Walking into my English Writing class, I thought I was going to earn an easy "A". At first, I assumed that this wasn't the appropriate class for my skill level; thinking I already wrote at at a college level. I was frustrated at the fact that I would have to go through a semester of nothing but a repetitious review of my basic writing skills. That was not the case. In fact, I struggled with my first writing assignment and received a non-passing grade. I was startled at my poor work and began to realize that I actually needed writing instruction. Fortunately, I had a considerate, accommodating professor who worked with me and helped me work on the clarity of my papers and more precision when creating an effective sentence. .
When I started English Writing, I was more conscious about the quantity of my paper than the quality. I was goal oriented, striving to reach the minimum amount of pages, filling my paper with a series of ideas that didn't truly connect. .
Reviewing my first paper, I noticed I didn't even have a clear thesis, which led to my writing different concepts that never gave the reader a clear message. I realized that once I came up with a direct idea, the quantity of paper came along itself while the quality of my paper improved. Throughout my next papers, I focused on writing thesis statements that effectively indicated my topic and position, while developing ideas in each paragraph with thorough explanations and specific examples.
From my very first paper to the second, I saw my work improve enormously. My assignment for this essay was to pick a chapter from one of the books we read, Blink, and strongly respond with our own observations. To give more clarity of what I was going to write, I gave a summary of the chapter. What my professor always stresses is the summary of our papers should only be no more of a quarter of the essay, followed by a majority of our response.
