As I was introduced to my first English class for my first year of college, I had no idea what to expect. I thought I was a decent writer who could, for the most part, get my points across in a clear, concise manner. And largely, I was a decent writer; I just lacked small tidbits of writing skill that seemed not to really matter too much, but in retrospect, they make all of the difference. These tiny details, that aren’t noticeable by a novice writer, makes the direct distinction between an average writer and a great writer. Since attending English 101, I feel that I have become a better writer. Some things I will talk about will be how my high school did not prepare me for college level writing, the contrast between my first and last essay of the semester, and the revision of my first essay.
I come from a very, small, rural area in Eastern Kentucky, Jackson County. Unfortunately, Jackson County is a very poor place and does not have a lot of funding for education. Since this an issue, I feel that I and the students of my high school did not receive the best education we could get. I feel that compared to some other students in class, that lived in richer areas, had a better opportunity at education than myself. Those students that are from those richer areas seemed to have a better grasp of writing and English skills that I did not have. Although high school writing isn’t supposed to be as intensive as college level writing, they failed to teach me some things that I was supposed to know, like passive sentence structure and how to use things like colons and semicolons.
In contrast, between my first essay and last essay of the semester, there is a lot of improvement. Some of the many things that plagued my first essay, compared to my last essay, was wrong verb tenses, passive sentence structure, poor word choice, grammar mistakes, and many more things. Another difference between those essays are the way I used and incorporated sources into my essay. Initially, I did not even think to include sources, which unfortunately, made my claims invalid and plagiarised. In my last essay, although I did not initially set my sources up correctly, I fixed the issue and ultimately contributed my sources.
During the revision of my first essay, there were changes, both big and small, made. One big change I made to the first essay is in the conclusion. I felt that the conclusion lacked a bit of substance and did not seem to flow very well. I added more to it and changed around the wording to make it flow better. Another big change of my last essay is the introduction of sources. When I initially finished my first essay, I did not have sources; in the revision, I introduced sources to backup my claims, i.e. citing an article that proves that Super Smash Bros. Melee was made in 2001. Some of the smaller changes include correcting grammar mistakes, correcting verb tenses, correcting word and paragraph spacing, and fixing passive sentence structure.
In conclusion, I have learned many things in English 101 and have been able to apply it to my own writing; and in this essay I have discussed how my high school English classes did not prepare me for college level English, the differences between my first and last essay of the semester, and the revision of my first essay. Overall, I feel that my grasp of the English language, as in being able to both comprehend it and use it, has exponentially increased. Professor stated that if we, her students, are able to successfully complete her class, then we should have no problem with the rest of the required college level English classes; and for this, I feel very relieved. To be honest, I have never analyzed my own writing style and ways to improve it more than in this class. And for my professor, thank you so much for helping me improve in writing.
