Writing Is A Good Writer

Throughout the progression of this course I learned countless things concerning my writing. {Simkin, M. G., Crews, J. M., & Groves, M. J. (2012). While it’s there’s a many amounts of things ‘ve learned throughout the course, there are several things I‘ve learned which include the step by step process, including the correct usage of grammar and properly proofreading my work before I turn it in. I found out i had a major problem with my punctuation usage and insufficient when it came my periods and commas. I’ve invested some time writing through grammarly and other helpful sites to improve my writing skills. I appreciate the assistance and help I received from Mrs. C

Upon entering Columbia College, writing was one of my weaker areas. It was very important that I gained the necessary knowledge and confidence to become a better writer. I didn’t know how to express myself and felt as though my writing was not my interest. As a result of taking English 101, I have gained a better understanding on how to properly research and build a satisfactory paper. Every paper that was assigned seemed like a struggle to complete. Before entering this class, I did not know the meaning of a thesis or why it was important, however, I obtained this skill quickly. I noticed that every paper has an argument and the thesis helps clarify the rebuttal. Now, I have a new outlook on writing. It’s a way to express my thoughts and allow others to see things through my eyes. There is no doubt that I still have a long way to go, but I know if I continue to write, I will get better. Just as I developed more skills in class, the various papers assigned helped to better structure the writer in me. In addition, the subject areas were not only interesting, but very informative and made it much easier to write about my experiences.

You know good writing when you see it. It isn't that hard to tell whether a piece of writing is good or bad. You just have to read it. But things get more challenging if you have to explain why it's good. Even harder than that is analyzing the good things a writer is doing so you can learn to use his or her techniques in your own work. And teaching others how to use them is the hardest of all but that, of course, is exactly what we need to be able to do.

In the beginning of the semester, everyone was write down two goals that would be accomplished in the semester. Experience in writing papers showed me that I was weak in writing any type of papers. However, I was determined to stop repeating idea by rewording as well as writing information that is unnecessary. Also, I knew I had to improve on writing essays with no to very few mistakes, whether it is structurally or punctually. I am pleased with discontinuing any repetitions while writing, but am not so pleased about structuring and punctuating my sentences.

In the introduction to my first essay the 3rd sentence contains an easily remediable comma splice: “Not me, I live for this.” Later in the same paragraph I made the same mistake with “My operators think they are the ones who drive me into these situations – they’re wrong, I am the one who drags them into the belly of the beast.” Prior to ENC1101, I would never consider the preceding sentence wrong. After learning about the proper usage of commas and semicolons, I realized I have been creating comma splices all my life. Learning what independent clauses were and how to properly punctuate them has given my writing a greater sense of credibility. Replacing the comma with a semicolon, the punctuation used to separate 2 independent clauses, fixes them. Another error exposed during this course was my improper use of word forms. An example is shown here from my second essay “Seeing their demeanor switch from animosity to appreciative made me feel rewarded for my efforts”. Reading that sentence in my mine seems fine, but on closer inspection the words “animosity” and “appreciative” are not in same form. This course (specifically the SmartThinking program) has shown me that making word forms agree leads to more fluid writing. Correcting these errors leads to more mature writing and will make future professors respect my writing

As I was reading through the feedback I received on the first major paper I have written in over four years, I happened to think of something I read on a pink notebook in Walmart last night. “Good feedback is the key to improvement.” When I saw the small errors I missed, I knew it was time to start making some healthy adjustments to my writing. Although I have a terrible habit of using contractions and comma splices, I would like to expand my vocabulary and make my writing stronger, be able to incorporate more transitional statements, and I would like to become more comfortable with comma usage.

The two errors that present the biggest challenge to me in writing are comma splice and unnecessary commas. All throughout high school and into college these two errors have been my biggest downfall. In Fall 2014 semester, I took English 111 and my teacher had written on every paper that I wrote that I have to be careful of both comma splice and unnecessary commas. I can use this class as an opportunity to correct these errors by referring back to this book. In my other class, we didn’t use a book so I never had something to help me understand what exactly I was doing wrong. I hope that with help from my classmates and my teacher I can overcome this obstacle I face in my writing. In addition, I plan to use the book to help me when I am uncertain

My love for writing isn’t as strong as my love for reading. I’ve always enjoyed the idea of expressing my thoughts in words, but I always struggle with things such as punctuation, spelling, grammar, and word choice. I think I’m better at writing personal narratives, and persuasive essays, but I‘m always unsure of where to put my commas. Writing has always given me the pleasure of challenging me, and I hope that this year I would become a better

I was reading through the feedback I received on the first major paper I have written in over four years, I happened to think of something I read on a pink notebook in Walmart last night. “Good feedback is the key to improvement.” When I saw the errors I missed, I knew it was time to start making some healthy adjustments to my writing. Although I have a terrible habit of using contractions and comma splices, I would like to expand my vocabulary and formulate my writing to become stronger, be able to incorporate transitional statements, and I would like to become comfortable with comma usage.

An aspect that I often struggle with is proper punctuation. Truthfully, I do not know how to correctly use punctuation. When writing, I place punctuation by mimicking authors’ formats or by placing them where it feels right. This is present in all of my writing, but I am attempting to improve. Punctuation also plays a part in another weakness of mine, one that is most likely present within this essay. Since middle school, it was engrained in my mind that a good essay is a long essay, so I have a tendency for wordiness. To elongate an essay, I tend to add needless words and sentences. For example, in the rough draft of the Whole Process Essay, I added several unrelated occurrences to elongate the paragraphs. Although my essays were long and wordy, the professor commented on vagueness and unclearness within the whole process and practice essay. Sometimes, I disregard the fact that the reader might not know what it is I am writing about or the sentence makes perfect sense to me. The latter is the most common, I quickly read the sentence and it appears fine to me. Within the Whole Process Essay, another weakness was brought to my attention. I lack structure, a key element in effective writing. Within the same essay and a few others, I simply added what felt right, sometimes the result would be acceptable but in other instances, it was a long, jumbled mess.

All throughout my years of schooling, I’ve had just about, one paper that was about one page long, due every year. My papers never had to be more than one page in length. Therefore, I did not have to do much writing or do many essays. Surely not enough to remember any of the assignments. Writing has never been something I enjoyed doing, so I never bothered to many any memories of my writing experiences. I did not think it was necessary to remember any of them since I only had to do them to get a grade. The only writing experience I remember was the first assignment I had in this English 100 class about a writing experience. All week long, I sat there thinking about what to write about, but nothing came to mind as a topic. Then, one thing came to mind, but it was so very vague, I could not write the length that was needed for the assignment. I could only think of a few sentences to write for it. After sitting for a few moments longer, I thought, how about I write about how difficult it was for me to write this essay before it was due.

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

The most important thing that a piece “good” writing does is make people question where they stand on certain topics. This is the most important thing because when you question things you learn more, and when learn more you will be able to teach more. When you read something you do not want to just read it and not learn anything from it, then there would have been no purpose in reading it. Writers do not just write papers so they can tell the reader what is right or wrong. They write to explain their theory, to make others understand where they are coming from and the logic behind them.

I’m a great writer. Writing is something that comes naturally to me. I don’t even have to think about it most of the time. Being able to communicate through writing is important with any career, especially management. I am very creative as well. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been into drawing, music, and coming up with new ideas. I am very motivated and I know how to lead teams. For example, in my Business Ethics class I took it upon myself led a semi-dysfunctional team and we achieved a good grade in the class. I am also a perfectionist, which is good but can easily backfire on me.

Writing is not just as simple as putting words down on a document or a piece of paper, it is a process. Within this intricate process are steps that involve more than just writing, such as critical thinking, planning, and editing. Using these steps has not only helped me when planning an essay but also when composing one. Throughout this course, I have managed to improve many skills and gain a lot of strengths, but I still possess some weaknesses. Overall, I believe my strengths have definitely outgrown these weaknesses and have led to a better, more high-quality writing process which leads to improved essays.