Everybody has distinctive strengths and weaknesses that influences their writing style, just as the process applied to a writing project is unique to the individual. How I approach a writing assignment and transfer my thoughts into a cohesive essay is my unique writing process. Using my strengths and being aware of my weaknesses enhances my writing.…
This course builds upon the foundations established in COM/155. It addresses the various rhetorical modes necessary for effective college essays: narration, illustration, description, process analysis, classification, definition, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, and argumentation. In addition, requirements for research essays, including the use of outside sources and appropriate formatting, are considered.…
The introduction of the essay must clearly focus on a thesis (an “I say”), and the body of the essay must have clear and specific examples to develop supporting points. Try to conclude the essay by connecting the issues your essay discusses with your readers in some way (remember, your readers include the portfolio committee, your instructor, and the other students in the course). See the English 100 essay rubric on Pipeline for more ideas on how to develop and self-assess your writing.…
Truth be told, it’s been a few years since the last time I walked into a writing extensive course like English 1302. The last time that I sat in front of a computer, and slaved away for hours trying to create the perfect paper was in 2011, during my first semester at Texas Tech. It was English 101, and people had that it’s a class that I should not take lightly, but of course I thought I knew better. Let’s just say that I figured out, I was not the greatest writer in the world after all, but high school definitely made me think I was. Before I entered into my first semester of college level English, it was not unordinary for me to write a paper that received applause from teachers all the way through senior year. I wrote essays on books, such as the “The Great Gatsby” to critically breaking apart poems. One assignment that I remember vividly was my critical summary over Robert Frost’s Poem, “The Road Less Traveled”. Alas, those easy days are gone. Most of my time now is spent typing up emails to staff and teachers. Since I have been enrolled at Texas Tech, I have worked in Texas Tech’s School of Law in the Administrative Office. Much my work is behind a screen typing up emails. It has taught me a lot, so I feel as though I’ve become pretty proficient when it comes to writing up formal messages or relaying information in a professional way. I believe that I have a decent amount of experience when it comes to my writing abilities, and hopefully that will continue to grow throughout my time in this class.…
Throughout the process of writing this comparative essay, I felt that the most important task was to analyze and describe the conventions that separated the genres that were discussed. I organized my paper so that a reader with no knowledge of the genres would be able to read it and gain a basic understanding of both genres before I began contrasting the genres. By completing this essay I feel that I have obtained a sufficient understanding of the writing strategies that we first discussed in class. I am especially glad that we discussed how to read like a writer because I feel that reading analytically is one of my strengths and the class discussions helped me to understand my strength in this aspect. However, I feel that I still have much to learn in terms of establishing credibility because of I still do a poor job of incorporating sources smoothly in my paragraphs. In this specific paper, my paragraphs were clear and concise; I feel that readers would not be confused at any point of what my purpose is. My peers who reviewed my paper agreed that the strength of this essay was its clarity. The hardest part of completing this essay for me was picking two genres that could be compared in-depth and also finding examples to incorporate as evidence. The two genres I chose to write about in my project builders were bad examples to use and therefore I had to select new genres and examples to write about right before the first draft of the writing project. If I had more time, I would’ve spent more timing researching examples to use as evidence because I feel that my essay lacks in well-incorporated quotes. When it is time to edit this writing project for the final portfolio I plan to spend a lot more time finding reputable sources and using the right context to transition into the selected quotes without any awkwardness. As for feedback, I would like to ask how I could incorporate more sources without making my paragraphs go off topic or…
The portfolio presented before you is an overall example of why I should be allowed to be in the English 110 class. I know I have never been a student who has the skills to say that I can always pass an English class. Although, I feel this portfolio revisions of my first five essays will show you just how far I have come since I have partaken in the English 109-G class with Dr. Stutts. The essays I revised include the Description Essay, Narrative Essay, Argument Essay, Summary & Interpretation Essay, and Literary Analysis Essay. I know now what is necessary and required for a college level English class to pass and actually learn what is taught.…
Throughout my time is College Composition I, I learned and developed numerous skills that I will carry with me to college and beyond. While writing the five assigned essays, I was able to identify my strengths and weaknesses. I believe a strength of mine was my ability to add in personal stories into my essays. For example, in my definition essay, I included my fear of disappointment and how I work to overcome this particular fear. On the other hand, one weakness that I struggled with was style. While writing my essays, I would sometimes use wordy and unclear sentences structures. Often times I would focus solely on improving my diction while writing my papers.…
This class has taught me many things about myself along with many necessary skills needed while writing. I know now that, through hard work and determination, I can achieve what I might think to be impossible. While reflecting back on my initial writing abilities, I see the weak, uneducated style of writing. Each essay shows my progression and improvement, and, after a while, the class began to become much easier. Today, after practicing throughout my essays this semester, I believe that I, in fact, have…
Some changes that I have made to this document are for example, strengthening the rhetorical appeals, cutting out sentences that were not useful, and also making the essay more direct. This shows my development as a conscious writer because I was able to take comments that I received and put them into action. Not only that, I was able to read over my essay and catch mistakes that I did not see when I first submitted this assignment in the beginning of the semester. In these final revisions I thought I was good at being able to better specify certain problems to make my argument more understandable. Also I thought I was efficiently able to re-read the essay and find sentences that did not have to be in the essay because they were either repeater,…
The term prostitution refers to any situation in which one person pays another for sexual satisfaction or pleasure. In recent discussion of prostitution, a controversial issue has been whether prostitution should be legal or not. Prostitution is the oldest profession existing in the world; it is rapidly growing with or without the government help. After all these year’s prostitution is still looked at as dirty or nasty, many people do not want to face the fact that prostitution exist. However, the prostitutes’ rights movement, begin in the late 1960’s to the early 1970’s. As we know during that timeframe the perspective of women viewed in society was based on gender roles. Women were to stay at home and take care of the kids and house. During…
For my portfolio the two minor assignments that I decided to put in were my argumentative paragraph on the play Macbeth, and my personal language and literature essay. The major piece of work that I have put in the portfolio is my Macbeth essay. The reason I chose these pieces was because they were the three that I feel were the most interesting, two that I had the best success on, and one that I struggled on. The piece of work that I did the best on was my Macbeth essay. I achieved the goal that I had set for myself to get, which was a 70% on the essay. I feel that the reason I was able to achieve my goal was because I was able to explain my points well and I did not wait to the last minute to complete the essay. The reason I decided to put my personal language and literature essay in was because it was my first grade 11 university essay and it was also my worst. By doing this essay I realized that I cannot leave all my work to the last minute because I will be unable to get the piece edited, my mark showed this. The last piece of work that is in my portfolio is my argumentative paragraph on the play Macbeth. I decided to put this piece of work into my portfolio because I feel I did alright on the assignment, but I had the ability to do better.…
When I started this class, I believe I had strong writing skills, and now I believe these skills have strengthened, making me a more conscious writer. Before this class, I have not focused on aspects such as sentence length and specific words that I am using. Instead, I simply wrote and worked on proper grammar. My essay writing skills have definitely improved throughout this class simply due to the fact that I spend more time writing my essays. Now that I have mastered more skills, I can utilize them in every essay from here on out. While I know that I still have room to improve, I am pleased by my progress and I feel more confident about my writing. I have always enjoyed writing essays, but this class has helped me more fully understand the complexities of writing an essay. Previously, most essays I have written have been standard for English classes, and…
Over the course of the past three months, I have had the distinct pleasure of testing my writing capabilities through the Introduction to College Writing course. I have always had a passion for writing in all forms, but in previous years, the course work in grade-level English classes have been unchallenging of my writing ability. I have been heavily involved in Bonneville High School’s newspaper through journalism since my freshman year. This allowed me to strengthen my writing capability as I was drafting throughout the entire school year. I have never truly had to apply myself until I enrolled in English 101. Since the beginning of the class, I have faced various hardships while writing essays in unfamiliar styles, such as drafting a response to a scholarly article and synthesizing opposing perspectives. I have learned that I am more than capable in writing in different styles and that all of my work will be quality content regardless of the topic. I overcame the obstacles that have challenged me, and my essays exhibit that I am fully prepared to continue my work in English 102.…
My current interests include participating in art, specifically sketching and water-color painting. I started taking up interest in art a few years back and I continue to practice to develop my skills and ease into peacefulness. I also spend my time biking around different areas within Jacksonville. It is a time where I get to appreciate my surroundings and experience some exercise. When taking the course AP English Language and Composition, my qualities include being able to analyze text to find meaning and author’s purpose. It’s useful for understanding the text and help me during my exam; furthermore, I am able to write a proper formal essay with the skills I learned from last year. For instance, I know how to write proper introductions,…
My writing has changed a lot in my first-semester essay writing class. I finally took a class that teaches me useful information and how to properly write an essay. Essay Writing overall was a fun experience it was a slow start for me in the beginning but once I was able to get the work done I was fine. There were a lot of positives to taking this class. I started the year struggling to come up with ideas to write about nut now I can brainstorm and put my words down on the paper better than ever. “If I could travel anyplace in the world for free, I would want to go to North Korea. I would love to see what it's like.” I struggled with proper punctuation and the use of commas and such throughout my high school career and I still struggle with it I hope to learn more about it in the near future. “Cars are one of the best inventions ever.” I needed some direction on making my sentences longer with getting to the point at the same time. There's a lot of small things I need to still improve on but I feel like I got a good start with the Essay Writing course. I got a lot of useful feedback from Mrs.Pennings on all my essays like when to use certain words and proper punctuation and some compliments the really…