Personal Narrative: Improving Writing Skills

I have truly enjoyed writing for most of my life and after this class I will continue to enjoy writing hopefully with more skill. I have always viewed myself as a fairly strong writer and this class has reaffirmed that for me, but it has also shown weaknesses in my writing. As an introduction level class this has been one of my favorites; at some point I will take a higher level, even though it is not required for my major. Even though this class is almost over I am continuing to learn. I also love that this class will help me with literally ever other class in my college career. I am not a particularly strong reader, but as my writing skills improve so do the reading skills. While in this class I have learned a lot about everything from what I can improve, to subjects that interest me, and constructing a successful paper.

I feel I have improved overall in all aspects of writing; specially in citing my work, introducing quotes, word diction, time management and grammar. Prior to taking this class I was not able to properly cite my work and continuously struggled on my works cited page. After not scoring too well on my novel essay works cited I took it upon myself and reached out for extra help. Through additional help and learning the material I am now able to properly cite my work. Another aspect of writing I felt I improved in this semester is, introducing quotes. Prior to taking this class I struggled to introduce quotes effectively. Throughout High school, I would typically state a quotation with very little introduction. I have improved tremendously and am now able to properly introduce quotes by giving a small explanation on what the quote is going to focus on, while also stating the presenters name. My word diction this semester has improved and has helped my writing significantly. While writing I am constantly looking up synonyms for words and attempting to enhance them. Better word diction improves your writing and makes you seem more knowledgeable

Over the course of this semester, I have improved as a writer. At the beginning, I would like to think I was fairly decent, but I didn’t have much experience in anything but English and the occasional history papers. This year was difficult, as it forced me to learn new ways of writing. As I got more comfortable, I clearly improved, with my writing and content improving. Essays like the Prairie Meadows scholarship and annotated bibliography were remarkably different than what I was used to, and I benefited from writing them. The beginning of this year, I wasn’t incredibly concerned with my sentence structure or the impact of the words I used. As I learned and wrote more, my sentences got more complex and I -for the most part- stopped using

Throughout this semester we have had to write many types of essays. Although this is a college English class there is still room for improvement. I made much improvement during the semester of the class. I was able to identify my weaknesses. I learned how to make improvements to the areas I was having problems in. Although each essay we did was different I was able to begin with one essay and throughout the semester turn it into two other essays. I was able to change my style of writing to fit the type of audience I was working with. I will continue to work on my writing and keep improving it.

Prior to entering class, I thought that I was a competent writer. However, I quickly learned that my writing was conversational and that I had little experience in academic writing. I became aware that much of my poor writing was like an old habit that I found humbling to admit and hard to correct. Passive voice, unneeded words, long sentences, were just a few of the obstacles that resulted in ineffectual writing. However, using peer reviews and an editing checklist I slowly began the journey to better writing. I also found that reading about writing provided supplementary methods to improve my writing. Implementing these new techniques, I slowly began to understand what scholarly writing entailed. As I learned through giving criticism

This past month has taught me so much about myself as a writer. The areas I struggle with along with the areas I have improved in. Although my writing process has changed, there are still areas that need improvement. I have a better understanding of a sentence structure. Being able to make a complete sentence and have the correct verb, noun and punctuation makes all the difference with your writing. Your ideas need to be complete thoughts. This is one of the areas that I often struggled with as I had fragment sentences, comma splice errors and punctuation issues. The improvements come from the type of assignments we had this class. Our blog writings, discussions with videos and essay writing has helped me tremendously. The assignments I felt,

I believe I have grown a lot since the beginning of this course. My writing was severely lacking grammar and punctuation. I didn’t use any punctuation other than periods and very few commas spersed throughout my papers. My papers still need help in that area, but I have improved. I now know where they need to go and when it’s appropriate to use them. My papers aren’t exactly flawless but they are better than before. I would write how I speak at times and I knew it wasn’t right, but I would still do it because it allowed my papers to flow better in my mind. I read my papers out loud to help avoid my problem with writing how I speak. I’ve learned my writing style in this course, or lack thereof. I found a program that would benefit me now and

After filling out the Writing Skills Inventory, I noticed that I rarely created a plan to help me stay organized while writing. In this paper I will explain how and why I am going to improve my writing skills by planning my essays prior to starting it. Creating a plan could include a couple of things, it could help me create a process for completing the assignment or it could help the ideas within the assignment flow better and stay in order. I want to improve this skill because I often procrastinate on my tasks, so I do not have time to really construct solid ideas and take time to revise and edit as much I should. The reason that I do not plan out my assignments is that I think that it would be faster and easier to just write it all in

As technology evolves, the traditional style writing classrooms should do so as well. Students are used to the typical routine, in which an instructor lecture and hands out assignments. However, is that really the most effective way of teaching for all students? Teachers neglect the fact that not all students learn the same way. In learning this, I propose some changes that could be made in order to increase learning effectively such as; the choice of physical work verses online work, communications and feedback to students, and essays.

I can still remember my heart pounding out of my chest. It was my first time in Writing 1, and my nerves were mostly the result of a friend’s advice. Winter quarter, my friend told me about her struggles in her writing class and she advised me not to take Professor Bernstein for Writing because as she said “he is really tough and a very hard grader.” However, I had no other option but to take writing with Professor Bernstein because all the other writing 1 classes conflicted with my schedule. Nevertheless, nine weeks have past since I first stepped foot in Writing 1, and I can certainly say that I have learned more than I ever expected. Yes, it is true, this class has been a challenge like no other, especially for me, being that English is

I would share what I have learned with my boss, family member and friends by showing them how i have changed my way of writing and thinking before I start writing or speaking. I know that I talk a certain way but i will make sure that y writing skills are different. I would also share with my friends and family members the basis rules of writing that was shared with me. (Chambers 2016) Writing is an acquired art and that there are no run on sentences, punctuation and sentence fragments. (chambers 2016) I have not been a student with good writing skills in a long time. But I am learning to not write the way I speak. I will continued to improve my writing, speaking and thinking skills on a daily bases.

In this semester I have improved my writing skills. At the beginning, I didn’t know much about writing. Since English isn’t my first language, I had lots of errors in my essays. Writing in MLA format was one of the things I learned. Also, organizing my ideas, and then, write them in a draft, so my paper would end up worth of reading. Before turning the paper in, searching for errors was other thing I learned, because at the beginning, when I was done with an essay I would turned it in without looking twice, searching for mistakes. Now, I always double check to see if I made a mistake. Likewise, I used many common words to describe an idea or a person, I’m getting better on it, but I still need to work on finding new words to make my essays

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary the word refine is a verb that means “to improve (something) by making small changes”. This word perfectly describes my goals as an out of practice writer and new college student. In order to make improvements as a writer a person must be willing to make mistakes. They must be open and accepting of any feedback whether it is negative or positive. After all, you cannot refine your skills and become a better writer if you aren’t willing to take the bad with the good and learn from your mistakes.

As I pulled everything together, I compared a few of my papers from the beginning of the year to the more recent ones, and I was able to see a noticeable improvement, although not a drastic one. I took a step back and realized that within the time that I was pursuing better writing skills, I never gave myself the chance to acknowledge what I achieved as a whole and appreciate it. While I had realized throughout the year that I was improving a bit, I tossed that fact aside almost immediately and continued to chase after “better”, which was a better essay with more analysis and more descriptions. Perhaps I had became distracted on my journey to improve my writing that I failed to even notice how far I had come. I believe that, with time, I can continue to improve my writing skills and anything I want, there is no rush. It is crucial to recognize that you can thrive and achieve anything as long as you permit yourself time and allow yourself to work towards your goal as diligently as you

This semester in Mrs. Nelson’s class was a very interesting one filled with many interesting and unique assignments. One major assignment for this semester is this Writer’s Portfolio. When I was first told about this “Portfolio” I shrugged it off as it nothing, but I quickly had to come back to reality and get my work done. Creating this portfolio throughout this semester has proved to be a challenge. However, this portfolio has helped me to become a better writer by gaining a few skills along the way.