Garcia 1

Brenda Garcia
English 400 #8010
Prof. Adler
May 5, 2014

Throughout my English Semester In college
This semester of English 400 has been a challenge and memorable time improving my English
skills. I had learned a lot this semester about writing essays and improving my English grammar.
Throughout the beginning of my semester I had changed my thoughts towards reading and
writing by trying to improve my essay. I have chosen two pieces of work that I put effort
throughout the semester Educational Autobiography and How Technology Evolves both of
these essays I wrote in and out of class proves the ability of my strengths and weakness as a
writer.
In the beginning of the spring semester I had felt that I had a fixed mind-set I always
struggled in English because its my second language. I had to challenge myself on having to
write formal essays and improve my grammar skills. When I would take my practice tests I
would have practice on the Least you should know English workbook and studied of it. Last year
when I was in high school my English teacher only made me write one essay out of the whole
four years of high school. When it came to reading or writing I wouldnt try my best on
improving I thought that I had the ability ok knowing what a formal essay was about. When it
was time of writing in class essays in college I had to put my mind and challenge myself I had to
Garcia 2

think how I was going to structure my essay and what I needed to add like the Intro, strong
thesis, body paragraphs and conclusion. While taking English 400 and knowing that I would be
writing essays through the semester, I believed that I would never become better at writing.
Practice takes time in order to have a formal and strong essay. Carol S. Dweck, a theorist who
understands the mind of young people. Dweck wrote an article about the way students think,
Brainology Transforming Student Motivation to Learn she states Many students believe that
intelligence is fixed, that each person has a certain amount and thats that. Back when I was in
high school I had always thought that I was going to have a fixed mindset throughout my
education. I would refuse to read and freewrite in my journal after I had finish reading in order to
understand the story. Towards the end of my senior year I had found out I was going to be taking
a placement test for college and since I had refused to not read, write and do most of the
assignments in class I was placed in low English. I got motivated to keep on task and do my best
on my English grammar and try my best on writing essays.
As the semester went on, I developed and improved towards the class went on,
freewriting before starting an essay was very helpful for me. While I sat down and started to free
write I had some ideas on what I was going to add onto my essay. Dwecks also mentions In
short, students with this growth mindset believes that intelligence is a potential that can be
realized through learning In order for me to pass the class was to improve and do well on my
essays and pass the class with a C or better was to show my classmates my drafts I have done in
order to improve on my writing, even though I already knew my paper was going to be filled
with full of errors. That was the good thing because it showed me I can make a better essay with
all the correction I was going to make. As I started to develop more of my Growth mindset I felt
that I understood more about the class with all review I had learned. I gave myself space to
Garcia 3

improve on my English skills by working on the exercises on my Least You should Know
workbook. I learned how to make my essay well written by making them structured and practice
grammar to make my essays formal.
As I continued to write and worked on my grammar skills, freewriting influenced me to
become a stronger writer. It made me think more and gave me ideas on how my essay was going
to be well structured. The essay I am most proud of was the Autobiography on my education I
wrote in-class. The essay talked about my experience in my education I felt that it was well
structured and the ideas I generated while I was writing. Before I got to class and started to write
my in class essay I had drafted a paper at home to know how my sentences were going to be
organized. The essay I felt I struggled on the most was analyzing two articles. I got to choose any
articles off of America Now and write an introduction to make a strong thesis. I had to keep
revising over to make my essay understanding on what I was going to explain, so the readers can
understand how my main points go with my paragraphs. What I think I needed to work on was
being more detailed and proving points about my thesis .Its always a good idea to freewrite
before beginning an essay.
The last in class essay I wrote How Technology Evolves was difficult for me to write because
I had to make a strong thesis in order to add my main points felt that I didnt add enough
thoughts in to my essay. The essay was challenging when I tried summarizing and analyzing two
articles in what they were about. I tried my best on trying to analyze the articles got enough help
and information from peer reviewing with my fellow classmates. Also going to the Writing
center lab, the mentors helped me on making my essay stronger. My mentor gave me
information that I never added onto my paper. Towards the end when I re-wrote my essay I made
lots of changes and revised and added some more sentences I had felt that I got enough help from
Garcia 4

my classmates and mentor while they edited my paper. Going over grammar helped me motivate
to make my essay much stronger. When I was done writing my essay I felt that my essay was
organized and structured from the help from my mentor and classmates.
I can say that I enjoyed taking English 400 this semester I learned a lot from what I
needed to know about writing formal essays, and improving on my grammar skills. Throughout
the semester I can say I accomplished a lot of my work that I did in class. Working on my
grammar skills to writing essays had made me feel like I improved a lot. Analyzing my essay
was pretty tough for me but I felt like I understood the concept on how it was supposed to be
formed. I am satisfied to say that by taking English 400 has made my English grammar and
writing much improved.