Writing Success Program Personal Statement

As the last words escaped my lips, a burst of applause echoed through the room. The bright smiles of my audience, be it family, friends, teachers, or colleagues, never failed to keep me writing. Being able to pique someone's interest enough to show them even just a small piece of the world of imagination inside my head was the very concept that drew me to writing. Creative writing was one of the key factors in developing my literacy skills because I learned to communicate ideas to my audience efficiently and effectively, expand my vocabulary, and broaden my scope of interpretation to discern themes.

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.

I plan to contribute and positively impact the experiences of the students, the staff, and the program as a whole by applying myself in a variety of roles to exemplify a model student throughout my participation in the Honors Program.

University Writing Center (UWC) and Academic Success Center (ASC) are two of the university facilities that help students enrich their academic experience. While UWC assists students in improving their written and oral communication skills through one to one consulting sessions, online resources, and workshops, ASC works to enhance students’ intellectual performance through academic coaching, supplemental instruction, drop-in tutoring sessions, and peer mentoring. Both of the organizations take a collaborative learning approach to encourage students to develop necessary study skills for academic success and increase student retention. ASC offers various student development programs; however, our focus for this proposal will be on drop-in tutoring services offered by ASC.

Writing is a practice that most of us were taught when we were young. We were taught the basics of grammar, how to form a sentence, conjunction words, how to write paragraphs and more. Although we have learned this skill while growing up and have used the skill every year after entering kindergarten, this does not mean our writing process will ensure the best work. The authors that I chose each encourage their audience to excel in the art of writing in their own way to help with the writing process.

The head basketball coach from Tuskegee Institute once said, “Don’t limit your challenges, challenge your limits.” I was always afraid to challenge myself until one day, I learned to step out of my comfort zone. Taking GSW 1110, was an expected challenge as a high school student, but throughout this course I was able to accomplish a lot and improve as a writer. I can conclude that my writing has improved greatly due to the establishment of the correct principles of writing introduced to me this semester. Although improving during this course was something I always strived for, I am determined to continue improving so I am prepared for future academics in my career.

Throughout the first eight week’s courses, Amy demonstrated a high level of competencies in understanding and applying theory into practice. She was also able to utilize the supports provided to her through the college to vastly improve her professional writing skills, limiting her grammatical errors and increasing her well-deserved passing grades.

As part of students IEP resource program and RtI services, I provide instruction for the development of written expression, as evidenced by my Professional Growth Experience #2. My methodology for writing instruction has evolved dramatically. Now I see each student as an individual somewhere on the path to independent “author.” I work to meet each student’s learning need at their level. Currently, students work at their own level and I provide individual or small group mini-lessons to support weaker skills. I learned from experience to create quality, high interest prompts that address a real audience to teach “voice.” My format support Common Core’s informative/explanatory writing standard and engages critical thinking and motivation. To

“To write to be a writer, I have to trust and believe in myself as a speaker, as a voice for the images. I have to believe that can communicate with images and words that I can do it well. A lack of belief in my creative self is a lack of belief in my total self and vice versa- I cannot separate my writing from any part of my life. It is all one” (95).

During this semester in English 107, I have progressed more as a writer. Before I went to University of Arizona, my writing was rigid. I wrote five-paragraph TOEFL style essay all the time in my high school life. After I attended in English 107, I was not confident about my writing skill. Throughout these three projects we have done, I become more and more confident about my writing skill than before. The Student Learning Outcomes also helped me to grow as a writer a lot. In these goals, I did well on several of them, but I still need to work on the other goals.

As previously discussed, I would like to try to implement a writing program for Lindenwood Belleville campus. I believe that implementing a specific writing program for students to improve their writing, and critical thinking, is crucial to the success of our undergraduate students in their future careers, and the reputation of Lindenwood University.

Creativity allows people to find their purpose to write without feeling like it isn’t good enough when it gets read. Schwalbe claims that the importance of writing freely is to enjoy the process of writing and also enjoy reading what is being written. “Reading isn’t just a strike against narrowness, mind control, domination: It’s one of the world’s great joys.” (Schwalbe, 20) When writing, the words should make sense that they flow freely onto the page and be read without any confusion. Sometimes when we write, we get stuck, especially when we must write a certain way that we may not understand.

The writing center at Union Institute & University exists to help writers here at Union. We work in tandem with faculty to help students improve their craft of writing. Writing center tutors can guide students, helping them become confident, powerful writers. But for us to help them, students must be curious; they have to believe they can improve, and they have to be willing to work toward that end. As instructors, we must ask ourselves what we can do to facilitate these characteristics in students.

When a person composes their work, they allow their ideas to dilate into a story that takes their reader into a journey. The journey is not merely for the reader, but for the author. The author gain a writing experience from their journey that guides when they write other material. All writing experiences are depending on the person. Their writing experience can drive them to regularly add more details to enrich their story. On the other hand, a writer can be compelled to critique their work to enhance it. As a writer, I grasped many lessons from my own experience. One of my most memorable writings was a story in addition to a thought-provoking essay. This memorable writing experience was my research paper for my 12th grade English class.

I hope to gain experience from this writing course, and from my fellow classmates. I hope to gain insight into how other people write and go about their writing process. I hope to learn from the feedback I receive from my instructors and peers on my writing submissions. I wish to come out of this course a better writer all around, and in addition to form good habits that will carry me far beyond the scope of this course. Ideally, I hope to complete all of the outcomes listed in the WPA Outcomes Document. I have high expectations of myself. I plan to learn from my mistakes, and take the lessons from each assignment forward into how I approach the follow assignment. I expect to learn and keep better time management skills, and I expect myself to grasp all that a FYC has to teach me and to incorporate it in a way I failed to do before. From