assignment # 15

In comparison to the first essay I wrote at the beginning of the semester, I believe I’ve gotten to closer in achieving the goals I get for myself. Although I still might have the same struggles or weaknesses, I was able to learn different strategies to fix the mistakes I make when writing an essay. Although having to write rough drafts and revisions were a pain at times, it allowed us as readers to identify the mistakes we made and gave us a chance to fix them. Another thing that was very helpful was the peer revisions we had to do for every essay. It allowed us to get other peoples feedback on our writing and gave them a chance to express the different ideas they had about the topic. Along with peer review discussions, the packet we filled out was very helpful because of how specific the feedback had to be. One suggestion I would have for the class would be to be able to write essays on topics we were interested in. Also, maybe have an example essay for each of the different types of essay we are required to write throughout the semester.  Although, I feel like my writing has somewhat improves throughout this semester, I still have a lot to improve and to work on. Before this class all I knew was that I was a bad writer but never knew specifically why or how I could fix it. This class allowed me to recognize my mistakes and showed me different strategies on how to identify them.

assignment #14

For my portfolio I chose the revise my arguing a position essay. Two strengths I had in my essay were that I had a clear stated thesis and reason to back up my thesis. Weakness’s that were in my essay were my organization of my paragraphs as well evidence to support my reasoning’s.

In order to revise my essay, I am going to work on better phrasing my sentences and taking out other sentences and ideas that are irrelevant. I also have to reorganize the order in which my paragraphs are in.  A good strategy I can use would be writing a summary of each paragraph to make sure the point I am trying to make makes sense and is easy to follow.

assignment #13

I believe the essay I will most likely revise would be the fourth one. I will most likely choose that one because of the fact that this is one of our last papers and we are able to use what we’ve learned throughout this semester and apply it to the paper. It is also much easier to write about a topic of your choosing rather than something you are not really interested in. In this last essay we are able to see if we have all the quality an argument essay should have.

In the fourth essay, I believe I chose a topic that, I as a teenage girl could somewhat relate too which makes it easier to state my opinion. The topic I chose was about whether or not teens should be allowed access to birth control without parental consent. I chose this topic because I could write this essay without having to research anything and just use my own background knowledge.

assignment #11

For my third essay I chose to analyze the article, “get smart about college”.  The argument this essay made was that parents and students don’t think as thoroughly when it comes to the right college to choose, as they think they do. They tend rationalize the decision without even knowing. I believe this argument had a good trust worthy tone and had a lot of specific evidence. One thing I thought lacked was more specific details as to what students rather than just parents, can do about the situation. They should have put some tips as too how students can apply to scholarships to make the tuition more affordable, this taught me that I have to make sure to broaden the ideas I right about. Another thing the essay act was the type of audience it was portraying too. The essay consists of only referring to middle/high class people. It doesn’t talk about people who are lower class and how paying for school is a major struggle. They should talk about what lower class people can do to have better opportunities, this taught me that I have to make sure to portray to a wide variety of audience instead of one specific type of people.  I also thought that the flow of the essay could have been a little more organized. It seemed to occasionally go back into talking about an issue that was addressed at the beginning of the essay. This showed me that I have to make sure my essay is well organized and not complicated or all over the place.

assignment #10

I believe the peer review is effective because it gives you another opinion to help you revise your paper. Your peer reviewer might catch certain mistakes that you might have not seen  or can give you insight on something you never thought of before. On the other hand it can be I proved by maybe have more than one person review your paper, or maybe have the other person can give you more critique. My weaknesses in peer review would be that I might not catch organization errors.  My strength could possibly just have an insightful comment on something. I think bigger groups help because you are able to have a broader conversation about your topic. They might be able to bring out certain points you missed.

assignment #9

In the first two essays we’ve written in this class I have similar mistakes in both. Three of the major problems that both essays have in common would be my abruptness, organization, and the awkward phrasing in some of my sentences. I think these three problems are a major factor in writing a decent essay. These errors might make it difficult for readers to follow my essays and be able to understand the point I am trying to make. In the future, I think I should keep going to someone to read my essay and make sure that it makes sense. By doing that, they are going to be able to notice the sentences that don’t really make sense and point them  out so that I could fix it.

assigment # 8

The article I chose to pick is the “get smart about college” article. This article mainly consists of what parents and students should consider when choosing what college to attend. They say that although people think they are thinking about all the aspects of choosing the right college, they might make the wrong decision without even realizing it. It goes in a lot of depth about debt and how people might be borrowing too little which limits the child’s options. It states that going to college and choosing which one is the best for you involves both the parents and student. The article emphasizes how crucial it is for a student to choose the right college with the right, as the article refers to it, “fit”. It also shows how college is a very big and important investment that will stay with you for many years. You have to be able to choose the best college for yourself and make the most out of it. The school has to be able to have the major you want, as well as motivation.  It makes a very valid point about choosing the college for the right reasons. Overall, this article makes some useful points about choosing what college to attend and ways to narrow your options.

In this article, I like that they talked about all the aspects of college instead of just thinking about the cost, which is what most people go based off. I think they made a very good point at pointing out, if the student doesn’t enjoy where they are studying they are less likely to graduate due to the lack of motivation they have in their environment. I believed this was a good choice because I myself struggle with choosing what school is really best for me.