Throughout this interesting class, I have managed to acquire many new skills that will definitely be useful in the future. I have learned how to incorporate the things we go through in class in my writing pieces. When I began this class, one of my biggest weaknesses was that my writing was not properly structured and did not flow smoothly. However, I have come to learn that using transition words properly helps with fluency in my essays. They should be placed correctly in the sentence and if not, they may confuse the reader. Furthermore, I have learned the basic structure of a good essay.
Another important skill that I have acquired that is going to help me in my schooling future is citing my work using the MLA format. It has come to my attention that students can plagiarize work in different ways without even being aware of it. Knowing how to cite properly has helped me avoid plagiarizing my work; something that I was not aware of before. In addition to this, I have also acquired the ability to find credible sources and evaluate them before use. I believe that these skills have helped my work to be more credible and better understandable. This fact makes me feel more confident and more satisfied with my writing.
Summarizing is another great technique that I learned in this English class. It is an important skill to have because it breaks down an argument in writing into the most basic information. This particular lesson taught me of how to get the key points and main idea of a reading, and make it shorter. Practicing this skill more often, will make it easier for me to understand another person’s writing by narrowing down their argument and critically analyzing their supporting evidence. This technique will also allow me to expand my mind to new facts and ideas, as well as view things from another person’s point of view.
Furthermore, thanks to this class, I am now able to compose an essay for a particular purpose or audience. This was achieved through the writing different essays through the lessons. I learned that before starting an essay I have to think of the audience and what will be relevant to them. Moreover, I believe that the peer reviews enabled me to look at different sides of opinions and arguments. This certainly helped to me to create and establish a stronger certainty or belief towards the knowledge that I possess. Apart from all these, I have just realized another way of learning; this is reflecting and self-analyzing. It has helped me see how far I have come and how much knowledge I have garnered. I did not realize how much I have gained from this class until this essay; it’s a true eye-opener.
All in all, I feel as though I have achieved a lot from this class, and I am truly grateful to the teacher. Before this class, I had difficulties in starting my essay. However, this class have definitely come through and helped me overcome this by forcing me to work at a faster and more efficient pace. Personally, the class has also helped to realize that one of my biggest vices was procrastination. It helped handle my procrastination habits by pressuring me to attend classes on time as well as hand in my assignments on time. I now feel like the schooling future is brighter for me because my writing skills have been enhanced and I can now communicate better. To sum up, I feel like this class has helped me improve in many ways, not only in my writing skills, but also in relating and interacting with other people.