What I Learned in English this Year

I now feel after being a student in this class that being successful in business or school requires the ability to organize, arrange, and compose thoughts into a comprehensible format. Without these skills it is impossible to convey thoughts and emotions grammatically. Reflecting on the past eight months, I notice that our English class has taught me skills necessary to develop personal, informative, and persuasive essays. These are essential attributes needed to become successful in today?s society. In previous English classes that I have participated in I never realized that essay writing skills were so important. Because of this class, my attitude toward writing skills has matured into an understanding of what it takes to be a good writer. Without the knowledge of the importance of writing skills, I was just concerned about ?just getting by?. Now, I enjoy the challenge of composing an interesting and thought provoking essay; I find myself developing an essay with my reader in mind, and pondering what might stimulate them to read my work. This class has awakened my senses and aroused my curiosity in the literary world, and I feel I have made significant strides in my writing process. By the proper use of commas, transitions, and supportive quotes, I transform my mediocre essay into a well composed, interesting literary work.

An interesting literary work must have a flow; this is accomplished by the proper use of transitional phrases. At the beginning of the semester I had no knowledge of what transitional were, but now I find myself spending most of the editing time concerned with how to use them correctly. As I look back on a diagnostic essay that I composed in my previous English class;, I notice areas where transitional phrases could have been helpful. This is shown at the end of my second paragraph where I state, ?I learned a very valuable lesson the hard way and now I have a second chance to make my parents proud and become successful?. This leads directly to the third paragraph stating, ?I have been back in school now just over a few months now I feel real good about myself?.

Putting aside all the grammatical errors in this essay I could have used a transitional phrase between the two paragraphs. A better developed essay could look like, ?I learned a very valuable lesson the hard way and now I have a second chance to make my parents proud and become successful. Even though it takes a lot more than a hard lesson to become successful, I feel that I have taken a step in the right direction by entering into school again?.

Without the correct placement of commas an essay is very difficult to read.

Throughout the semester, correct placement of commas has always been my greatest challenge. I have placed forth a conscious effort the editing process to overcome these challenges. In my diagnostic essay I had many mistakes involving commas, run-ons and sentences fragment. These mistakes made it hard for the reader to follow the story line because it was so choppy. Looking at these errors, I discovered a way to improve the sentence structure, and help the reader follow the plot progression. Thorough constant practice I feel that I can successfully compose an essay that a reader can follow without any annoying comma splices or run-on sentences. In my essay ?Determined to play?, I successfully use commas to deliver an interesting point. With the proper use of commas an essay progresses from word on a paper to an easy to follow and understandable literary work.