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Andrea Perez

Professor Ditch

English 113B

11 May 2020

My Improvements in Writing

When I first started English 113B I had this fixed mindset, only believing that I was not a

good writer and I probably will never be; if I had to be honest a part of me still believes this.

When it came to down to us writing our first ever essay, I was terrified because writing essays is

not easy for me at all. But I told myself I wanted to change that, I started paying attention to

details when we would discuss the readings in class, I dedicated more time to rereading the

articles until I really grasped the concept. When I found out that I had to go to the LRC for my

essay I was nervous, because having someone to read your essay and give you an opinion on it

terrified me. But after I visited the LRC I felt like it was a really big help, and it gave me a better

chance to improve on many things. I struggled with writing a thesis, I always felt like they were

so simple and they were not really answering the prompt. I understood that writing your thesis is

just answering the prompt and giving an explanation on why you think that. Something like that,

that was so simple became so complicated for me. From my first essay Project Space to my last

essay which was the personal narrative I improved so much.

In my first essay which was Project Space I got a 77% and even though that is a C, I

considered it to be a good grade because, I would get really low grades when writing essays in

the past. Even though it is not a good grade, it gave me a boost of confidence and I knew that in

the next essay I would work really hard to get a better grade. In Project Space, my thesis made

sense, and I had a good analysis for the paragraphs. Connecting back to my argument in my
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paragraphs was a bit tough because, I did not want to repeat myself. But I figured out that you

have to constantly remind the reader what your main topic is and redirect them to your thesis.

Although I did need to work on my transitions through the paragraphs and going off topic at one

point, I felt that this essay really helped me for my following essays after that.

For my second essay Project Text I got a decent score of 83%. For me that was a really

good grade and I felt good about it when I turned it in. I felt like my thesis was well written and

my argument and analysis were good. There were some things that set me back, like the in-text

citations or just going into detail in my paragraphs. The in-text citations was something that I

struggled a lot with because, not using the correct in-text citations could show that I plagiarize

because I don’t give proper credit to the author or whoever wrote it; so, it was very important for

me to make sure I used correct in-text citations. At one point there was a lot of stuff in one

paragraph and it should have been separated into two different paragraphs. I had so much trouble

in my essay to write my thesis, but in Project Text I found it very easy to write my thesis and

present my argument. The online LRC tutoring session also helped me a lot I felt like my tutor

was giving me good advice on how I should take some unnecessary things out of my essay that

didn’t make sense, but also to give more details in my paragraphs where it felt like it was

missing more.

When revising my essays, I really focused on the main things that needed improvements

such as giving more textual evidence and fixing my in-text citations. I focused on changing some

key words that would make my essay should better, and focused on connecting my paragraphs

back to my overall argument and thesis. I focused on watching my tone during the essay and

making sure it didn’t sound like I was talking to someone but rather I’m defending a position in

my essay. Overall, my writing from the beginning of the semester to now has definitely
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improved. Understanding the prompt and articles really helped me establish a base for my all my

essays. Going to the LRC three times really helped my essays become better and clearer. My in-

text citations have really improved from the beginning of my essays and I really feel like my

thesis have gotten a lot stronger.