Going into a college level english class I was a little nervous, however I was mostly excited. Throughout high school, english was always my go-to class because writing has always been a happy place for me. I was very confident coming into this class, but I was also eager to learn new ways to improve my writing habits so I could challenge myself to enhance the way I write. Over the course of this class I have learned so much more than I expected, including how to write an efficient, clear thesis statement and be critical with my writing because there is almost always something that can be fixed or improved.
My first piece of writing in my portfolio is my ethnography essay. This essay had very a unique guideline to follow which I enjoyed very much. For my essay I was able to observe how my Nana goes about living her everyday life and how her habits make her the person she is today. While writing the rough draft I struggled with expanding on my details, however after going back and reading my essay I realized there were many crucial details being forgotten. After I added the missing details, my Nana’s small habits were embellished and they became a very important part of the essay. Another thing I had trouble on was putting everything in chronological order. My rough draft appeared to be messy because I was adding random details in where they shouldn’t have been. However, after I fixed the order things were in, my essay made much more sense and it was easier to read than before.This writing piece not only improved my abilities of going into detail when writing an essay, but I was also able to realize how important the small details are and how much they can improve the main point of my essay. This opened my mind to a different way of writing and using small details to the best of my abilities.
My second piece of writing being presented in my portfolio is called “My Dream Come True.” This was a challenge for me because before I entered this class, embellishing on small details was never a strong portion in my writing. This essay helped me to come out of my comfort zone which had positive benefits as a writer because it forced me to expand what I already knew about writing and what I was capable of doing. When I handed in my rough draft I was able to reflect on how I wrote it and it was not strong.I had a very hard time focusing on the main point of my essay and I was going into detail about things that had nothing to do with my memoir. After reflecting on my mistakes, I was able to expand my writing and add many details not only using imagery, but also emotions about what was being written. After I applied those changes my essay was much smoother than before, and it sounded stronger as well.
My third piece of writing in my portfolio is called “Distracted Parents” which is my second essay. This piece was the most challenging for me because I had to find reliable sources for my argument which I normally struggle with. After doing a lot of research I was able to find strong articles that had statistics and evidence supporting my claim which made me entire essay sound clear and more confident. This piece of writing goes into detail about how electronics are having a negative impact on the way children are being raised, and how they are distracting parents from the attention being needed by their children. This piece required a lot of strong research skills so the argument being presented had strong evidence to lean back on. After I fixed my mistakes and found more reliable sources to back up my claim, my essay improved dramatically and I was very pleased with what I wrote.
Overall, I am confident to say that I have improved as a writer and I am a much powerful writer than I was from when I entered this course. I not only learned to add imagery, but also how to find credible, strong sources when writing an argumentative paper. I also learned how to be critical about my own writing, and I am now able to find errors that could be fixed in my writing to become a more cohesive essay. I feel as though I am prepared for the next english course I will be taking, and I am excited to apply my writing skills I obtained from this course.