Haney 1 Janaei Haney Mr.

Brian Harrell English Comp 1 6 December 2013 What I have learned from Writing I will be the first to admit that English has not always been my strongest point. In high school I found myself struggling, and I always dreaded writing a paper. Knowing I had to take English Composition, I found those same feelings from high school arising once again. I have taken a lot of steps to get where I am, and I am proud of the accomplishes I have made. I do owe thanks to my professor as well. In class we wrote four essays to help our understanding, which included: the personal essay, the analytical essay, the profile essay, and the group essay. My essays were called: The Best Mistake, Finding Inner Peace, Finding Out Your True Sexual Orientation, and for the group essay, we did a newsletter column about distance learning. For my profile essay, The Best Mistake, I talked about becoming a teen mom, and for the analytical essay, Finding Inner Peace, I analyzed a textbook, and showed how a character changed then related in to society. Ultimately, with the help of my professor, classmates, and myself, I have grasped the concepts of writing including: writing, editing, revising, keeping an audience in mind, developing a thesis statement, paraphrase and qouting, analyze text and engaging in critically thinking. I have learned that by revising and editing your paper, it will make your writing stronger. Typically I like to freewrite, add and take away things, edit, and then revise my paper. I then go back and proofread my paper, and I like to add anything that I feel will make my writing stronger. An example is my personal essay. In my essay, The Best Mistake, I originally wrote,

Haney 2 The counselor asked me if I had an idea of what I wanted to do, whether I wanted to raise a child, or if I wanted to abort it. Later on I revised it, and I added quotes to make my essay stronger. I eventually changed it to, Her response to my answer was, There are plenty of resources to help you, as we are for you. Also, the joys of being a mother far outweigh any obstacles you might face. By adding quotes to my essa y, it gives the reader a sense of visualization. Your can imagine and feel what you were at that moment in time. Another thing that I learned from taking English Composition is being aware of your audience. In the analytical essay I was aware of my reader by summarizing a book called The Unlikely Disciple: A sinners semester at Americas Holiest University. I wrote in my essay Finding Inner Peacer, In the book, The Unlikely Disciple, the author Kevin Roose attends a liberal college, Liberty University, to find out more about the evangelical life. He himself was from a secular college, Brown University, and he was also from a Quaker family who was not heavily into religion. He did not understand the evangelical way, and he was amused when he met students from Liberty University and could not strike a conversation with them; Kevin couldnt believe that they were that much different from him. The curiosity began there, so Roose decided to enroll for a semester as an undercover reporter to find out more about the Liberty way. By giving the reader a background of the book, they could fully understand when I talked about how Liberty University had impact on him. Being aware of your audience is important so you do not leave your reader confused. Also, when writing the analytical essay, I had to come up with a thesis statement. Your thesis statement is what you are writing about. My direct thesis statement from the analytical essay was, Ultimately, at the end of the semester, Rooses spiritual outlook had changed; Kevin didnt necessarily become a hardcore evangelical or convert as they call it, but he did find an

Haney 3 inner peace with the help of his classes, friends, and pastors at Liberty University. That was exactly what my paper was about. I talked about how Roose had changed from attending Liberty University, and I gave evidence to support it. Something else that can be really important to writing, is analyzing a text. I never had to analyze something before, and at first, I had difficulty understanding what I needed to do. It takes critical thinking to really understand and come up with an analysis. In my essay, Finding Inner Peace, I compared to how religion changed Roose to how religion is used for happiness in America. In my essay I wrote, Religion tends to make us feel happier, and it makes us feel like we have a greater significance in our lives. Religion is a part of peoples everyday lives, and it helps them through everything that they face in life. It doesnt exactly have to be Christianity that fulfills others, but it could be other religions too. I now have a better understanding how to analyze a text, whether it is a book, article, or anything else. That essay alone, I feel, has better prepared me English Composition two. Lastly, from taking this course I have learned how to paraphrasing and quote. An example is in the profile essay. I had to interview someone, and I had to write about an experience they had. The profile essay was really important to use direct quotes because it showed the reader what that person was experiencing. In my essay, Finding Out Your True Sexual Orientation, I quoted by friend by writing, She responded with, I wanted to date someone that was everything Bryan wasnt. I met Jamie at a bar, and I thought she was a guy at first. However, she was nice, so I gave her my phone number. We started hanging out, and we connected on an intense emotional level. Using quotes in your essay is really important when trying to get a point acrossed. Quotes are not used for visualization, but they can be used to provide evidence and be used for argument, which makes your paper stronger.

Haney 4 Taking this course and writing higher level of material has better prepared me for next semester. I can use all the skills that I have this semester for not only next semesters writing course, but I can use it for all my future courses and beyond college, in my career. Even though I have learned a lot this semester, there are things I still struggle with. One of the things that is still difficult for me, is replacing to be verbs. I expect that to change before next semester. However, writing is a process and there is always room for improvement.

Haney 5 Work Cited

Roose, Kevin. The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinners Semester at Americas Holiest University. New York: Grand Central, 2009. Print.