Trying, failing, and learning from mistakes is one of the best ways to get better at writing. Luckily though, I have not had the misfortune of failing yet. Few are natural born writers, and I happened to not be one of them. This writing class has helped me to develop my strengths and skills, while also lessening the amount of weaknesses I have. I have increased these strengths through writing multiple essay’s this quarter as well as blog entries. When compared to my writing in previous years, I feel that I have improved drastically.
The first essay I have chosen to use as a sample of my work was the essay I did for my mid-term. The only portion of it that I had trouble with was adding historical content relevant to the quote that we were to be writing on. In this essay, I was able to organize my information in an effective way as to get my thoughts across. Also, I was able to maintain good topic control. That was much better considering that I did very poorly on that aspect for my first essay. Since then, I have been able to maintain control over my topics better than ever. My biggest problem was addressing the reader directly during the early part of the essay. I am quite surprised that I was able to make so much progress so quickly.
Shortly after the mid-term, we were assigned our second essay that we completed in pairs. We were to argue why we were either patriots or loyalists during the revolutionary era. We decided for this essay that we were going be writing letters back and fourth to each other. For this essay, as opposed to essays before, I was able to write a very good thesis and I have been working to implement theses just as good into my other essays. I also felt that I made some good progress with topic control when I did my part of the essay. At this point, I was still having problems with using my sources but also with organization. Otherwise, I did very well on the essay overall.
Considering where I was when I started writing 101, I have made a lot more progress than I thought I would. I am still struggling a little with the theses, but I have made a lot of progress from where I started. I am also struggling with topic control a bit but I have gotten far better with it than I ever thought I could. Organizing my information is something that has become quite easy for me, as well as theses for certain assignments. Even after taking this class, I still believe that writing, most often, is merely a way to complete an assignment. There are of course, always exceptions to this. In short, I have gotten better by far with my writing, but my philosophy on it has not changed at all.
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5 comments:
Remember what Craig said, try not to use the word weaknesses, it'll speak that you don't feel confident about writing at all, that you have low self esteem and that your work will be weak itself. Try other words and phrases, such as certain shortcomings, or difficulties or needing improvement. Also, watch out for the dead words, "get" in the first paragraph. and "very" in the second and "good" in the third. Also, be careful of repetitive words in the same sentences and words that start the sentences in the same paragraph - each doesn't seem long enough to allow two of the same word to start a sentence ("the" in the second para, "We" in the third, and "I" in the final).
In the conclusion, it's always best to leave with a "dramatic ending" that will leave the reader thinking about your paper. Sort of like a hook for the end, so the letter doesn't just taper off, to bring the piece to a more fulfilling close.
Nice job, Paul :3
Dude! Overall, I'd say that you've got one heckofa killer letter for your portfolio. All you need at this point is a once-over to help weed out thos dead words and you're out of the red. Great job!
I really like the simplicity and organizational format that you have going on here...
But like what Shelby and Jordan said, I too would suggest that you look out for "dead words" in your letter. You might also want to think about how to end your letter in a way that leads the reader into your work, and gets them excited to read your papers.
Other than that... GREAT JOB!! ^^
Paul,
You have done a fantastic job with this. I wouldn;t change anything except to include specific quotes from your essays to emphasize your point...
Paul, the letter looks god as it is, all i would suggest is putting the names of the essays beside your writing. When you say about a certain essay that you did well on, put the name of the essay there.
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