Tyanna Smith

Professor Morrow

EH 101/107

05 December 2017

Semester Self Assessment

Taking English 101 was no walk in the park for me. I wasn't taught much in English class

when I was in high school so I had to really adjust and try to catch up with my peers. My first

essay which was a low grade and not what I expected at all. But as we progressed through the

semester the score I received on my essays had risen drastically. Talking to my jagpal Sierra and

referring to the textbook every chance I got played a key role. I was so used to learning

everything so easily and just going off of my basic knowledge, but realized I would have to get

some help so I won't fail the class. As a competent writer I feel Ive improved on the ability to

analyze the rhetorical situation and use it as a basis to for planning and writing essays, and the

ability to focus an essay around a reasonable and clearly stated thesis. From this course Ive

learned from my writing that I still need to improve on my grammar, my perception of writing

hasn't really changed. If I could change anything in the course it would be the workload, but I

liked the various hands-on meetings we were required to attend.

As I mentioned previously, I wasn't taught much in English class throughout high school.

So grammar mistakes like run-on sentences, or fragments were never brought to my attention in

class. This is why I feel as though I still need to work on control of grammar, mechanics, and

spelling so that the writing is effective and appropriate for a specific rhetorical context. I tend to

type how I speak, and sometimes I speak using ebonics so there might be some colloquialism in

my papers as a result. From the course Ive learned how to correct most of these errors, and
maintain a formal tone in my papers. Ive gained rhetorical analysis skills, being able to analyze

text and express my ideas clearly in my essays.

I really feel I have come a long way as a writer in this semester alone. My ability to focus

an essay around a reasonable and clearly stated thesis has become a second nature. Even though I

feel that I was already good at writing clear thesis statements, they have become even more

precise and clear as the semester went on. You can tell the difference in how I worded the thesis

statement in essay one versus essay two, and how effective they were. I have also improved on

using a developed writing process, and the ability to adapt it to various writing tasks. My

perspective on writing hasn't really changed from the way I looked at at the beginning of the

semester. Its a neutral feeling towards it, but I enjoy it the most when I write about something

Im interested in. One thing I would change about the course would be the workload, some of the

work was helpful. But most of it was very stressful and a little unnecessary.

What I really liked about the course was the one-on-one sessions we were required to

attend. This really helped me with my papers, because I some of the papers we were required to

write confused me, And working with Sarah really helped me clear things up. Sarah helped me

with my activity study essay, and during that session she gave me ideas for a title, and ways to

organize my paper and corrected some of my grammatical errors. And for me to have s much

trouble with the essay, I made a pretty decent garde.

As I leave English 101/107 I take away with me the improved ability to focus my essays

around a reasonably stated thesis, have a developed writing process I can adapt to various writing

tasks, and analyzing the rhetorical situation and use it as a basis for planning and writing my
essays. These skills will help me in 102, even though I may have to work on them still. From

this course Ive learned from my writing that I still need to improve on my grammar, my

perception of writing hasn't really changed. If I could change anything in the course it would be

the workload, but I liked the various hands-on meetings we were required to attend. I hope to

improve on various things in English 102, and if not all of them I plan to really focus my

attention on improving my grammar and mechanics.