Reflection Paper

Furthermore, according to Duncan Carter’s article, Five Myths About Writing, “Years of well-intentioned English teachers have responded to students’ first drafts as if they were supposed to have been perfect. Combined with a pedagogy which suggests that revision is a form of punishment, it is not hard to see where students get the idea that good writers don’t have to revise” (Carter, 82). Growing up, high school teachers make it seem as if revising and editing your paper is the worst thing ever. Any student who worked long and hard on their assignment and turned it in to get revised, would hate to receive a paper back with nothing but red marks and errors written all over them. This initially gave people the mindset of forgetting about editing their work if all it did was tear them down and point out their mistakes.

When I first decided to expand my education, it had been so long since I had been to school, and I was very hesitant. I talked at length about my decision with my husband and with his encouragement, decided to enroll but still was not quite sure which degree program to enroll in. I knew that this was something that I had always wanted to do since I obtained my Associates Degree in Nursing, but I did not have the courage, nor did I want to give up the time with my family and children. I second guessed my abilities and my knowledge because it had been so long since I had been in college. Now that my children are about to graduate high school and

At the beginning of this semester, we were assigned to groups. I did not understand why at first, but I soon learned that audiences were very important to keep in mind when writing. Before this class, I wrote my papers as if my teacher was my only audience. Through the help of my group, I now write to a broader audience. Our writing process started by writing a rough draft. Then we read them aloud to our group, they would then give us feedback on what they thought we could add, fix, or change. This has helped my writing immensely. Knowing that I have to put into account what others think and feel has caused me to think about all sides and viewpoints of a topic, not just mine.

Writing is something we have been used to since childhood. Beginning to write with just a few words and activities to improve our pendmanship. From easy sentences we all gradually improve our writing, as expected from higher levels of education. However, throughout all this time, many of us have been writing blind. Only writing what is seen an necessary, oblivious to the true skill and precision it takes to actually write quality work. Through the use of Anne Lammott’s article “Shitty First Drafts” and personal experiences, I will advice you, my fellow freshman, on certain a aspect of writing that you may not have known prior to joining the college world, as well as offer some life advice.

One of the main reasons I believe my writing has become stronger is due to revision. I always knew revision was an important step in the writing process, but in the past I always assumed that my papers needed no revision, I was wrong. The feedback that was given to me by my peers and professor was extremely helpful. A few of the comments given to me by my peers include, “The uses of quotes in your essay are fine. The

When I stop to think about the memory’s that I have made during my first semester of college; there are both good and bad pieces or times that present themselves. Often with many things there are gray areas, and writing would fall in there for me. I fortunately understand now that I have times where I can over look many of my writing flaws. Such as sentence structure! This by far was my biggest problem in this class, and I fully understand why. Personally I have times that will type up a paragraph and never notice the mistake. That is until someone points it out to me. It’s almost like my brain knows that something is wrong with it, but for some unknown reason it won’t register when I’m revising my paper. So as a writer I have realized that I need to take advantage of people around me and get their feedback on my essay’s; because

When I first walked into class, I had no respect for writing papers or the class. However, as the days progressed and the weeks went by, I’ve slowly gained the respect that English deserves. While it is still fairly difficult for me to formulate my thoughts and turn them into cohesive, well-structured sentences and paragraphs, I now know that most of what I write now is so much better than when we initially started. It is through revision that my writing has improved.

A central part of Rhetoric and Composition classes is being able to understand an apply rhetorical knowledge, critical thinking and reading, the process of creating a paper, and being able to understand source formatting. Throughout this course, I’ve written new types of papers, expanded on my analytical abilities, and have gained valuable information on how to improve on papers that I’ve written in the past. My argumentation and organization have improved greatly by in-class workshops and critical, but well deserved, teacher comments. These skills are essential in writing I’ve learned and improved on many of the goals listed in the syllabus this semester, which will be necessary for my future schooling.

In middle school, we hardly ever wrote, if ever. Then in high school the only papers we really wrote were in 12th grade. Every other paper was small and could be written out in half an hour. On every paper I wrote I got a high grade, but with this high grade, I didn’t get any feedback. I started just to assume everything I wrote was good, and I became complacent. When it came to write our big senior exit paper junior year, I made an 80. The main reason was due to the fact that my paper “uses immature writing style that includes weak word choice, limited sentence variety, vague and inconsistent voice, and marginal coherence.” I felt crushed. I was angry at my teacher who supposedly proofread my draft and did not provide one ounce of feedback on how the draft was. Our senior papers were graded by other teachers and our names were not on it to prevent bias. Who ever graded my paper either had a different idea of where 12th graders should be at when it comes to writing than my teacher, or my own teacher slacked off and didn’t read my paper at all.

“The best way to become a better writer is to write and then to publish your writing, whether you publish it on a blog, in a book, or with a close friend. It’s only by practicing writing, and getting feedback on it, that you can improve” (Bunting). This quote describes how I feel about my writing experiences. This quote makes me reflect on this semester, how we would write a paper then submit it to the peer review link to get feedback from our peers. Doing this truly helped me become a better writer. When I read my peers papers and notice how they had grammar and spelling issues, I then go back to my paper and re-read it to see if I had some of the same mistakes. Also getting feedback from my peers helped me become better at taking criticism from others and compare my opinion to theirs.

I believe that my writing has grown a lot with in this first semester of college. I was the type of person in college that would write a paper, and not review it, and still turn it in. I would usually receive good grades, but that was on the high school level. Those types of under-developed papers do not receive good grades in college. On a paper that I may have turned in to one of my high school teachers would have got me a B, yet if I turn around and use that same paper now, I would receive no more than a D. That is what I believe should happen at this level in the game. You as an individual must recognize your own mistakes, and correct them on your own. In high school many of my teacher’s would grade a

Since beginning to write papers in English class, I have had countless successes and failures. While many of my English classes have taught me how to improve my writing, I have not learned very much in others. My most recent English class was last year, my sophomore year. My class was particularly undersized; therefore, it gave each student the opportunity to have additional individual attention. Throughout the class I experienced high points, weaknesses, and even difficulties that I never overcame. Overall, my writing skills improved, but only marginally.

I have learned several things throughout this class, things that will help me in the future and as I make my way through the University of South Alabama as well as help me grow as a person. One of the first things I learned was how to keep a calendar. The first assignment I did was to create a schedule. So, I made one and have stuck to it pretty closely. I do have a late assignment every now and then, but I am working on it and making sure to write everything down in my calendar. I do that for everything, my work schedules , fun events I would like to go to, exercising , sleeping and most importantly study time.

Our civilizations relies upon people to develop morals and resilience through family, however, what happens when you grow up in an abusive family? Sure, you develop resilience quickly, unfortunately, you may build your moral foundation over a sinkhole. In addition to family dynamics, by age eleven, I survived being hung by a Mexican gang, three dog attacks and a house fire which left both legs covered in second degree burns. Fortunately, at age twelve, I ran away and a couple discovered me sleeping in their garage. Compassionately, they took me in and allowed me to live in a travel trailer on their property.

“Khong Oi! Lam mot viet nay cho ma..khong you do for ma-my okay? ”--which translates from Vietnamese to “Child of mine! Do one more thing for me, child, you do for your mommy okay?.” I honestly use to hate when my mother asked me to do something for her. Even worse, I would feel embarrassed when she asked me something in her broken English. Being an adolescent, I did not understand the reasoning behind her persistent nagging or why she would ask to do so many chores, run all these errands with her, or do all these cleanings around the house. I would constantly retaliate to her firm scoldings and fiery lectures which made me believe she did not love me and I could do nothing right by her. My mother raised me with such an iron hand and back then I could not understand why. Back then I could not comprehend the meaning behind everything she did or how little I knew of the endless ways my mother showed me strength, empathy and resiliency, all in her non traditional way and how I would reflect those attributes growing up.