Reflective Essay: Improving My Writing Composition

In the first and second paragraph I used

Likewise, creating a cover letter taught me many useful strategies that I will definitely put to use when it comes time for me to submit an official cover letter to a company. One of the biggest things that I have learned from taking this course is that good content is more important than sophistication. Both are very important in essay writing, but it is more important to have clear content and material so that the audience can understand your position. Last year, I always seemed to lose points on essays for not having sophisticated enough prose, so I came into this class under the impression that the most important things in a

At the beginning of the school semester I did not think I was going to learn anything new or improve any part of my writing process. I assumed it was just going to be another class for me to drudge through as part of my degree program requirements. I soon discovered there is more involved in creating a well written paper than just putting words in print. Initially I was both surprised and disappointed in myself for turning in the Process Analysis Essay with a misspelled word in it. Furthermore, during the instructor’s critique of my essay, Ms. Flynn stated the paper “Needs more focus on a particular audience”, and more audience engagement.

Although I feel that my speech had a strong structure, I do feel that my slides and I could have done more to make the presentation better. I think that I did not present enough information with slides or press the importance of the ones I did use enough. I also feel that I sped through my presentation too fast and should have tried harder to slow down so that my audience could follow along easier. I also had trouble with remembering what it is I needed to say once I stepped in front of the class, even after many practices rounds with my roommate and study group. This caused me to frequently look at my note cards, taking away from my eye contact and physical gestures.

My expectations coming into the course were high and remained high throughout the duration of the course. The essays I wrote in the class really challenged me to progress in my writing skills. The illustration essay really served as an example of what not to do when writing at a college level. My approach of the essay was really misunderstood and grammatically incorrect.

I thought this essay was going to be one of the hardest essays I would have to write in this class because I ever really understood the rhetorical analysis triangle. I always had trouble figuring out the difference between logos, ethos, and pathos. In high school, my teacher made the rhetorical analysis triangle really difficult to understand so when I had to start writing this essay I was really nervous that I would have trouble using the rhetorical analysis triangle. Throughout this essay, I had to put in a lot of research in each part of the triangle so I was able to understand the triangle and be able to write a good essay.

As a student, I didn’t know how to write. My teacher used to tell me to write a composition about a subject, and to hand it in afterwards without any further instructions. Therefore, I labored to write the composition, even though I did not know, how I am supposed to write it. When I was in the psychometric course, I needed to decide on the content of the essay before the actual writing. It was difficult for me since one of my weaknesses in writing was to decide on the content before writing.

Quite a few of my teachers have told me, and occasionally forced me, to use brainstorming, prewriting, and other systems to help my writing, but I do not believe that I write effectively using those methods. Whenever I brainstorm, I end up just writing complete sentences that would be better off in the essay to begin with. This often leads to just duplicating what I have in the brainstorm right into the essay, adding an unnecessary step that just slows down my writing. The only type of project that forces a slight change to

the Bedford handbook. I also planned to read a lot and spending more time in composing my essays by going through multiple drafts. Unfortunately, I didn 't followed out my initial plan as much I wanted to. I believe my plan is realistic, however the real problem is that I 'm lack of motivation. I know why I should work hard for my classes

In the essays, “Reading to Write” by Stephen King, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie, “Learning to Read” Malcolm X, and “Learning to Write” by Frederick Douglas have three things in common. In each essay Reading has contributed towards the authors life leading to benefit from learning to read, allowing them to leave a legacy behind. In each essay the authors has thought their self how unlike Frederick Douglass. For Stephen King, reading has done a lot for him. King stated, “Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones” (221).

She stated in her paper that for many students the idea of revision makes them uncomfortable and can lead to them not spending very much time working on it. She found that the students were never taught how to truly revise their essays (Sommers 380-382). After reading and

It has also taught me what styles I don’t like and the importance of really planning my essays to make sure I get my point across. Some of the people Alex met didn’t give her exactly what she needed but it was enough to figure things out. That’s just like the four discovering genre essays we had to do. Some of them were very challenging and I didn’t get the exact grade I wanted, but I learned from my mistakes.

Since the sixth grade, the blank page of Microsoft Word has been one of my biggest obstacles in writing. Collecting my thoughts, organizing them, and then articulating them was a struggle. Over the last several years I have felt as if my writing has plateaued. Time and time again I found myself staring at the computer screen desperately trying to start my introduction paragraph. Feeling a need to change I enrolled at University of North Georgia in English Composition 1101.

I believe that I have learned many useful lessons this semester. At the start of this semester I honestly did not know how to write a proper essay. There were several big problems with my writing style. My poor grammar and lack-luster writing skills were a real problem. I feel more confident now that I have written some decent papers and come close to completing my first English class.

When registering for this class, a wave of worry ran through me, because I had minimal skill when it came to writing, particularly in the field of formal writing. The high school I attended was academically poor, we never wrote formal papers, just informal book and movie responses. Therefore I was apprehensive about this class. This course was quite intricate, but I attend skills that will aid me for the rest of my academic career. Rhetorical knowledge, critical inquiry, process, and conventions are all concepts I have acquired.