already had as

Over the course of the semester, there has been numerous amount of areas where I believe I have improved in comparison to high school. What has helped me in my writing is the writing class and the in-class writing workshop. The writing class that is located in the Kremen education building has helped me with my writing greatly because in the writing center the person in charge teach us lenses and we apply those lenses to the writing, draft, or reading that someone brings in. The in-class writing workshop has helped me because other students get to read my writing. This is helpful because I get feedback from many students and they let me know what needs to be fixed. A new tool I have been using is They Say I Say. The book is very helpful because of the information and examples it provides such as the templates. I have been applying the templates into my essays and I have seen a significant difference.