Writing Is A Process That I Have Learned

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.

Like transforming from a caterpillar to a butterfly, my writing style transformed from something mediocre to something quite exceptional. In high school, even when I took advanced placement English and Literature courses, I was never good at writing. My writing would lack structure, reasoning, syntax, and a well-defined thesis statement. My inadequate grades on writing assignments lowered my self-esteem, so I assumed I would never enjoy writing papers because I believed I could never improve. However, since attending a university my writing style has improved far beyond my expectation. My EN 101 course enhanced my understanding of the different ways I could approach my writing. Also, it enhanced my comprehension of outlines to complete assignments. Investing quality time into my writing made a substantial difference because I became a stronger writer. Through the late nights, constant revisions, and agonizing head traumas, I learned that my writing is truly spectacular whenever I incorporate well-defined thesis statements, provide sufficient supporting evidence, and maintain a clear focus in my assignments.

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.

Ever since I can remember, I’ve struggled with writing. It just wasn’t something that came natural to me and always resulted in a very uncomfortable process. Throughout this class, I have become more comfortable with writing and its components. Though, this is only writing 101, my skill level has increased immensely. Before starting this course, writing was uncomfortable and confusing, but towards the end, my knowledge has expanded and I can more comfortably take on the majority of writing assignments.

While attending writing class, I learned about the 4 steps in writing, bases for revising, organizing, and connecting specific information, and I also learned about the different types of essays such as descriptive, narrative, process, cause and effect and argumentative essay. I have been a student at Milwaukee Area Technical College for 1 semester, and over the course of my enrollment I have grown and learned more that I knew prior to attending this writing course. Participating in this writing class has taught me so much more than stuff about literature and language, it has taught me another way of expressing myself. I have learned here how to write and express myself, how to think for myself, and how to find the answers to the things that I don 't know. Most importantly I have learned how important technique, outlines and organization are. My goal in this paper is to inform writers about how my writing skills have improved.

Over the course of this semester, my confidence in writing has improved greatly. In high school, I didn’t really know how to write effectively. I wasn’t really sure what was considered to be “good writing” until I took AP* English. However, even while I was taking this “Advanced Placement” class, I was still trying to figure out how to really create “good writing”. I feel as if this had something to do with the fact that I never really had to work with the rules of grammar intensively. After taking this course, however, I now have a much better understanding of how to correctly use proper grammar. I also improved on using transitional phrases in my writing. I have implemented my understanding of proper grammar and transitional phrases in both my writing inside and outside of this class as a result.

One of the most important course objectives that I’ve grown accustomed to is the writing process itself. In the writing process, we are able to revise our writing where it is weak and earn a better grade than before. Since I took advantage of the revision process, not only was I able to improve my grade, but I was able to prevent the same mistakes from happening again in other writing assignments. From revisions alone, I’ve learned how to improve my writing skills and catch mistakes that I wouldn’t have seen

The process I used when writing previously changed during the first few weeks of this class. Already I have altered the way I write my drafts, and the way I read other people’s work. Lamott’s “Shitty First Draft” made me come to the realization that one draft isn’t always the best approach. Therefore, I took multiple steps in examining my draft and critiquing it accordingly. Additionally, I started brainstorming topics, and this led me to create a roadmap for the list of destinations and topics I wanted to touch on and the message I wanted the reader to take away. This is just the beginning of the year and I already have a sense that as I progress through the semester my work will be continually get better.

The first semester of W131 has given me the chance to become more familiar with my strengths and weaknesses in my writing process. One of the main things I contribute to my progression in writing is practice and revision. W131 has given me the resources I need to become an effective writer by pushing me to think deeper about what writing process works best for me. To find what writing process works for me, I have experimented with different writing techniques along with alternative reading techniques to allow me to retain more detail. Although I improved some skills during the first half of W131, I still have many skills that could be critiqued to enhance my writing process and essays.

It was a really nice meeting you! You wanted me to write about my writing process and here I’m writing it to you in this letter.

Welcome. I am currently a first year student at the University of California, Merced and I am majoring in Psychology. I set up this portfolio as a documented reflection on the process I made during the semester in Writing 001. This shows the beginning of my milestone of college writing in my first year of UCM. There are different categories of the PLO that helps me define the skills that I have achieved upon the course. In the beginning of the semester, I knew that I would be introduced to many fields of writing. I know there is much more to learn and to improve, but also I feel like my writing skills slowly progressed since the beginning of this class. Since I was little, I wasn't a big fan of any writing assignments at school. Even if it

Coming into College Writing I was nervous because I wasn't really a writer. I thought I was okay but never the best. On the first day of class, we took a diagnostic test I thought I did horrible on it because I didn't expand on the topic. And that was my problem coming into the semester analyzing and expanding on a topic and my ideas. But thanks to Professor Patterson's help and the new things I learn in the semester I got better at analyzing and expanding. It comes easily to me now and I use it for all my courses. In my final portfolio you can see I made big revisions when I was talking about the story with my friend Adam. In the original draft I put how Adam was bullied but on the final portfolio, I analyzed on that story

This semester has gone by quickly and within this short time, I have already learned much more than I did before. It is now time to write a Portfolio Essay, an essay detailing what I learned and how I have improved my writing skills in English 102. This semester I wrote four essays: Informative Report, Academic Argument, Academic Analysis, and Proposal. With each essay, I displayed my strengths and weaknesses and improved them through teaching, drafting, and revising. This Portfolio Essay will reflect on the growth my writing and I have undergone through this semester, as well as areas I could still use improvement on, by reviewing my own work.

Throughout this semester, many of the readings have dealt with how the writing process works, different areas to focus on while revising, or how to improve your skills as a tutor. Each of these focuses are extremely crucial when in comes to not only improving your knowledge of writing, but also to help guide others into this same level of understanding. It is crucial for everyone, regardless of whether they write for pleasure or for purpose, that they understand the value of their own writing process. However, as the readings have taught, a major aspect of the writing process is revision, which is crucial to improving your writing’s quality and learning what mistakes you frequently makes. As the reading has preached,

Over the course of this past semester, my ability to write has improved tremendously. Prior to undertaking this course, my expertise in writing was not as fine-tuned as it should have been. I had never previously been enrolled in a class specifically tailored to writing-- which was quite clear. Upon reading my past works, it becomes apparent that my writing style consisted of fluff, small words, and inconsistently structured sentences. These problems have, for the most part, been remedied with the coursework I have tackled in College Writing. Rather than long, drawn out papers that take an eternity to reach the primary point, my recent work is much nicer in terms of composition and grammar. I credit these improvements to the three primary