Over the course of the semester, my main goal was to become a more precise writer and develop my identity as a writer. According too, the Portfolio Letter assignment sheet, becoming a better writer consists of precise planning, draft and revising. It also includes understanding a variety of academic genres by examining the basic characteristics that defines each type. In order too efficiently meet my goal of becoming a better writer, it was very important to have my work evaluated by others and myself as well. The use of rhetorical knowledge, critical thinking, reading and writing all are the important aspects in this course.
My writing style has clearly developed over the past semester and I believe that the writings in his portfolio demonstrate that I have mastered the course materials presented in this English course. My writing style has changed in the fact that I have become more open minded in my conclusions in papers. I have ventured away from making all my conclusions based on textual evidence and have been more open minded and drawn conclusions based more on how I feel emotionally about the subject. This doesn’t mean that I only will draw conclusions from how I feel emotionally but it means that I can now do both effectively.
The semester has been long and arduous and that is for certain. It is truly indicative of what it takes to be considered an honors student. The superfluous amount of research and writing in all of my classes this semester on top of what was needed within this one, was nearly overwhelming at certain points. However, I have found that my writing style and succinctness has improved because of it. Whether or not this is true has yet to be determined, but in my own mind, it has definitely improved.
I have enjoyed this class. My big take from this course will be the improvements had to my writing process. Learning items such as brainstorming, clustering, outlining and the usefulness of a first draft, I feel my writing is improved. This will fulfill the last requirement of the course, as I have completed and submitted all the others. Thank you for an enjoyable and beneficial eight weeks together.
Through my educational career, I’ve been a successful writer. I received high marks on my papers because I followed the rubrics and was eloquent. I loved complex sentences that strung my thoughts together, used adjectives to detail my stances and showcased research with commas and lists. My writing style was not conducive to public relations writing. This course required me to embrace the opposite of what I was used to and almost relearn how to write for public relations.
Not only did the class enrich my knowledge of performing and media arts along with Southern culture and history, it also gave me the opportunity to craft and develop my writing skills. Prior to taking this course, I did not know how to analyze piece from a performing and media arts aspects. After the commercial analysis and film review, I learned how to craft specific styles for certain types of writing. I believe that the expose to diverse styles of writing helped me grow as a writer because it allow me to apply past techniques and skills in new ways as well as learn different forms of writing. Furthermore, I think this course helped me become more aware and conscious of my writing.
I am an immigrant in the United States, so everyday my writing and speaking in English is always an important challenge for me during working and studying. Writing and speaking in English help me not only for my socializing and working but also for my teaching and raising the kids in the U.S. Moreover, I do not want to stop my challenge, so I have decided to go back to school to continue my graduate program at CSUS. Then, this English 220W course is so important for me to improve my writing in the discipline as my graduate project in the future. Being working more than 16 years with Department of Water Resources, I have written a lot of daily reports and sometime memorandum and some parts of the specifications.
I was in a difficult place whenever I decided to sign up for this course. I was not for sure if I should take the course as a high school senior or wait until I went off to college. I decided to take it during my senior year because I knew that I would have the resources I needed and could trust, like my English teachers and libraries that I was familiar with. I had very high expectations for this class and I knew that this would help me become a better writer.
The freewriting assignment was like a diary for me. I spent most of my time writing about what was going on during that day or what ever was on my mind. To be honest, I felt a little weird just knowing that someone was reading them. I really didn’t hold back when I was writing at all. I said what was on my mind at that moment in time.
I know every writer has had trouble writing at some point and they all had to improve so I hope this is my time to improve my writing. I can say without a doubt that I have made a grave mistake. I just enrolled in this class to try to get a head start on writing for college and to try to improve my writing skills which I don’t have much of in the first place. I can already tell that the next two quarters might or will be awful, but I have to take this class to be able to take Composition I and Composition II. I have no other want or need for writing except for college I have no further plans to try to involve writing in anything I do, the faster I can get it away from writing the better.
Over the course of this semester, I have learned a lot of different things about writing in English 101. My writing techniques and methods have improved drastically compared to what they used to be, especially my drafting. But other things like my grammar were at a decent level. I have become so much more efficient at writing than I have ever been in the past. With my current drafting process, I write my entire essay, read what I have written and add a little bit more if something comes to mind.
Through the past two semesters, I have learned a great deal about my writing skills. Before this class, the truly only wrote; filling my papers with the opinions I held myself. “Just writing” was my only option because that was all I had been taught. However, ever since I had attended GSW-1110 and GSW-1120, I have learned to adopt the formal writing style. Through the past two semesters, I have obtained many skills that will be useful to further my educational career, but there are skills that I, nevertheless, must improve on.
When I first came into English 1101, I had no confidence in my writing. I didn’t know if I was writing correctly or even forming an essay correctly, also I had trouble with research papers and the process of writing these kinds of essays. I would often feel overwhelmed and embarrassed because I was never taught how to write any essay correctly. I thought to myself, how could I have not known how to write? Writing should have been something so first nature to me, but through the help of Mrs. Hermanson and her positive attitude, eager teach, and nurturing nature, I felt unafraid to make mistakes, I became more confident in my writing and ready take on the world of writing.
“ I then said that the professional writer must established a daily schedule and stick to it. I said that writing is a craft, not an art, and that the man who runs away from his craft because he lacks inspiration is fooling himself.” (Zinsser 4). Here Zinsser is being pretty clear, when you 're writing, you should look as it a skilled craft not simply art. Whenever I write, it 's for sport, a hobby that I simply choose to take up.
All writers are supposed to have a writing process. However, most people these days don't have a process for their writing. From this course and from the article, I learnt that the process of writing is crucial for writing. In addition, it seems that the main responsibility falls on the traditional method of teaching writing, which largely ignores the writing process.
