In high school, we were generally always taught to write persuasive essays and a few times, an informative essay; however, we really never were required to write a rhetorical essay, so when this topic came up, it really required a lesson on rhetorical analysis itself. As someone who generally does better in conversations, and in school, math and science, writing has always been something that hasn’t come as natural to me. I have really had to write many essay to get to where I can write like I can today.…
In Joseph M. Williams and Lawrence McEnerney’s Writing in College, Williams and McEnerney discuss the shift from high school writing to college writing where argument, interpretation of expectations, and learning how to make a “good” point in a paper are key to successfully satisfying the instructor’s assignment. Arguments should be convincing, with evidence to support their reasons, and to have counters answering objections and other questions that may go against its favor. Williams and McEnerney write, “-universities hold as their highest value not just the pursuit of new knowledge and better understanding, but the sharing of that knowledge…whatever it is we think, it is never the entire truth. Our conclusions are partial, incomplete, and…
When writing an essay there really is more to it than just writing words down and making sure the words is used correctly. When someone is having thoughts they need to write them down and just go from there. At first it may not be perfect, but the writer can always go back and change the errors that need to be fixed. Before reading this I figured it was going to be about bad writing and one should not worry if it is not perfect. This made me realize that it is not about how you write, but what you write about and how to get your thoughts across.…
What I need to do to improve and how I plan to do this: In future, instead of getting paralysis, or worrying that what I am writing about is not valid, I need to use what knowledge I have, back it up with theory and be confident that this is what’s needed. It would be better to get an essay in on time, than delay submitting it due to worry that it isn’t ‘good enough’.…
An average essay has either a flawed thesis or weak evidence, often combined with an unclear or jarring writing style.…
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…
Writing can be a fun stress relief hobby/activity for many people including me. When it comes to writing essay and research papers I try to pick the most interesting topic that will best fit my interests. By having the opportunity of choosing what to write about it will allow me to organize the paper smoothly. My biggest strengths in writing is providing evidence, and giving credentials, and my biggest weakness in writing is writing my conclusion.…
One of the most important aspects I have developed in College Prep Writing is remembering to do the entire writing process, instead of simply just typing out an essay and turning it in. For the scholarship unit, I had to brainstorm topics and start my essay well. In previous classes, we have completed some aspects of prewriting, but it often was not necessary. Scholarships are often only a few hundred words, so it is necessary to prove your point in a small amount of space. One of the most useful essays we wrote in this class was the Rhetorical Analysis. The Rhetorical Analysis truly helped me focus on the types of paragraphs I write and how to connect them. Introductions and conclusions have always come naturally to me, but sometimes I struggle with what information to place within the body paragraphs. This class helped me understand that for a formal essay, typically a body paragraph will contain a transition…
Last summer I went on a mission trip with the church and found myself in West Virginia. We stayed in McDowell County at an old school building, and this is the county we did most of our work in. McDowell County is the poorest county in West Virginia and one of the poorest in the county, with a rate of at least 35% of the population in poverty. The long lasting poverty is why we went there on our trip.…
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.…
One thing that I have learned is that writing a well thought out essay takes time and effort. It is very difficult for someone to sit down and write an amazing essay in…
This has been my biggest problem in writing since I started. I have approached it in many different ways but no matter what I was never able to produce any essay that had my complete confidence in. This has been my writing hump that I need to achieve in order to take my writing to where it needs to…
In September when I was assigned my first essay it was a mess. I found myself just typing words that didnt seem to all come together and make sense. Most of my issues, however, were in the first introductory paragraph. I did not know how to develop an introduction that grabbed the readers attention and let the reader understan what exactly I was going to discuss in my essay. I found that the best way to do this was with a strong thesis statement at the end of the paragraph. A useful technique of writing a thesis that I had come to understand was that writing the essay first, and then reflecting on the essay, often leads me to develop a much stronger thesis statement. It is much easier to write a thesis that introduces what you're going to write about after you write the essay. This is a method that I learned after a few essays in september. I slowly watched my essay grades improve dramatically due partly to a stronger thesis.…
Before completing my English class, I tried to make my writing seem perfect with one effort. I wasted time and stress over my work. During this past semester, my instructor taught me that rough copies of writing are best. I began outlining and taking smaller steps in my writing process. My mind felt more refreshed, and I was able to think more clearly about how I wanted to present my work. In one of my first papers, “Dreams in Flight,” I even took the time to test different subjects to write about in a memoir. Viewing topics from different perspectives also helped me to become a true writer. While writing my advertisement analysis, “Health Is Where Campbell’s Heart Is,” I had to look through the eyes of a company and a consumer. This tactic taught me to broaden my own perspective before drawing conclusions in my writing. At the same time, I also learned that a good writer must be able to defend his or her opinion. I used to be afraid to voice my opinion through writing. I would worry about what my readers would think. When my instructor assigned an argumentative essay, I knew I would be challenged. I decided to choose a topic I felt strongly about, the New York City soda ban, and found statistics and facts to defend my opinion. I discovered how to control my thoughts through this assignment. I learned that writers have to show feeling to attract readers.…
Writing essays have always been a challenge for me. I am from Ecuador, my native language is Spanish and, I came to the United States three years ago. With the passage of the time, I have learned to talk in English, but learning to write in English has been much harder for me over these three years. However, I have been noticing some progress in my writing in different ways: Idea generation, structuring the essay, and learning to give good supporting evidence have been some of the biggest improvements I have made in my writing in this last semester.…