Final Reflection

For this class what I wanted to achieve was not to only improve my writing skills but to also be able to find the mistakes I make in my writings. I believe that I really have improved with my writing skills. Before this class I was not able to be as descriptive and did not have proper grammar but by doing all the assignments that were assign and the help from other people I  am now able to. I am also now able to identify the mistakes that I do in my writings by reading the paper a couple of times and redoing it has helped to see my mistakes. After being in this class I would definitely change some of my initial goals because I never thought or paid attention to certain things that I do now for example the audience. The audience plays a major part of your paper. When you write a paper you have to think about your audience that will help you think on how you can convince them and grab their attention. The strengths that I would like to continue to develop are being more descriptive, knowing my audience and also having strong evidence. What I will continue working on when writing a paper is to have a clear thesis and for the following paragraphs to follow my thesis.

Planning for Revisions

For my portfolio, the type of essay I decided to revise is arguing a position. My strengths in the arguing of a position essay were when giving convincing evidence and had a good thesis. My weaknesses were, talking about a personal experience and not following my thesis completely in every paragraph in the essay.

For my essay to be effectively revised, I will need to change the story I had talked about. Talking about a personal experience seemed like I was trying to manipulate the audience instead of informing them. By including this personal experience the position I am taking will just fail. I should instead talk about something that looks more convincing and relates to my thesis.

I will also make sure that every forthcoming paragraph will go completely with my thesis. In my paragraphs I only included part of the thesis. When I wrote my paragraphs I only concentrated in following only certain part of the thesis. I did not know that every paragraph had to relate with my thesis. Not relating my paragraphs with my thesis completely made my essay incomplete. Once I am done revising the essay, I will now go over it a few times and make sure that each paragraph is related to my whole thesis.

Analyzing and Writing Arguments

The article that I analyzed was “Should the Obama generation Drop out?” One thing that I learned after analyzing this argument is that you definitely need to have strong evidence. In order to have a successful paper, you need to have evidence that can really support your thesis. Having strong evidence throughout your argument will maintain people interested, informed and will also help them obtain a clear idea of why you are taking that position.

Secondly, I learned that you need to have a good thesis statement.  Not having a good thesis statement can lead you to having an unsuccessful paper. The thesis prepares the reader for the forthcoming information. The thesis is also the key to follow in each and every single paragraph throughout the entire argument paper.

Knowing your audience, when writing an argument paper is also very important. If you are not sure who your audience is it will be very hard to convince them. Once you know who your audience is, it will be much easier. For example when arguing about a situation involving teenagers, a teenager is less likely to comprehend certain issues rather than an adult.

In this article, even thought the author gives convincing evidence in some of his opinions. He however contradicts himself, which makes it harder to comprehend his position. This taught me that going back and forth in a position you are taking can affect your paper. When writing an analysis paper, I have to be more aware of what position I am taking and make sure to concentrate on only that position.

Thinking Critically About Evidence

Topic sentence: Teenagers obtaining their drivers license.

Thesis: Student’s shouldn’t be able to obtain a drivers license at such a young age as 16 years old.

Evidence:

1) Some teenagers are not responsible enough.

 2) Teenagers take this as freedom and fun instead of taking it as something serious. 

3) Teenagers put their life at risks when acting irresponsible.

4) They are not conscious of the consequences a minor incident can bring.  

My compelling evidence for why students should not be able to obtain their drivers license at 16 is because teenagers take it as freedom and fun instead of taking it as something serious. This is strong evidence because when a teenager obtains their license, they immediately they think that they have the freedom to go anywhere at any time. Yet they do not think of it as a serious responsibility. This will be a good evidence for my essay because it’s a primary reason of teenagers’ actions.

My weakest evidence is that teenagers put their life at risks when acting irresponsible. This is my weakness evidence because there is no way I would be able to prove this without doing any research. Also not all teenagers are irresponsible; some take more precautions than others. I shouldn’t include this in my essay because I am trying to prove that all teenagers are not responsible enough to obtain a drivers license at 16.

Patterns of Error

A few of the mistakes that I have caught myself repeating are run on sentences, grammar errors, and  another problem is how I do not read my papers more than twice when being done.

First of all, the first mistakes that I do when writing papers are having run on sentences.  I know what run on sentences are but when it comes to writing a paper I do not notice when writing them. I usually just concentrate on the paper making sense and also for each paragraph to go with each other. What I could do to improve  this mistake is going back and rereading each sentence to make sure I have complete sentences.

Secondly, another mistake that I often make is having grammar errors. In many occasions I still forget when to use the proper punctuations. When writing a paper another thing I usually tend to concentrate more on, is making sense in what I am trying to say and do not check to see that my sentences have the punctuations necessary. To be able to improve this mistake I will make sure, instead of continuing writing I should just go back to check the sentences I wrote to make sure they have the appropriate punctuations.

Finally,  I usually only go over my papers twice.  I believe that going over my paper two times is enough. When in reality to make sure I turn in a decent paper I  have to review it a couple of times. Two things I can do to make sure I turn in a well done paper is to check it a few times before turn it in. Also taking a break in between every time I go over it will help me to see more of my mistakes and turn in a better paper.

Spring Break

This spring break week, I was just at home doing nothing exciting which made it extremely boring. I was at home alone because all of my family members had something to do as well as my friends. My dad was out working, my mom; sisters and brother were at school. They will not have their spring break until the following week. This means that they will be out having fun while I am in school. My friends from my high school were also in school and did not have any free time to get together and do something due to school work.          

In some occasions when I have an assignment due or have to study for a test, it is not only sometimes hard but in many occasions it takes up a lot of my time. It makes me want to give up and I also sometimes regret making the decision of going to college. At times I wish I could just stay home. These past couples of days being at home made me realize that I have made a good choice by going to college. Later on once I feel that I have accomplished all my goals, maybe then it will be the right time for me to stay at home and it will not be until than that I will probably enjoy not doing anything. By going to college I have a reason to get out of my house and breathe fresh air. Every day I am also learning new material and interacting with people.

Peer Review

The peer reviews that we have done in class have been effective in the way that we can give others our opinions on how we can improve our paper and also bring to our attention our mistakes. I think peer reviews can be improved by having more than two people in each group. Also having a discussion during class about the paper can become very helpful.  As a peer reviewer my strengths  are,  being able to see when a sentence is incomplete or has  a misspelled word. I can honestly say that my weakness as a peer reviewer are not being able to give suggestions of what I think needs to be added or changed, due to the fact that I am afraid of giving the wrong advice. My ideal peer review process is being in a large group because it is always better to have the opinion from more than one person. I also like that we do our peer reviews after we have done our first draft because we can make as many corrections as we like. I would like to have an extra day of peer review to help us go more into depth with our discussion.