English has always been my favorite and strongest subject. In the past few months of college, I realized the huge difference in High School English and college English.  What I had vastly improved in my writing is the use of “transition”. In High School, I struggled with starting a new sentence without being repetitive. But now it is much easier to use transition words when I am quoting someone from an article. For example “However, John Doe suggested…” or “As a matter of fact, John Doe had.…”. With a strong transition to start a sentence makes the essay overall sound sharp. On the other hand, ending an essay is still a struggle for me.  In college the conclusion should be a strong statement and then a supporting sentence.  I still struggle with a strong conclusion.  It is easy to start the conclusion, but ending it without making the conclusion longer than it should be is difficult. I am going to work on it and by the end of this semester, I’ll be able to end my conclusion very well. Furthermore, I love english. One thing out of hundreds that I adore the most, are writing book reports and research papers. Essays in general are very favored to me, I get to write as much as I want with my opinions.  Book reports are very fun in my eyes, because I love reading, and then I get to share my thoughts about it. Also, research papers is when I learn many new information and I get to share it with everyone else around me.  Overall I have learned many new things of writing techniques, and how to make a essay sound very intellectual. I am looking forward to seeing what else I will learn.

My writing has changed a lot since high school everything is different, and there are different rules. The guide lines in a way or the same, only we have to talk more in depth  about any topic now and give details to back it up. I think I have improved in giving more details to support my essays. I used resources to help support me statement and get more into depth about what my thesis statement is about. The more details I give the more I can support my thesis and give a stronger argument about my topic will be. The more support my essay has for my thesis will help my argument proving the points that I have stated. Supporting my thesis has been helpful, it help me to write more formal vocabulary. I had struggles at first in developing my thesis, I had quotes but I needed to develop and give more details about what the quote meant to me and how I supported my thesis. I enjoy editing my work because I get to see what I can do better in my essays and I learn from it to do better in my future essays.

An aspect of academic writing that I believe that I’m improving on is going in depth when writing my analysis. When I wrote my first essay, I just wrote what I understood from the text and never built on it, leaving it to be somewhat vague. I took the constructive criticism and applied it to my essay, which I got a higher grade and less comments on. However, I do find my grammar to be the only aspect of academic writing that I still struggle on. I usually write how I speak, and I don’t proofread as much as I should. I should work on that with the research essay before it affects my grade significantly. Despite this, I do enjoy writing thesis sentences and integrating quotes into my essays. These two can be challenging, which is what makes it enjoyable. Once you find the perfect quote for each body paragraph and write a clear, concise thesis, the essay becomes so much stronger. It makes writing it a bit more easier and the topic that you are presenting clearer to the audience.

Since the beginning of the semester I feel like I’ve improved on learning how to start my introduction. I also feel like when I don’t procrastinate my body paragraphs can be really good. One aspect of academic writing that is still challenging for me is writing the topic sentences without sounding repetitive.  Another aspect of college writing that I still feel that is challenging is my conclusion because I don’t know what to put besides my thesis and briefly mentioning the main source I use. One aspect that I actually enjoy doing is the introduction because I remember when I first started college I  used to not do well in the introduction or i would take a while to write it and now Its the easiest thing for me to do.

Extra Credit OpenLab Assignment (FYLC Site)

(NOT REQUIRED)

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/fylc/writing-as-reflection/

The following prompt is not required for our course. If you do choose to take this opportunity, your grade will replace one of our two in-class Reading Quizzes. To get credit, you must post on this FYLC site and comment on two other students’ posts.

It’s mid-semester! We invite you to continue telling your story about becoming a college student at City Tech. Research has shown that first-semester students often worry about their transition in to college and how, eventually, students become comfortable and find a community of people with whom they are close and feel they belong.

Please describe how you have experienced your first months at City Tech. Aim to write 300-500 words and be sure to illustrate your post with examples from your own experiences in classes, seminars, lectures, study groups, and labs. What happened? How did you and others involved think and feel? How did it turn out?

We hope this process will help you think about your transition experience. Once you have posted your own story, please take time to read and comment on at least two of your peer’s stories.

DIRECTIONS:

• To create your post please click the plus (+) sign at the top of the FYLC page!  (or on the banner at the very top of the page click First Year Learning Communities , then select “add new” post from the dashboard) https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/fylc/writing-as-reflection/

• Once you have finished writing your post, select your FYLC faculty member as a category. Note: You are Sears & Chutroo.
• Read and comment on your peers’ writing. You can post on writing from courses other than ours!
• If you are looking to read stories from one specific FYLC, select a faculty “category” at the bottom of the page.

ENG 1101 OpenLab Assignment 2

(REQUIRED)

On this class OpenLab site, reflect on your experience in this class; specifically reflect on what you have learned about writing. Your post should address all of the questions below and should be at least one paragraph long.

• Identify one aspect of your writing that has improved since the beginning of the semester.
• Identify one aspect of academic writing (college writing) that is still challenging you on assignments.
• Identify one aspect of academic writing that you enjoy.

DIRECTIONS:
To create your second post, click the plus (+) sign at the top of the course page  and select “add new” post from the dashboard. Write and then hit “Publish.”