Writing Studio Reflection

Without a strong thesis an essay falls apart and fails to let the reader know what they are trying to say. For instance, in my rough draft Stop of Reality my thesis was very vague and did not meet the requirements for the essay. It stated, “Although the injustice that these [Native American] women face still continue to this day, the women these three tribes face...will slowly begin to see justice for the crimes that were committed upon them”

My high school years were not spectacular, nor were they terribly productive.I left high school without learning how to proficiently write an essay. However, CUNY's Borough of Manhattan Community College afforded me a desperately needed second chance. It was at BMCC that I sharpened many of the skills I should have mastered in high school. I was able to greatly improve my writing ability. I began college as a student who found writing a 2 page paper to be a terrifyingly daunting task, but due to practice and numerous resources offered by CUNY, I soon was able to compose papers consisting of 10-14 pages with confidence and efficiency.

The elements of a thesis are generally stated in a single sentence. A topic is not covered in a thesis, but opinions are expressed. A thesis indicates that there is support to follow, and often organizes supporting material. Effective thesis statements are precisely worded to draw in the audience. The location of a thesis is very important because if it appears at the opening of the essay, it starts the essay off with a strong statement providing clear direction and an outline of the supporting evidence. If a thesis statement appears in the middle it allows the writer to introduce the subject and guide the reader into accepting a thesis that is explained, as well as defended. The thesis being presented at the end allows the writer to close the thesis with a strong statement. The types of evidence that can be used in a thesis vary from personal observations to statistics. Evidence should support a

Writing has always been one of those things that I have had to work at to get words on paper that is not the case anymore. For some reason just letting myself free write for a couple weeks has suddenly made it much easier for me to write, and write significantly

I entered the fall semester viewing myself as a non-writer. I have always had trouble getting the ideas and thoughts out of my head and onto paper. I have always been more comfortable stating aloud what I thought as opposed to writing them down. This semester has taught me a great deal. I have learned that I am capable of accomplishing college level writing. Even more, I have learned that I can focus and dig deeper to add more detail than I had thought I could when I started this semester.

In general, an excellent essay will have an insightful, important, and clear thesis which responds directly to the question(s) posed in the essay prompt and is supported by well-organized evidence.

When I was young, an English class wasn’t necessarily called English. In my elementary years, English was split in two: Reading and Writing. Throughout those years Reading classes is mostly reading, and Writing is mostly writing. Then a new chapter of my life started, the day I found out about literacy, it leans more towards reading than writing. Literacy is just, old or new stories, poems, folk tales, and letters. My two artifacts are from English 10. The thesis is the main part of an essay; it sums up the whole essay in one sentence. Both of my artifacts has to do something about thesis statement.

In the same way that a house, gorgeously designed and elegantly decorated as it may be, cannot stand without a solid foundation, so can a college essay not stand without a thesis statement. Of course, facts and the way in which they are presented are vital to whatever point a writer is trying to make, but without a central foundation to link the arguments, all one can hope to present is a collection of various points jumbled together in an futile attempt to grasp some sense of reason. A thesis is precisely that foundation; a crucial statement that “tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper”, according to Writing Center. Since the thesis presents the central arguments of an essay, it must be corroborated by the rest of the author’s work, otherwise it will not suffice to convince a professor of the matters it addresses. In addition to being the cornerstone of the essay, Aims says that a thesis “states why the essay is important and worth reading”. Certainly, a thesis may be well constructed to inform the reader about the subject of the paper. However, if it is not captivating and fails to provide the reader with a good reason as to why he or she should spend their time learning about the matters of the essay, the writer has already made a fatal flaw since the reader will begin the essay uninterested.

I always thought that my writing skills were pretty good until I started this class. It has been thirteen years since I graduated high school and I quickly realized that I had a lot of “refreshing” to do as far as writing papers. I actually felt very discouraged when I took the grammar test and did not score very well. I knew that I had to dedicate myself and put a lot of effort into this class to really improve. The practice quizzes were a major help to refresh on everything I must have forgotten since high school. Being able to write a quality paper is a skill that everyone should master. Writing is such a major part of communication in this day and age so being able to write an intelligent paper will benefit you not just through school but also through life. Writing skills are a reflection of intelligence and I want to perfect my writing the best that I can. Being able to write a quality paper is a skill that everyone should master. Writing is such a major part of communication in this day and age so being able to write an intelligent paper will benefit you not just through school but also through life. Writing skills are a reflection of intelligence and I want to perfect my writing the best that I can.

A thesis statement is that of great importance for both the reader and writer of the essay. The thesis statement can set up the feeling of the essay and give the reader something to debate on. You want to have a contentious claim as your thesis statement. I don't want to have something too general, or something that everyone else agrees upon. That would just make the essay boring and bland. I want to make sure I am able to reel in the readers with my first few sentences. This allows me to state my evidence of my side. The thesis statement also helps the writer of the essay by helping them establish what to write later in the essay. It can help them establish their facts and where to put them later in the following paragraphs below.

The thesis statement is one of the most important elements of any successful essay. It is

Looking towards my future, which entails four plus years of college, I can say I have a burden lifted off of me. At the start of this year going into duel enrollment I knew it was going to be a lot of writing, and it was; it was way more then I even expected. Every paper we were assigned was different and I have been able to find my strengths and weaknesses while going through this class. With the amount of papers we were given and me personally getting used to writing a five page paper I am not scared of writing, prior to this class I hated and even feared writing but now I am not scared (I now can pump out a five page paper in a matter of hours which use to take days) and depending on the kind of paper, and what it is on I have found some enjoyment in writing.

My writing has changed in a few ways since the beginning of this class. I wouldn't go so far as to say I like to write but it is not as much of a challenge anymore. While it is still a challenging thing it is nowhere near as hard to do as it was. Being in this class I have become more aware of the mistakes in grammar I make. While I am still not great with grammar I have gotten better. Being part of a writing group has helped me in more ways than just developing my writing, but in being more confident. I am more confident in reading my writings out loud as well is being able to talk about myself.

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.

At the beginning of this class I was nervous on how this semester will go and whether or not I will succeed to my fullest potential in English. With that in my mind I still was trying my best to work at getting better, despite how much it made me cringe at the thought of it. My perspective of writing began to change as time went on, the assignments were based on interesting topics which made it a bit bearable for me. I’ve learned that you have to make the steps to get to the perfect paper. A paper requires you to brainstorm, make an outline, and writing your rough draft to get that feedback you need before finishing up that final draft. During this class I have also learned where to put my thesis and that I don’t need to have that three point subtopics of what you should talk about. The writing length started getting longer and I was a bit skeptical on how I can get to the word count or what will I talk about within my papers, but I have