...died way before the day I was born. This man is Mahatma Gandhi. I remember it vividly. I was surfing the internet for profound and motivational quotes worthy enough to be posted on my sacred Facebook wall. While I searched, I could hear my mom vacuuming downstairs while my sister blasted her Finnish, heavy metal music as if she was challenging my mom in a battle over who could make the most noise. As this battle raged on my last nerve, I came across a website with nothing but quotes from a man named Mahatma Gandhi. I was somewhat familiar with Gandhi at the time; it was only a few weeks prior that my social studies class learned about his non-violent protests. He seemed like a pretty chill dude. I reached the end of the page. There it was, a simple sentence of eleven words: “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” All of sudden everything went quiet. It was like in the movies when a guy sees a beautiful girl and nothing else in the world matters except for that girl. I shook myself out of this trance, and went about my day but in the back of my mind those words lingered, pervading my thoughts often. I could not fully grasp the sheer significance of those eleven words until I was trying to sleep one night; the day’s event were whizzing through my head preventing my slumber. As usual, my thoughts turned towards those eleven words. I had an epiphany. You see, a common thing for teenagers to do on Facebook is to complain about how nothing ever goes their way. I admit...
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...whipping at my face as my fingers feverishly click out the final text message I need to send before class starts. I walk into the warm, musty computer lab and sit at my usual spot with the view of the library through the tree limbs. I am always sure to come to English class because I know of my terrible history in this subject area. I have always struggled with English and before this semester had assumed that the college level class would be the death of me. As I read over the syllabus for this class it states that we will learn to understand writing assignments as a series of tasks and develop flexible strategies for generating, revising, editing, and proof-reading the assigned papers. I shuddered at the sheer thought of having to write five papers. Narrative, Evaluation, Profile, Position. These words might as well have been written in another language because I had no idea how to differentiate between them. Despite my fears, I believe this semester’s English 101 course has truly helped me develop my writing skills and advance to a more capable writer. Throughout my life English has always been my most difficult subject. Even back in elementary school I would have 100 percent averages in all of my other classes except English. I do not know what it was that challenged me so much but I had a terrible time. With the start of my high school career coincided the beginning of my paper writing experiences. I would work for hours each day trying my best to write a paper that made...
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...English 1010 has been a very interesting journey for me. Throughout my journey, I experienced frustration, stress, and long nights in the computer lab. English 1010 have not only made me a better writer, but it has also improved my creativity in my writing. My writing has improved tremendously since the first day of class. I am satisfied with the grade I earned although; I feel I could have done a lot better on to receive a higher grade. I believe my grade should be a B. According to the English 1010 syllabus I feel that my grade should be a B because I improved since my first paper, I participate in class conversations, and I have decent attendance. At the very beginning of the English 1010 Course, my writing style wasn’t too good. I noticed...
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...Enrollment English 112 is a pre-college composition course provided to the students at Brooke Point High School. Students must have completed Dual Enrollment English 111 to move on to this course. Similar to English 111, English 112 continues to develop college writing while putting emphasis on critical essays, argumentive styles, and research. The second semester of Dual Enrollment will have taught me how to accurately embed research into my papers by locating, evaluating, and documenting APA format, while effectively editing for style and usage. In this last semester of English 112, our class has written four different types of papers to improve our writing skills and show the importance of research. The first paper written in Dual Enrollment...
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...Cahnmann, M., & Varghese, M. M. (2005). Critical advocacy and bilingual education in the United States. Linguistics and Education, 16(1), 59-73. doi:10.1016/j.linged.2005.10.002 This research paper presents the benefits of bilingual education from the socioeconomic perspective based on collecting data from two ethnographic studies of bilingual teachers and their students in the United States. The researchers present that bilingual schooling in which English language teaching is applied prepares learners to be able to keep abreast of economic globalization and international job markets in a global society. Furthermore, they present that bilingual learners are assumed as having a deep understanding of different cultural...
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...speaking English, I always thought I spoke and understood English just fine. Who would of thought that it was such a complex subject. From my last English class, passing without any issues, to this English class, which has been a huge struggle. I have found that I have been challenged during this semester, its been a love/hate relationship between me and English 120. This class has given me greater knowledge when it comes to understanding "why" the author is writing their article, its not just about summarizing what you read, its about fully grasping the complexity of the article. I know that because I have been challenged, and learned to overcome the challenge of writing rhetorical strategies, it is safe to say, that I am read to enter English 124. This paper will illustrate my understanding of English 120 and why I, Michelle Page, feel I am ready to move on to English 124. Let me start with the first paper we wrote in this class, it was an Argument Analysis Essay and I chose to write it on Carol...
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...meeting was held in regards to Dual Credit English. Each student who considered taking the course attended the meeting. Teachers and previous students made the upcoming students aware of the requirements while taking Dual Credit English before anyone signed up for the course. Listening to them speak, I did not see those requirements to be a problem that I could not handle. However, I did see myself as an amateur writer that needed major improvement. I feel as if I have progressively advanced in my writing. Although, I have not perfected any of the different writing aspects; I have learned from Mrs. Menetre’s corrections especially on my use of second person. Over my English...
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...English class is important because it gives me an opportunity to look into the language that I speak everyday. Understanding reasons or explanations for things I never noticed in my language makes me feel more intelligent. Dissecting the words I speak and connecting with what I am actually saying is a powerful feeling. Being able to properly utilize English helps me grow as a student in the English language. My first role is that of an English student. Growing up, I always had English teachers that were phenomenal at explaining this complicated language. I always appreciated writing and at one point I really wanted to be an author. Unfortunately, my passion for writing has died down since then but every once in awhile, when I write a good paper, that feeling comes back. Having a colorful imagination has helped me express my ideas through writing. Punctuation has always been the one thing that I hated because I always felt like it got in...
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...My Writing Knowledge While looking over the material for this paper my first thought was I’m hungry. This is probably not a typical thought when trying to prepare an English paper. However, it gave me an interesting thought. Writing a paper is like making a cheeseburger. Aside from my cheeseburger idea I also attended a college preparatory high school and have also taken other English courses while in the Marine Corps. To make a cheeseburger you start off with the bottom bun. This is the introductory paragraph of your paper. The outside bottom of the bun is plain bread which is general, and this is the first sentence of your introductory paragraph. Moving up the bun it becomes more specific by either frying it, adding butter or mayonnaise. You make the rest of the paragraph more specific to lead into the following paragraph. The next paragraph is the first piece of meat. In relation to writing a paper this is your first main topic, a bold statement that the writer is trying to get across to the reader. This paragraph must contain the information gathered from research. Paraphrasing is a good way to incorporate your knowledge and understanding of the research and in doing this it explains the topic to the reader. The third paragraph is the cheese of the cheeseburger. This is a good place to add the details and quotes of the research to the paper. When using quotes you must cite them correctly to give credit to the author. By using facts and statistics it supports the...
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...Cheng Cai Sheila Knight EH100 04/04/12 My English learning experience I was born in a non-English family. I started to learn English when I was in primary school in China. After that, I became gradually interested in this new language and, nowadays, my English level is continuing to improve. From my English learning experience, I have really learned many valuable things. First, it helps me realize not to give up halfway when facing difficulties. Also, it helps me know that I must take everything seriously. Thus, English actually has a significant effect on my life. Studying in the primary school was happy and easy for most of the pupils. For me, it was different. When I heard that I had to learn English in primary school, I was surprised and a little frightened. I was just a Chinese boy and I did not know the knowledge of reading and writing in Chinese very well. How could I learn a new foreign language? I still remember my first English class, and it was really a great challenge for me. In the class, the teacher taught us to say "Good morning" and "Good afternoon." At first, the teacher read the words slowly, and I knew how to pronounce them. Then the teacher asked us to read the sentences one by one, but I suddenly felt nervous and forgot how to read them. When it was my turn, I just read them ambiguously. After class, I felt ashamed, and I did not have confidence to learn English anymore. When I came home and told my mother what had happened,she encouraged me and...
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...looking at DegreeWorks for classes and seeing English 101 and 102, I was puzzled with the reason behind the courses; however, as the course is coming to a close, I realize the reason behind the courses- to broaden my thoughts on how to elevate my writing to a new standard. When thinking about how good of a writer I am, I have never thought of myself as a good writer, since there is always some improvement that can be made, though I think my greatest strength as a writer is my willingness to accept criticism to improve my writing and become a better writer. My greatest weakness in writing papers in my thesis, where it is difficult for me to relate my information back to my thesis and change my traditional way to create theses that would better fit with the academic lifestyle. Throughout this course, I believe I have developed as a writer, learning that there is no set way to write a...
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...Kali Mitchell English 1101 Professor Elliott 7 December 2012 Reflective Final Essay This first semester of my freshman has been a very interesting trip. I have learned so much in the short amount of time that I have spent here at Kennesaw State University. I feel as if I have grown, not only as a student, but as a person as well. I have met many new people, made many new friends, and learned many new things especially in my English 1101 class. I thought I knew everything there was to know about writing when I came in on my first day, but I was very wrong. My professor assured me that there is much more to writing than just putting words down on paper. Knowing all of this, I have now learned how to improve on my writing skills, how to write better grammatically correct sentences, incorporate quotes and research and give as well as get criticism. When I came into this semester as a freshman I was very confident in the quality of my writing. However, my self-esteem was soon crushed shortly thereafter. Even though my writing skills had been very good compared to my classmates in high school, at the university level they were just average. After hearing about the on average grades students get in professor Elliott’s class, I knew I had a lot of work to do to receive an A on a paper. I had to do something quick to learn how improve on my writing skills. With the help of my teacher, she made us a read a variety of articles that were very interesting, yet also very insightful...
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...Professor Czaja English 101 September 9 2015 If there was one thing I learned freshman year, it was to not believe what everyone has to say. Everyone told me that freshman year classes were the easiest, and they were completely wrong. Sadly it was back to reality, no more staying up late and sleeping in with not a worry about what I was going to do that day. Now I had a schedule to follow Monday through Friday that involved homework, studying, writing essays, and soccer practice. It was seven thirty in the morning on the first day of school, which was the earliest I had been up in 3 months and I was already working on an assignment. I never would have guessed my first day of classes would involve graded assignments and homework. I assumed it would be full of listening to the teacher explain the ten page long syllabus that only comes in use during the first week of school, while I daydream about my summer, trying to fight my eyelids from closing. But the assumption I made about the typical first day of high school was completely wrong and it changed my outlook on high school for the rest of the year. It’s seven thirty in the morning, the sun is barely out and I’m already sweating through my t-shirt. Luckily I am not the only one, as I look around the classroom everyone looks miserable and fatigued. You could tell everyone wanted to be anywhere but at Anderson High School. The bell had just rung and our English teacher introduced himself and it seemed like it was going...
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...Not too long ago, I was asked to submit a personal writing assessment for an English class. That was my first time to really look back and think of how I feel about writing. Now, as I reflect once again on my writing history and experience, it made me realize just how I used to love writing creatively during my younger days. I was born and raised in the Philippines. I started school at the age of four so I guess I started scribbling the letters of the alphabet by that time. But officially, I was able to compose paragraphs by second or third grade. We were constantly asked to submit book reports and all sorts of paper—experiment papers, assignments, and compositions—in English (except for Filipino and Social Studies subjects), but...
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...I have been a student at California State University Channel Islands (CI) for 5 semesters, and over the course of my stay I have grown and learned more that I thought possible. I came to this school from Moorpark Community College already knowing that I wanted to be an English teacher; I had taken numerous English courses and though I knew exactly what I was headed for-was I ever wrong. Going through the English program has taught me so much more than stuff about literature and language, it has taught me how to be me. I have learned here how to write and express myself, how to think for myself, and how to find the answers to the things that I don't know. Most importantly I have learned how important literature and language are. When I started at CI, I thought I was going to spend the next 3 years reading classics, discussing them and then writing about them. That was what I did in community college English courses, so I didn't think it would be much different here. On the surface, to an outsider, I am sure that this is what it appears that C.I. English majors do. In most all my classes I did read, discuss, and write papers; however, I quickly found out that that there was so much more to it. One specific experience I had while at C.I. really shows how integrated this learning is. Instead of writing a paper for my final project in Perspectives of Multicultural Literature (ENGL 449), I decided with a friend to venture to an Indian reservation and compare it to a book we read...
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