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.

Transition from High School to College

The transition from high school to college has been a major step in my life. So far in college what I have enjoyed the most throughout these two semesters I have taken is the fact that I have more independence. In high school, teachers and other people would always be on our back to make sure we did your homework, go to class and follow certain school rules. My first couple of weeks in college I started noticing that it was a whole new experience as well as a complete different environment.  For example in class, instructors will now only collect homework on the date it is due. Students who do not turn in an assignment are no longer being questioned about it, as well as not attending class. It is up to us, if we want to be responsible and obtain good grades. Another thing that is completely different in college is us being able to make our own schedule and choose the classes we want. Were in high school, we were given a schedule and did not have an option when choosing classes. What I like the least about college is that they assign us many assignments which can sometimes be time consuming and also extremely hard. In my case I sometimes have to work on a paper over the weekend, other assignments or study for a test and the weekend is just not enough time. I have realized that being in college is all about writing papers for most of the classes and it is something I was not used to doing. So far being in college and writing papers constantly is the hardest thing for me to do.

Thinking About Arguments

The three articles that we had to read and choose from, the one that I thought was the most appealing was “Should the Obama Generation Drop Out?” The article talks about how Obama thinks that students shouldn’t need a bachelor’s degree to obtain a decent pay job. The author agrees with Obama’s thoughts but he would also like for him to be more specific about his argument. The author backs up Obama’s argument by giving us facts, for example he said that “It’s what you can do that should count when you apply for a job, not where you learned to do it”.  In other words when an employer is hiring someone, they should consider the employees experience and not where their skills were obtained.

I decided to consider writing about this argument because what the author stated is true. You should not need a bachelor’s degree in order to have a decent pay job. In example, four years in college means parents or students acquiring a debt because there are only a small percentage of students who are able to obtain scholarships or government help. Another example is that when obtaining an education for a bachelor’s degree there are many classes that are required to be taken when in reality many of them are not necessary or have to do anything with the degree obtained.

Second Choice Ad

Purpose: Most of the hair products women buy in order to keep their hair in place do not work. Anti-Humidity Hairspray by Garnier Fructis is convincing you that this one will work.  This ad is trying to make women believe that the perfect product is finally here.

Audience: It shows a picture of a confident woman with the perfect hair. It is specifically targeting women who want their hair style to stay a certain way for a longer time.

Genre: I would describe it as being a persuasive ad.  All the Garnier Fructis ads have some kind of pattern. They always have a woman with perfect and a different hair style. This is what I would expect from the Garnier Fructis ads because they want to make us believe that this hair product will work. They always show a woman with perfect hair to convince us that is possible for any women to obtain the hair look desired.

Tone: The black background, the tree hair products with the bamboo and a woman with a confident smile makes this ad exciting, anxious and desirable.

Reflecting on Progress

I believe that I am making a progress on my goals for this class. I have been improving my writing skills, using more proper language and being more detailed. Doing different things in this class has helped me improve my writing for example writing a blog each week about a specific subject another example is writing our peer reviews which are due before turning in our papers, my partners have helped me improve by giving me feedback on what I can change to improve in my papers. My previous class English 099 is completely different from this English class where we only have to do papers of five paragraphs and turn in only one final paper of three pages. For this class we have done so far only two papers of three to four pages which required more time and more thinking. Finally the notes that the instructor has been giving us have been also helpful because she explains with details how she expects papers to be done. If I had a chance to change anything in the class, I wouldn’t change a thing. Our instructor has been doing a great job, there is nothing more that she can do, that can be done to help us become better writers. My writing process has not changed unless the paper requires it. I believe my writing has improved since the semester started because I have become more detailed and have been able to put my ideas together and in order in my writings.

Rhetorical Situations

The literacy narrative essay and the ad analysis essay are completely different essays. In the narrative essay I was describing a personal experience of my life and in the ad analysis essay I will be providing detailed research information on facts about the Iphone. I believe that both essays can become interesting to anyone. The tone would be slightly different because in the literacy essay I included mixed emotions and in the ad essay the tone will be full of happiness and excitement. The genre in the literacy essay was informative and in with the ad essay I will be trying to persuade you. The rhetorical situation would affect my paper if the essay begins with strong and interesting ideas and towards the end it becomes very weak.

Ads

Purpose:  Showing a variety of different apps around the iphone is telling us that by having this phone we will be having entertainment and it will provide us with any quick information needed. The iphone is probably the only phone that provides us with much more than other phones.

Audience: It does not show a picture of a person or particular audience but  it is trying to attract people who are interested in accessing their favorite social networks,  having a good camera, quick access to the internet and having their favorite albums at all the times.

Genre: I would describe the genre as being persuasive due to the fact that this phone is able to hold so much memory in it. Everyone expects this to be a great buy because of everything it provides. Sellers want to convince us that this is one of the best investments we could make.

Tone: The outstanding and colorful background makes the tone of this ad fun and exciting.

Revisions

I did not do many changes from my rough draft to my final draft. The main problems were not writing the paper as long as it had to be and also the spelling, punctuations and using past or present. After doing my final draft I was able to identify my pattern of errors which are misspelling words and punctuations. What guided me to revise my paper was considering the suggestions my peer was able to find, also after rereading the paper a few more times helped me find my mistakes. I believe that my strongest point in the essay is the beginning and my weakest point is in the body of my essay.

A Good Paper

Word Choice: One difference between an A and a C paper is word choice. A “C” paper may contain common words but an “A” paper may contain more proper words. Word choice makes a paper more effective because it makes an essay sound better.

Description: One difference between an A and a C paper is description. A “C” paper may contain very little description but an “A” paper may contain very detailed information. A description with details makes a paper more effective because it makes the reader have a better picture of what is happening.

Conclusion: One difference between an A and a C paper is a conclusion. A “C” paper may not contain a closing but an “A” paper contains a complete ending to the story. A conclusion makes a paper more effective by giving the reader a short summary of what they have read.

When doing an essay, I have difficulty being descriptive and putting my ideas together.  Writing the conclusion in an essay is where I usually do a better job.

Literacy Narrative Topics

One topic I am able choose was when I had to do the transition from Spanish to English. Spanish has always been my primary language. I had to learn to speak and write in English in fifth grade because it was no longer in a bilingual class. It was really hard for me to learn to speak and write in English but everything it took has been worth it. This was significant to me because learning to speak and write in a different language was not easy. If I decide to write about this topic I think that it can become a great narrative because it has been an important experience in my life. Learning a new language has help me to be where I am today.

My second topic choice would be when I had to write my first research paper. For my reading class in my first semester in college, our instructor assign us to do a research paper. We were able to pick any topic we wanted to. I had never done a research paper before, so I had no clue on how to do one. The first thing I did was research on how to do the paper. I then went to the writing lab for help. I had to do so many things to be able to prepare the paper and it also took up a lot of my time. Working on this paper was significant for me because I finally learned how to do a research paper. If I decided to write about this topic, it would be a great narrative because I will explain what I went through to be able to prepare the research paper.

My final topic choice is on how students struggle with writing papers. Students have many problems  when it comes to writing, one of the main problems is that they do not know how to explain themselves. I am one of those students who have a hard time writing papers. I have slowly become a better writer but I still need to work on it in order to be able to improve. I think that with practice I can become a better writer. Having to write papers has been significant to me because I have learned that I am not the only one with this problem. If I decide to write about this topic, it would be a great narrative because it is a great example of how students still struggle with writing.   

       

English 101

I decided to take English 101 because it is a requirement and for it to help me gain as much knowledge and skills as possible. I have been having a hard time writing papers. Putting my ideas together and being able to explain myself are the main reasons that hold me back when it comes to writing a paper. I believe I am slowly getting better at writing and putting my thoughts together but I still need a lot of improvement. By taking this class I hope to not only improve my writing skills but also to be able to find the mistakes I make with my writings. I think students are required to take this class because NEIU wants the students to become better writers. Writing is one of the skills that we need to use on a daily basis, for example with homework, at our jobs and also for texting on our cell phones, which has become a very common use in our lives. In many occasions many of us have the tendency of writing our papers the same way we speak which is incorrect. When we are writing we have to focus more in how we are using our grammar. I believe that having to take this class is a fair and useful requirement, there is always something new to learn, whether we are excellent or terrible writers, taking this class will help us improve our writing skills. I am sure that taking this class will be a fun and productive experience.