The time flies faster than I imagine in this semester. In the beginning, I was thinking that it was so hard to be a college-level writer. Because English is not my first language, that’s why I thought my ability was not enough. Fortunately, I am satisfied with my own progress during this 16-week course. How have I evolved as a writer this semester? If you want to be a good writer, you need to be a good reader first. I think reading can help me to organize my ideas easily when I am writing. During the 16-week class, we did countless practices to help to improve my ability. For instance, by reading books as the material let me learn how to find keywords in so many texts. Every assignment had some chapters that needed to be finished and did 4Ts also. Scan the article before reading can give me a better idea of what I ’m going to read today, thus, there is a concept to help me better understand the content of the article. Underline a key point and circle an unknown word instead of checking it immediately. I noticed that if I check every single word that I do not understand, it is going to waste a lot of time. After learning how to do 4Ts, I look up all the words I did not understand when I finished reading. This way save me lots of time. Besides, I do not need to know every single word to understand the content of the article, I only need to link the context of the content can also understand it. Theses example really help me a lot during I did 4Ts.
Before I took this class, I have no idea how to do research papers, but after I’ve gone through three projects I already knew how to write a good research paper and use the right way and form to write it. In the research process, I learned that I need to analyze the topic deeply before writing to avoid off-topic, using a quotation sandwich to support my essay. I also learned how important it is to organize and outline ideas. Having a good outline can make me more logical to write an essay instead of the wrong text or overlap contents. Research is not as simple as just looking for the information. We need to consider diverse aspects when we do the research. For instance, the CRAP test is a good way to grade the websites that we want to research. Using appropriate sources is vital to have reliable sources.
I did not do a great job in my first paper before I revised it. I got incomplete in part A of my first project. In my first draft, I was missing some key components which were my main argument. The main argument is really important in an essay, it can allow readers to understand what is the main point. It is like a pillar in a building, if a building without a pillar to support the whole structure, it would collapse. My topic for the first paper is how does advertising affect people’s mental health. The last sentence of my introduction paragraph should have had the main argument, but I missed it. In order to get complete in this paper, I revised it in second draft. I wrote “Thus, advertisements do have negative effects on people” as my main argument. In this revision, I have learned that I need to specific to express my argument, although I did know I was going to discuss negative effects, readers won’t know. Thus, the main argument is vital to let readers get into the situation sooner.
As a reader, I have learned to scan the article before reading, underline a key point and circle an unknown word, and write down some notes when I confuse the meaning or sentence. As a writer, I have learned to brainstorm in order to narrow down the topic, write an introduction, write a controlling argument, expand on my thoughts, write in different genres, analyze quotations, find reliable resources, writing for a specific audience. These methods I mentioned above help me finish my essay more efficiently. Having a good pre-work can be organized to write.
In the Eng 1A class’s course measurable outcomes, I think I have learned the most of the skills can get an A to pass this class. Why? Here are a few examples of course outcomes. Talking about critical thinking, we need to read one book calls Lost Connection before writing paper one. I analyzed the content of the book and did a group discussion with classmates in order to understand the meaning of this book deeply. In this case, I could understand how to use quotations to support my ideas in an essay. When I did my final project which was paper three, I noticed that I already familiar with MLA format and write a quotation sandwich correctly. Finding reliable resources online and then organize them properly to use in my own essay. These skills I have learned are going to help me a lot in other classes. For instance, I will take English 1C which is critical thinking writing. Because I already have some basic concepts that I learned in English 1A, this will help me to get into the situation and learn more efficiently in English 1C class.
The goals I wrote at the beginning of the semester was I want to know how to write a formal essay and show my ideas in an article organized. Overall, I feel successful in these goals because Professor Weidner gave us the right leadership to make progress in the right direction and taught us countless methods to write a perfect essay. No one is perfect, I still have a lot of places need to improve and progress. I think I need to focus more on how to analyze my essay deeper. I noticed that I just wrote the surface of problems, and I did not exactly analyze why this was a problem deeply. I would do more practice about this aspect in order to become a better writer.
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