During my endeavor through the first year of college I’ve grown in many ways; I’ve grown as a person, as a student, and as a writer. I began the beginning of my first semester as a high school-leveled writer and I’m now ending my second semester on the verge of being a college-leveled writer. With the help of my two professors this year, Professor Ditch and Lim, I’ve reached the achievement of becoming a better writer. Between the two English classes I’ve written a total of six essays with an extensive and constructive routine; in Professor Lim’s class I’ve written three tedious essays Project Text, Project Web, and Project Space. Though, the two essays I’m going to include into my portfolio are Project Text and Project Web. Both Project Text and Project Space reflect two different aspects in my journey as a writer. Project Text, “The Notion of Normalcy and Special Education", reflects a moderate essay and Project Space, “Tiny House Proposal", indicates as the strongest out of the three that I’ve written—though it still needs works. Although, I have not developed as much as I’d as like to when it comes to being a writer I’ve still made an abundance of progress in which I am proud of.
Along with learning there comes teaching and I’ve had the greatest writing opportunities through my first year of college. Between the two professors alone I was taught a profusion of quality information, as well as receiving helpful tips from the Learning Resource Center on campus a few times. Though, both English classes sometimes covered the same basics of writing I was still able to take away some very helpful lessons from my second semester course. Thank you to Professor Lim, for thoroughly explaining every lesson she taught us, now I am able to make my writing stronger because I’ve learned the importance of topic sentences, structure and organizing, and MLA formatting. In “The Notion of Normalcy and Special Education” I rarely made use of the correct way to write topic sentences throughout the entire essay and had incorrect MLA formatting. When I look back at my first and second draft of that rather poorly formatted essay my topic sentences didn’t refer to much of anything that was actually being stated in the paragraph—that not being a topic sentence, but when I compare it to my second essay, “Tiny House Proposal” I made a very grand improvement when it came to my topic sentences. When it came to MLA formatting I’ve always had the most trouble with actually understanding and making use of citations correctly, but Professor Lim and the MLA formatting class have helped me (almost) perfect my MLA formatting. I definitely still need some practice when it comes to citing sources, but I now understand the use of citations and within time it will become second nature.
I’ve learned about writing and the aspects of it, but I’ve also learned about myself as a developing writer. Some of the aspects I’ve learned about myself as a writer are that I work too fast, I don’t take enough time to re-read, and that I’m able to convey my thoughts well through organization and structure. The fact that I type relatively quickly I just spit out all my thoughts on the page before I lose them, in which I work too fast. By doing this inevitably I am making many mistakes and not catching them because I believe that what I’m thinking in my head makes enough sense to go straight on paper. Since I am working in a quick matter I don’t have the patience to re-read and analyze my essay to make sure I don’t have many mistakes, which is a major draw back for me because I always have many punctuation mistakes. In most cases makes it a more tedious process for the audience when it comes to reading my essay. Though, I’ve learned some negatives in my writing I’ve also learned positives such as the capability of being able to express my thoughts thoroughly through structure and organization. My well developing transitions and how I organize paragraph to paragraph makes it rather easy for the reader to understand what exactly my points are and what position is in my essays.
Thank you to both of my insightful professors I’ve progressed abundantly in my writing and have been taught very useful information. With everything I’ve learned in my first year of college writing I am going to take it all with me through my continuous journey as developing writer. Though, I’ve been taught so much I will not be able to fully understand anything without reflecting back on what I’ve learned. “We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” (Dewey)
Works Cited
Dewy, John. "John Dewey Quotes." John Dewey Quotes (Author of Art as Experience). Good Reads, 11 May 2008. Web. 05 May 2015.
(Word count: 830)
Along with learning there comes teaching and I’ve had the greatest writing opportunities through my first year of college. Between the two professors alone I was taught a profusion of quality information, as well as receiving helpful tips from the Learning Resource Center on campus a few times. Though, both English classes sometimes covered the same basics of writing I was still able to take away some very helpful lessons from my second semester course. Thank you to Professor Lim, for thoroughly explaining every lesson she taught us, now I am able to make my writing stronger because I’ve learned the importance of topic sentences, structure and organizing, and MLA formatting. In “The Notion of Normalcy and Special Education” I rarely made use of the correct way to write topic sentences throughout the entire essay and had incorrect MLA formatting. When I look back at my first and second draft of that rather poorly formatted essay my topic sentences didn’t refer to much of anything that was actually being stated in the paragraph—that not being a topic sentence, but when I compare it to my second essay, “Tiny House Proposal” I made a very grand improvement when it came to my topic sentences. When it came to MLA formatting I’ve always had the most trouble with actually understanding and making use of citations correctly, but Professor Lim and the MLA formatting class have helped me (almost) perfect my MLA formatting. I definitely still need some practice when it comes to citing sources, but I now understand the use of citations and within time it will become second nature.
I’ve learned about writing and the aspects of it, but I’ve also learned about myself as a developing writer. Some of the aspects I’ve learned about myself as a writer are that I work too fast, I don’t take enough time to re-read, and that I’m able to convey my thoughts well through organization and structure. The fact that I type relatively quickly I just spit out all my thoughts on the page before I lose them, in which I work too fast. By doing this inevitably I am making many mistakes and not catching them because I believe that what I’m thinking in my head makes enough sense to go straight on paper. Since I am working in a quick matter I don’t have the patience to re-read and analyze my essay to make sure I don’t have many mistakes, which is a major draw back for me because I always have many punctuation mistakes. In most cases makes it a more tedious process for the audience when it comes to reading my essay. Though, I’ve learned some negatives in my writing I’ve also learned positives such as the capability of being able to express my thoughts thoroughly through structure and organization. My well developing transitions and how I organize paragraph to paragraph makes it rather easy for the reader to understand what exactly my points are and what position is in my essays.
Thank you to both of my insightful professors I’ve progressed abundantly in my writing and have been taught very useful information. With everything I’ve learned in my first year of college writing I am going to take it all with me through my continuous journey as developing writer. Though, I’ve been taught so much I will not be able to fully understand anything without reflecting back on what I’ve learned. “We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” (Dewey)
Works Cited
Dewy, John. "John Dewey Quotes." John Dewey Quotes (Author of Art as Experience). Good Reads, 11 May 2008. Web. 05 May 2015.
(Word count: 830)