Reflection Paper

August 28, 2017, the first day of my fresh and scary journey. My first day as a Colorado Christian University student, English composition online is my first class. Part of me is ready; part of me is ready to throw in the towel. I hadn’t even had a chance to turn a paper in, and the first assignment, a 5-paragraph essay had me thinking “you’re a crazy person for going back to school, it’s been 11 years since you had to write a paper. What are you thinking?” I told myself its 5 weeks (later I would realize actually 6) you can make it 5 weeks! Although I knew writing wouldn’t be my easiest subject, I knew I had to try my hardest. This class was condensed and hard, but effective and informative; I’ve learned so much, felt all sorts of emotions and know I can apply what I’ve learned in classes to come.

Throughout the course of this semester in AP Lang, my eyes have been opened to many of the weaknesses I never knew I had in writing. Coming into this semester, I had heard about the difficulty of this class, but was not unduly worried about not receiving an A; I have always considered myself as a competent if not strong writer. However, after failing to attain desired grades on several important essays, I was devastated, and realized that although I had mastered the basics of grammar and writing, there was still much for me to work on. Also, I did not understand that much of my grade in AP Lang would be determined by speaking in front of others, which is not my strong suit. What I have come to find is that writing essays containing all of the new information we have learned throughout the semester, such as requirements for different types of essays and good writing strategies, takes a lot of work, time, and thinking. Unfortunately, my procrastination caused me to only get done what had to be done instead of putting in the extra work and truly understanding everything.

When I graduated high school, I already knew that I wanted to attend college other than going to the work force. I heard stories about college being fun and it is one of the greatest accomplishment a person can achieve. So, I began college right after high school. As I entered college, I learned that I will have to focus more on writing papers than having fun. In high school my teachers did not prepare me for college essays. I feel like I learned a lot more failing on my college writing assignment than passing on the essays in high school. Well now I have approached the end of the semester of college, and I am exhausted from the constant writing assignments. Although the assignments were difficult like I said it was also helpful. Each assignment helped me in different ways. The assignments helped me improved with my grammar, time management, and how to process before I begin writing. In English 1010 I had different types of writing assignments. I had to write a literacy narrative paper, analysis paper, research paper, and lastly an autoethnography paper which I am doing now. An autoethnography is when the author uses self reflects to write about their experiences about writing a paper. English is not the only subject that I had writing assignments in. I also had to write assignment in my business class. My English teacher had informed me that I will have to do an autoethnography. So, I used my paper in my business class to reflect on how I write by

As I finished my first semester of college, I was super excited and thrilled when I realized not once did I have to write a paper for any of my classes. There were some paragraphs and summaries here and there but they were pretty standard. When I realized that I was going to have to take Rhetoric 105, a writing course, I freaked out not because there would be a lot of readings but because of the writing expectations. Obviously, I am a decent writer if I was able to get accepted to multiple universities and get good grades throughout my writing career. Yet there is still this nervousness whenever I realize I have to write a paper. I have multiple struggles and strengths when it comes to writing. One of the struggles I face every time it comes to writing a paper is actually getting

It seems as if our high school does not give us the full preparation we need for college-- specifically in the writing aspect. I am thankful my school offered me the opportunity to better my education through college courses. In past years, I have not taken the time to write well organized papers causing me to feel very anxious about taking a college english course in high school. Because of what I have learned in this course,, writing papers has become much easier and less stressful.

Ever since Junior year of High School when my English teacher announced,“We will be writing an extensive amount of essays in this class to prepare you for the AP Test.” After my teacher explained how the class will be for the next year, I knew that I would not be fond of writing essays. I did not love to write essays because I knew I could be utilizing my time in doing something that I would appreciate. Also, while writing essays I found it stressful to write a certain amount of pages regarding to a certain topic and being formatted in a certain way. In addition, I always have trouble either putting clear ideas on paper or supporting my ideas with evidence that are clear as well. However, now that I know I will be writing a bulk of essays this

Okay, the time had come. I must sign up for a University Writing Program (UWP) class at the University of California, Davis, a requirement I greatly feared. I pushed back signing up for the class until my last a final quarter as a student because I thought to myself, “I am a horrible writer!” Being able to put my thoughts into words onto paper purposed a struggle. Therefore, I organized my classes where I would be able to dedicate a lot of time to my UWP class because I knew I would need it.

Before this semester, I didn’t know what was expected of me in a college writing class. I thought there would be tough requirements and the professor would assign around five to ten pages for every assignment. However, this semester isn’t as challenging as I thought and did make me feel prepared for the WRT102 class next semester, like accessing to the university’s library’s database, making a works cited page, and knowing the format for college papers. I actually liked this year’s writing class compared to the ones before, the topics are different and more interesting. My strengths in writing would be the organization of my ideas and how they are presented to the reader. Before I write, I would write out a simple outline for the paper. My

Now these are not things you necessarily need to do but I suggest you do them just so you know your end paper will be readable and tolerable. The first thing I would suggest you to do on your own when writing is to find somewhere comfortable and quiet. You want to be able to find a space where you can work and will not get distracted. I would suggest either going to the library, or studying in a locked room. The reason I suggest working in these type of environments is to keep yourself away from distractions. These areas are quiet but also secluded, not to often will you have people coming up to your table to talk to you at the library, everyone there is going to be doing their own thing and will not have time to bother you while you write.  The second thing I suggest when writing for college is to write about things you enjoy, now I know not every paper you write is going to include your hobbies, but just make your writing experience enjoyable. No matter what you need to enjoy what you are writing about. You are the writer, therefore you have the power to write about whatever you want. Your reader is going to read whatever you put on the paper so make sure it is something you actually

Getting mentally and academically ready for college can be a very stressful task for an individual. Throughout high school I was a good writer and my senior year I’ve decided to take that extra step and take college level classes. At the beginning of the year I was a decent writer who didn’t use much organization and imagination while typing up an essay. Now at the end of Composition two I have gained the necessary skills to succeed in college level courses. To thrive in college level work one must be able to properly revise and edit their writing, communicate effectively with their professor and contain the skills to write an organized essay. I was able to gain all of these skills while completing Composition 1 and 2.

When first coming to Introduction to College Writing, I was nervous. I didn’t know anyone and nobody knew me. One thing I did know was that I was going to be writing tons of papers. As the class began on the first day everybody looked tense, but the professor made everyone feel comfortable. She told us that we were going to be writing 3 important essays and that we were going to improve as writers. When I wrote my first essay, I expected a decent grade. When I got my paper back, it wasn’t what I expected at all. This made me understand that most of the things in college are nothing like the things in high school. The professors won’t care if a student doesn’t come to class or if a student doesn’t do homework. Students have to be accountable and take care of themselves.

My name is Maria Kachina I am a Junior here at California State University East Bay. My major is Hospitality and Tourism. I am a transfer student from Ohlone Community College in Fremont, CA and I hope to graduate sometime in 2017. I have decided to follow a strict class schedule in order to be able to graduate from the University as soon as possible. From the beginning I’ve known that I needed to pass the University Writing Skills Requirement test in order to graduate and I believe that I have shown marked improvement in my writing skills after taking the English 3000 class. As such I believe that my writing skills are enough to let me pass the University Writing Skills

Over the course of the semester, there has been numerous amount of areas where I believe I have improved in comparison to high school. What has helped me in my writing is the writing class and the in-class writing workshop. The writing class that is located in the Kremen education building has helped me with my writing greatly because in the writing center the person in charge teach us lenses and we apply those lenses to the writing, draft, or reading that someone brings in. The in-class writing workshop has helped me because other students get to read my writing. This is helpful because I get feedback from many students and they let me know what needs to be fixed. A new tool I have been using is They Say I Say. The book is very helpful because of the information and examples it provides such as the templates. I have been applying the templates into my essays and I have seen a significant difference.

Since the beginning of the semester, my writing has changed and evolved to accommodate and sustain longer essays. With longer essays, there is more room for in-depth analysis. Further analyzing a topic has led me to findings that I did not know existed. As I continue to write, I uncover addition and superior methods to approach my writing to the benefit of me and therefore, my audience. Throughout the semester, I have incorporated techniques to further my narrative throughout my writing.

When I first began this English course, I did not know what to expect, all I really knew was I would be writing essays and papers which I don't particularly enjoy. I was not as confident in my writing abilities but after the first class period had ended, I decided that my goal for the semester would be producing writing that was clear and more effective. The Eclipse of 2017 pushed the first class back, but I still had an assignment to write about the Eclipse. I don’t think I have ever been so nervous when turning something in because I wanted to make a good first impression on my professor. I immediately relaxed when she said we did not have to read our essays out loud but instead explained what freewriting is.