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Karina Santiago

Professor H Batty

English 101

28 May 2019

Learning and Accomplishment

Over the course of this semester I have learned a number of valuable tools, concepts, and

strategies to help me be a more competent writer in the world of college. A prominent concept I

have learned is to be more aware of the audience when writing. Before this class, I never really

considered the audience of which I was writing for, nor did I think to change my style of writing

to speak to that audience specifically. I feel as though I have been able to accomplish this task in

each of my papers this semester.

I have grown as a writer throughout the course of this semester. Before this class, I have

learned the writing process is more in depth than I previously thought. Brainstorming is not simply

the act of writing down ideas for a paper; it is the task to write down these ideas, develop

connections between them, evaluate whether or not there is enough research for the topic, and

organize the ideas in a way that will make sense to the audience. Drafting is more than just writing

all of the ideas in paragraph from; it is the task of developing a mostly complete paper in order to

have a solid basis of which to improve your paper from. Revising a paper consists of taking the

ideas I have come up with for the paper, since the first draft has been completed, and altering the

paper to reflect those new ideas and strengthen the paper as much as possible. The editing step of

the process involves polishing the grammar and format of the paper to make it as professional as
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possible. The final draft consists of completing all of the aforementioned steps to produce the

finished copy.

Additionally, I have learned how to write in a new style. Prior to taking English 101, I was

in a habit of writing five paragraph theme papers. Although this still tends to be the way I start

papers, I have learned to change those papers into a paper worthy of publication. For example, in

my first essay, my first draft was a five-paragraph theme paper, only because that was out of habit.

Just after I received the feedback from the Professor, I realized my mistake and began to fix it. It

was not a good experience for me but, for sure, it was a learning process.

I have also grown as a writer in the sense of speaking to my audience and maintaining

focus throughout my papers. I learned how to speak to my audience and maintain focus. An area

of which I still need to improve as a writer is learning how to go outside the box and be creative

while staying within the means of the prompt. I want my papers to stand out above the rest.

My first essay is the work I revised most before including it in my portfolio. I wanted to

really speak to my audience throughout my paper. I made many changes in my first essay and I

think I made great improvements between my last draft and the essay included in this portfolio.

I learned how extensive the revision step can be through the revisions of my first essay,

which was my most revised work while doing revisions and re-writing. Not only I had to revise

the content of my essay, I also had to revise the format in which I wrote the paper. From the

comments on my first draft, I realized that I had not focused on elements of the professor prompt.

By redirecting my focus to the elements of what I should do in the first time made my essay fill

the requirements of the prompt more fully. Furthermore, I needed to change slightly the population

of students I was writing about. This proved to require reorganizing my paragraphs and

acknowledging my audience in a different way.

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Throughout the course of the semester I have also learned how to put my own information

together in a way that conformed to the conventions of a paper. With this new skill, I now have

the ability to write any paper I wish as long as I am able to find examples of that. In my opinion,

my second essay was my strongest work this semester. I was able to write an essay with more

confidence. I think the key to my success with my second essay was picking the right topic and

keeping in mind the context.

English 101 has also increased my confidence as a writer. Often times, I would be

intimidated by the academic essays I read as research for an assignment. I felt, as though, my

writing would never get to the level of academic. Now, between growing as a writer and the

publication of my work through the portfolio, I feel as nevertheless my writing is more on the level

of the academic essays I used to be intimidated by.

My communication skills have also strengthened orally during this course. I decided this

semester I would expose myself when it is time to contribute to the class orally. It was not an easy

move but I decided to put myself in that position as I believe it is the only way to get comfortable

when talking.

English 101 has been essential to my writing development. I was able to progress from the

five paragraph theme essays and I will continue to use the new skills I have learned, throughout

the rest of my college career, to perform well and succeed. I am thankful this course is a

requirement because I would not be the writer and communicator I am today without completing

this course.