Critiquing My Writing Skills

After being out of school and away from the school atmosphere for so many years, I didn't really know what to expect. I knew the semesters were short and the work load would be large but, that was about it. My wife, who graduated from UMUC tried sharing some of her experiences with me to help me get prepared but, it didn't click until I actually started classes. I was able to learn and benefit from a variety of new things from the class. The biggest hurdle in the class for me was time management. I quickly realized in order to be successful in the class I would need to improve my time management. After taking the Comfit Accuplacer and not doing well on it, I begin to ask myself, Is it possible for one to become a better writer within an eight week period? For the past eight weeks I have been in an intensive writing course that has challenged my writing skills, mind, and creativity. Having the opportunity to write a variety of different
If you are given the topic, then your approach should be to think about the type of paper that you want to produce, the audience, and then narrow your focus if necessary. Once you have determined the topic, it's time to do some research and start creating your outline. The professor shared with us that our outline would assist us in organizing our thoughts and this would result in a better written essay. The outline would serve as a foundation for your paper. Two more important elements of an essay is the thesis statement and topic sentence. I learned that the thesis statement was not the same as the topic sentence. The thesis statement tells the reader what the rest of the paper is about. The topic sentence, however, shows only what the paragraph it is attached to is about. Overall, I feel my writing class has made it easier for me to formulate a well thought out thesis statement and topic