Fernando Bermudez ENGL-1101-01 Professor Ingram 4 October 2013 Mid-Term It is an incredible feeling to be back in school and get away

from home and major responsibilities. I reflect back on my first Blog post, based on my first weeks of class. On my first blog post, I asked several questions to my Professor, Dr. Ingram about how applicable could the experience here in college can improve my writing technique. A statement that concerned me was through improvement could it also better my speech, because one of my issues between writing and speech is grammar. Although, my professor along with a classmate has commented on my post, saying, I will be able to answer my own questions, and to build a writing foundation is to look at your previous writings. Both of these comments proved to be useful advice to identify my technique level. Thus far in the past month, we have been reading narratives and articles, which spoke of a variety of writing techniques from genre, to crappy first draft. Which both contributes to awareness that genre is everywhere and how we participate in genre without realizing it; especially a crappy first draft, which promotes to put every idea and thought on paper though may be childish, but it helps as a foundation to mature the paper into a piece of work. Comparing high school writing to college, a five-paragraph model is worthless in college writing. From this class I believe to learn and answer all of my concerning questions. Reading from these narratives and articles really open my eyes to different ways to add on paper to give it more interest.

This is my second year here in college, and I can say there are many differences, between college and high school writing. Beside the dorm living style and better cafeteria, there is more to say on writing between two educational institutes. When we, as students were in high school, the form of writing was plain and just another assignment, especially using a fiveparagraph model for every assignment and/or topic. In college it is more challenging; however, it all depends on the topic, for example we have just written a narrative about a literacy experience in our high school career. On a side note, unlike in high school we have to write a bit more than two pages, especially with five paragraphs. Unless you stretch out each paragraph to reach the required pages needed for the assignment. I wasnt completely prepared before coming to college, I didnt it was going to be tireless night every night to work on several assignments from every different class. The best I can advise future students before leaving to college are to have good time management and decision making skills. Every day it may seem you dont have time for anything, whether its going to the gym, spending time with your buddies, or going to a performance/event that goes on around campus. Before college I was a mess, I did not have a grasp in managing my time; however in my first semester I managed to turn things around to end a good grade in each class. But today I have changed majority of my habit to work more and spend less time on leisure. Another advice is to be social as possible and make friends among your classes to form study groups and get help when needed. . In every class us students will sometimes hit an obstacle that we cant seem understand completely. For example, I took my first quiz and exam in Chemistry 1251. I done a bit terrible, so I asked my roommate, who is also in my Chemistry class if we would like to study together? We both have taken our latest quiz and later met each other to share our struggle on the quiz. Between the two of us, we conversed and told each other,

there was a twist, but majority of it was easy. Lastly, from my first blog post I mentioned to not just have fun, because there are plenty of events to join; however the truth is to absorb as much as you can from the experience of your education. From my first year, I saw that they were events booming around campus. Making friends and taking the time easy to enjoy both sides of college, to make your stay and transition smoother. How can I morph this piece into a master piece, whats missing or what happened? This question is always revolving around like a planet to the sun, the best thing about writing is the writing process and revision. When I have time before a deadline given feedback from my peers and instructor I can recreate my work to be better. It worked for me in the past, especially now when we turned our literacy narrative to our professor and received feedback. After the last peer review and getting our papers, I saw the changes made a huge impact. Sadly, alone I cant find a problem even if the problem sitting in my face. Im glad to have an awesome group to work with because after getting the feedback I got to work and now the paper is better. In my second previous paragraph I mentioned, We would hit an obstacle that we cant seem to understand. An example is I dont understand the real meaning of taking a risk in writing. As students we would take risks in school work, I cant connect risk taking in writing or where it can take place on paper. Could it be connecting unrelated topics to make a piece of work? Writing has a lot of parts, like a big machinery but I dont possess the skill to break it down. I do hope that some time before the school end will I manage to learn risk taking in writing. Between question three and four, it is good to be more social in college because of examples like peer reviewing. People like me prefer to work alone, I have a trust issue, but I am

social enough to others to make conversation. When in trouble a quiz or test, I looked to one of my classmate to meet up for a group study session, before a quiz we just took. Being social has proven ways to interact with one another to make good progress in education. In way I told to another is to fill in the gap, one person is proficient math and another history. The same applies to writing because some parties are proficient to write and/or read every day. They can surely spot an error or imbalance in a text. I can only spy the obvious like spelling and a bit of grammar. I believe in the English department, I have a lot of questions and how can I understand the story of a single, simple text. I understand the cover, or power, of writing is great because it has shown itself repeatedly in history, from the writing of the bible to the Constitution, lastly, to peace treaties between nations. But I cannot fathom the idea of how to construct or break down a single sentence into an essay. Or, how risk taking plays in the role of writing and relate to the primary topic of a paper. I can see the words, but I cant see beyond it to analyze its structure entirely to tell a person what main idea of a seemingly vague object. But I hope to grasp the idea of risk and apply to my paper, because I wouldnt want to walk out of the classroom and say I didnt learn anything.