Writing Syntax Analysis

Furthermore, according to Duncan Carter’s article, Five Myths About Writing, “Years of well-intentioned English teachers have responded to students’ first drafts as if they were supposed to have been perfect. Combined with a pedagogy which suggests that revision is a form of punishment, it is not hard to see where students get the idea that good writers don’t have to revise” (Carter, 82). Growing up, high school teachers make it seem as if revising and editing your paper is the worst thing ever. Any student who worked long and hard on their assignment and turned it in to get revised, would hate to receive a paper back with nothing but red marks and errors written all over them. This initially gave people the mindset of forgetting about editing their work if all it did was tear them down and point out their mistakes.

When caught up in a good book, we assume the non-stop reading and page turning action is because of the plot. However, Karin de Weille gives credit to something that does not cross our minds while engulfing ourselves in stories we wished knew no ending. This overlooked literature superhero is syntax. Karin de Weille goes unto detail on just how important syntax is in her article “How Syntax Moves Us”. Through examples such as “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman, Weille is able to put together interesting details on how syntax is like a dance for our minds.

I have been a San Jose State University student for 4 years now, and over the course of my learning I have grown and learned more than I thought possible. I came to SJSU knowing that English was my least favorite subject; I consistently dreaded writing assignments professors would assign in class. Going through English 1B has taught me to face my fears about writing papers, whether they are short reviews or extensive research papers, I have become more comfortable in writing. I have learned how to write and express myself, how to think for myself, and how to find the answers to the things I don’t know. Most importantly I have learned that revision is essential.

In college, we get asked to write enough papers to fill a book, and all those papers start off as drafts where they must be edited and corrected before turning them in as the final draft. This process is particularly interesting to see how one can improve their work. Analyzing a paper to see the ways in which information is portrayed and relayed to the reader is vital to the writing process. In this paper, I will be examining a previous assignment from a former English course. To analyze the paper thoroughly, I will be looking at the rhetoric used within and its effectiveness, along with the mistakes that lie within the paper. I will critique my work and suggest ways to correct errors, or applaud attributes within that were well done.

Over the course of this class I have learned many things about writing that I did not know before, because I never had any great instruction before i came to college. In Grade school and high school, when I got back a graded paper there would just be words crossed out, or punctuation corrections. There would never be any explanation as to why I need to correct this, or why this is wrong. I would go over the corrections and wonder how this is wrong and why does a comma go there but why doesn 't a comma go here. When reading the corrections and notes you made on each of my papers this year, I more easily understood why something was wrong. I might not have made the same corrections in the next paper, but each paper I got back I understood what was wrong, and what I needed to do to correct it.

When I entered your classroom on the first day of school this year, I was confident that what I had learned in previous years was sufficient enough to call myself an experienced and competent writer. However, I discovered throughout the semester that this confidence hindered my ability to improve in the beginning. The first few days of analyzing essays and literary works was something I had never experienced before, opening up my eyes to a side of literature and the English language that I previously did not pay any attention to. After we finished writing our very first in-class essay, I was extremely surprised to see that the score I earned was a 6. But when I look back on that very first essay, I am even more surprised to see what I could improve using the knowledge and strategies I learned in AP Junior English.

Now that I have received my graded paper my analyses is that there are multiple areas that I need improvement. Such as my mechanics with comma, apostrophes, and Semi-Collins. Also I need to work on my word choice and write a more college level paper. The Other Struggle I have is with past and present tenses. Although I have noticed some strengths in my writing, such as a clear thesis statement and great conclusions. Therefore I will look into the different opportunities that I have available to become an efficient writer.

Throughout phase one we identified a topic and had an approach to a paper that we would be reflecting off of this whole year and soon building better research, but then we saw a lot of issues on my first paper. Even though I was not thrilled about these changed I had to make they have to change for this next phase two. Although I wasn’t happy with the grade I had received lets just say I learned a lot about what I can do differently to improve my writing, for this phase two. In my phase one I talked about how I use a lot of fillers for words, run on sentences and even some sentence structure fragments. In a paper these things are common and defiantly in mine they show up a lot. I will be trying to avoid some of these issues in the Problem Solutions essay that we are beginning. Some of my strengths as a writer in

Syntax acquisition refers to the ability to organize and structure the sentence components. A child acquires this ability at the age of 18 months. At this age, a child has the capacity to put single words together to form a two-word sentence . This ability is enhanced by how much its primary caregivers socialize a child. Moreover, semantic is concerned with the use of right words within the right context so that the expression can make sense. During the phonological stage, children tend to overuse few vocabularies they possess to refer to numerous objects than it is reasonable. Some linguists hold that children utilize these words judging from similarities of sound, shape, and size. However, as a child interacts more with the language, he/she

In the novel, The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner uses three different narrators who have distinct diction and syntax. These three narrators are the brothers of the Compson family. Faulkner develops these characters through their diverse language, such as Benjamin’s inability to make sense of words, Quentin’s educated intellect, and Jason’s anger and hatred. Faulkner clearly uses each of the character’s diction to show unique problems that trouble each of them, as well as difficulties that the brothers share. Each brother has an exclusive problem, such as Benjy’s mental disability and attachment to Caddy, Quentin’s inability to preserve Caddy’s innocence and purity, as well as his sexually attraction to his sister, and fixation with clocks, and Jason’s

In the first essay I typed, titled the Mustache and the Morons, I had many errors. I had no idea of the common mistakes I make in my grammar. For example, when I tried to explain who was in on my prank, I said, “Katelyn is my partner in crime.” Rereading it I can clearly see it was wrong, but when I was typing it, it came naturally that I spoke in present tense. As the year went on, I started noticing more and more grammar errors, and was able to correct them. Another mistake I often made was that I didn’t give in depth descriptions on what was going on or how that particular moment felt. Any readers would have received a vague idea of how amusing it was to see a mustache on a statue or the utter fear that struck my very core when we said the mustache had ripped off part of the statue. My vocabulary as expanded to a considerable size since then and that has made me able to make my story or words come alive. I had countless errors to the point that when my essay was handed back, my once white paper was practically covered in purple ink. Although I had a smile on my face when I took these essays back, I was actually in full panic on the inside. I would quickly look through everything I did wrong and wonder, ”How on earth did I not see that? I can’t believe I put that and actually turned it in!” I knew it wasn’t good but when I turned to the last page, my grade was always an acceptable one. I had to calm myself down and remind myself that this is a learning process, and I will become a better writer

It was not challenging creating this paper because my past professor taught me to be a good writer. Usually, it is significant for English professors to teach students to communicate in the written form. Preliminary exercises, such as correcting wrong sentences, inserting missing words into sentences and unscrambling sentences to make sense, are useful in teaching grammar, punctuation and sentence construction.

Throughout the semester, I have gained skills necessary for understanding and utilizing logic while writing. I am now aware that for any writing to be scholarly, it must possess an introductory section, a body and a conclusion section. Further, I am now able to understand as well as utilize most of the basic techniques useful in pre-writing, revision and editing. Through writing the “downloading from torrents” paper, I acquired skills in word processing, sentence elements, and punctuation. Further, I developed some special skills in writing a website analysis which is a critical aspect in contemporary learning as argued by Flateby (p 182). As the semester folds, I believe that I have gained the prerequisite skills in writing and critical thinking. However, I need to improve much on some of the common problems in writing that seems to disturb me especially grammar.

As I moved through the semester, I felt myself becoming better at revising my work. I was able to point out passive voice in my writing as well as in others. By the end of the semester, I had become confident in my writing and in

Before taking this class, I held a particularly cynical view of my writing abilities and even of my ability to improve these skills. In this way, I would revel in my own self-loathing, and would doubt every step of my writing process until I realized this pessimism in a lackluster and uninspired paper. Perhaps because I never had been required to focus seriously on my writing skills did I lazily pretend that this dismissive cynicism was the only effective means of critical analysis of my writing. As a result, all of my writing assignments were left poorly executed, often only being done in one sitting and entirely unedited. On the other hand, as I took this class specifically focused on improving my writing abilities, this lazy cynicism would not suffice to provide critical analysis of my papers. Instead, by taking this class, I not only learned to complete my papers over time (rather than procrastinate until the end), but I also learned to analyze my papers critically (by critiquing the argumentation and wording) rather than just dismissing them in despair.