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Karina Santiago
Professor H Batty
English 101
28 May 2019
Over the course of this semester I have learned a number of valuable tools, concepts, and
strategies to help me be a more competent writer in the world of college. A prominent concept I
have learned is to be more aware of the audience when writing. Before this class, I never really
considered the audience of which I was writing for, nor did I think to change my style of writing
to speak to that audience specifically. I feel as though I have been able to accomplish this task in
I have grown as a writer throughout the course of this semester. Before this class, I have
learned the writing process is more in depth than I previously thought. Brainstorming is not simply
the act of writing down ideas for a paper; it is the task to write down these ideas, develop
connections between them, evaluate whether or not there is enough research for the topic, and
organize the ideas in a way that will make sense to the audience. Drafting is more than just writing
all of the ideas in paragraph from; it is the task of developing a mostly complete paper in order to
have a solid basis of which to improve your paper from. Revising a paper consists of taking the
ideas I have come up with for the paper, since the first draft has been completed, and altering the
paper to reflect those new ideas and strengthen the paper as much as possible. The editing step of
the process involves polishing the grammar and format of the paper to make it as professional as
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possible. The final draft consists of completing all of the aforementioned steps to produce the
finished copy.
Additionally, I have learned how to write in a new style. Prior to taking English 101, I was
in a habit of writing five paragraph theme papers. Although this still tends to be the way I start
papers, I have learned to change those papers into a paper worthy of publication. For example, in
my first essay, my first draft was a five-paragraph theme paper, only because that was out of habit.
Just after I received the feedback from the Professor, I realized my mistake and began to fix it. It
was not a good experience for me but, for sure, it was a learning process.
I have also grown as a writer in the sense of speaking to my audience and maintaining
focus throughout my papers. I learned how to speak to my audience and maintain focus. An area
of which I still need to improve as a writer is learning how to go outside the box and be creative
while staying within the means of the prompt. I want my papers to stand out above the rest.
My first essay is the work I revised most before including it in my portfolio. I wanted to
really speak to my audience throughout my paper. I made many changes in my first essay and I
think I made great improvements between my last draft and the essay included in this portfolio.
I learned how extensive the revision step can be through the revisions of my first essay,
which was my most revised work while doing revisions and re-writing. Not only I had to revise
the content of my essay, I also had to revise the format in which I wrote the paper. From the
comments on my first draft, I realized that I had not focused on elements of the professor prompt.
By redirecting my focus to the elements of what I should do in the first time made my essay fill
the requirements of the prompt more fully. Furthermore, I needed to change slightly the population
of students I was writing about. This proved to require reorganizing my paragraphs and
Throughout the course of the semester I have also learned how to put my own information
together in a way that conformed to the conventions of a paper. With this new skill, I now have
the ability to write any paper I wish as long as I am able to find examples of that. In my opinion,
my second essay was my strongest work this semester. I was able to write an essay with more
confidence. I think the key to my success with my second essay was picking the right topic and
English 101 has also increased my confidence as a writer. Often times, I would be
intimidated by the academic essays I read as research for an assignment. I felt, as though, my
writing would never get to the level of academic. Now, between growing as a writer and the
publication of my work through the portfolio, I feel as nevertheless my writing is more on the level
My communication skills have also strengthened orally during this course. I decided this
semester I would expose myself when it is time to contribute to the class orally. It was not an easy
move but I decided to put myself in that position as I believe it is the only way to get comfortable
when talking.
English 101 has been essential to my writing development. I was able to progress from the
five paragraph theme essays and I will continue to use the new skills I have learned, throughout
the rest of my college career, to perform well and succeed. I am thankful this course is a
requirement because I would not be the writer and communicator I am today without completing
this course.