In the first few weeks of school and taking this online English 1121 course we’ve had to read a story, each on different topics and with each story came new challenges to writing which I never knew about. This course really helped me reach this goal and to make sure I always think about the audiences for each topic that I write. Looking back on this class, I have realized just how much my writing has improved since the beginning of the semester and that first assignment. Our  second assignment unit-2 in Annotated Bibliography  I had quite a struggle. Firstly I didn’t really understand fully the concept of an Annotated Bibliography because the idea I had in my head from reading the reference material was different from the assignment. I also struggled because I was intimidated by the essay writing process due to a previous professor being pretty strict. Luckily, I overcame my issues with writing over time. I went from being a writer that was not confident in his work and overthought everything into someone who found his own writing style, and can quickly and effectively write an essay. The work that I selected shows that I have made incredible progress this term. In the beginning of the portfolio, there were many things that I had to revise in my essays, and they took me twice as long to write as well. However, by the end of the portfolio writing has become much simpler and my writing in general has become much stronger as well. This portfolio not only shows everyone how I have progressed as a writer, but it also shows what I have learned about myself as a writer. It contains not only my best works, but also my mistakes, and through the work here I am able to see the mistakes that I commonly make while writing such as over-generalizing things and writing about something before I completely understand it myself. However there are also things that I realized works well for me in my writing. Unlike what I thought in the beginning of the semester, I write much better when I make a general outline and write out the paper without correcting myself as I go. This semester my writing has changed, but still has my style. In the past I often had trouble finding balance in keeping a paper formal, but also entertaining. I think I have improved in finding an appropriate tone for my writing, which I hope is evident to the reader.  

One piece of work I will choose  “Micro-Activity #12:  Researching” I chose this work because this work helps me to think about what topic I am going to choose and write about. I did struggle to complete the assignment and I had to study about this more. There were various articles to pick from and it had a good amount of information to write about. My  Annotated Bibliography was about homelessness and why homelessness increasing in New York City.  Since I live in New York City every day we are faced with the problem of homeless people. I can see homeless people on the subway, street, at school. I have seen this homelessness crisis since I started to live in this city. I was always curious to research  the problem of homelessness in New York City. I never had a chance to research and study this situation while I was in high school. I had the desire to find out why there were so many homeless people in New York City. This curiosity led me to write  ‘Annotated Bibliography’ about homelessness in New York City.