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Matthew Cisneros

Professor Batty

English 101

30 May 2019

What I Learned

Reading, writing, and critical thinking is what I learned this semester while taking this

English 101 class. Knowing these skills now will not only benefit me in school but also for the

future. Starting this semester, I knew my strengths and weakness as a writer. My strengths were

my ideas, but my weaknesses have been putting my ideas onto paper. I always had difficulty

organizing my thoughts and making sense. Another major issue is my grammar. Over the

semester, little by little I leaned how to gradually work on my weaknesses. My writing improved

with all the writing lessons we did in class. I will continue to strive and improve my writing

skills because I still believe I still have a lot more to fix. I have long way to go. It is a work in

progress.

Our class received many reading assignments where we had to read an article. For example,

one of the articles was called Study Plan, where it taught us the writing process in college. Other

articles topics were how to do research in college, how to be successful in college, and many

more. I learned reading those passages how to be successful in college. The writing in the

articles gave me examples of the importance of details and how write passages. Another thing

that I learned is how to take notes and to pull out quotes from characters from a book. Now,

when I read a book, I try to understand the characters and what the author was trying to say. I

feel that this has helped me with my comprehension skills and writing. These skills will help me

in college.
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English 101 taught me the writing process. All the assignments that were assigned, built my

writing. Each assignment, we had to do research and we worked on making a strong thesis for

our essays. We worked on our outlines that helped us organize our ideas and add details that

were relevant to our essay. The writing process that we learned helped me become a better

writer.

Another lesson I learned how to critically analyze. I had to think about the various topics we

discussed and analyze our thoughts. The group discussion we did about our writing in the

beginning of class or when we answered questions as a group really taught me how to think. The

group discussions helped me organize my ideas and hear other people’s thoughts. Their ideas

helped me with my writing. I was able to take their thoughts and analyze them. I was learning

not to settle with simple answers.

The class taught me to edit my writing and work on my grammar. I know that my writing

needs to improve. The two biggest issues I have are grammar and the way I structure my

sentences. I learned that I struggle in putting my ideas on paper and I usually struggle for hours

on what I should write. Despite my weaknesses, I see strengths. I have good ideas. I will work

on my writing flow and the structure of the essay. I do plan to continue to improve my writing

skill especially my grammar and my sentence structure because I think fixing these problems

would make my essay stronger.

In conclusion, What I mainly learned is how to expand my writing, reading, and critical thing

skills with the various activities we did in class and at home. I still have a lot to improve in my

writing skills but despite that I did feel that my writing skills did improve by the end of the

semester. Learning these skills will not only benefit from school but future. I help me writing a

resume or writing a professional document.

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