Farelli 1 Zachary Farelli Mr.

Harrell English Composition 1 6 December 2013 My Reflection English Composition 1 has opened my eyes to what college level writing truly means. While I attended high school, English became one of my least favorite classes. It was not because I was bad at it. It was mainly because I just did not enjoy writing. My writing always just seemed dull and boring. English teachers constantly told us what to expect in a college English classroom. My classmates and I were told to be prepared for extremely long writing assignments, grammar Nazis, and unrelenting professors. However, now that I am here, I realize that my past English teachers were wrong. There were only three major essays that I composed this semester. I wrote a personal narrative that was titled A Fighting Chance, an analytical essay titled Liberal and Conservative Education, and a profile essay titled Andres Viduya. In each assignment, I discovered my own writing process, I learned to be aware of my audience, to incorporate outside sources, and to stay on topic. Ultimately, throughout this semester, my writing has improved greatly. I have lived in New Brighton, Pennsylvania all my life. I attended New Brighton Area High School all four years. Throughout those four years, I had three different English teachers. Each year my teachers always pushed the idea of a five paragraph essay. Every essay was constructed with an introduction paragraph, three body

Farelli 2 paragraphs, and one concluding paragraph. In fact, while writing A Fighting Chance, I had no clue what to do for my paragraphs. I never had the freedom to make as many paragraphs I wanted. I was not sure how to separate all of my paragraphs, however, I quickly picked up on it. Having control over my paragraphs helped my essay flow. Also, I was able to find a specific writing process that fits my style. We were not required to have draft due before the essays final due date. For me, this meant that I could push off the essay till the night before it was due. Therefore, there was no time to edit or proofread and the essay would be turned in with no proofreading at all. Surprisingly, my grades were not too bad. However, I knew that if I finished early I would be able to edit and proofread and my grade would greatly improve. Unfortunately, I never had the motivation to do this. Now that I am in college, a written draft is required for each essay. This is the motivation that I needed. I now have my own planned writing process. The required draft has very loose rules, so I can type my draft one day before it is required. Then, I have from then on to revise, edit, and proofread. I was also taught to always be aware of my audience. Connecting with your audience is extremely necessary. Writers must always keep the audience in mind. While reading Writing Without Formulas I learned just how important this is. Thelin writes, An audience judges writing on what writers compose. If the audience does not know the writer, either personally or through reputation, all judgments will come from the words the writer uses to establish his or her ethos on the subject (Thelin 54). Thelin explains that the audience is only able to judge or understand the material by the way it is represented by the author. One of the ways I learned how to connect with my audience was with description. In, A Fighting Chance I

Farelli 3 tried to describe the accident as best as I could. I wrote, The car pushes through the van and hits my uncle from behind. Broken glass and sheared metal pollutes the intersection as paramedics arrive at the scene. My goal here was to place the reader at the scene of the accident. I used the present tense so that my audience can visualize the accident. I also found that using outside sources can greatly improve my writing. During this semester I also learned how to effectively incorporate information from outside sources. Any time that I found a good source, I made sure that I found a way to insert the information in my essay. During my profile essay Andres Viduya, I interviewed one of my hall mates. Considering my audience and I did not have any prior knowledge of Andres, I had to use a lot of quotations throughout my essay to explain his story. I had to let Andres tell his story. For example, one of my quotes said, Dom explained, He was tough, I mean really tough. I felt like I was at a baseball boot camp. I just made myself know that this is gonna pay off, and it did. I used this quote to describe his experience in preseason; then I elaborated on it more. I found that quotations are great, but I also should not get off topic. Veering off topic can be very easy to do. Although it takes up space, it misleads readers as well. The thesis statement is supposed to state what your essay will be about. I found that it is very important that you maintain your thesis through the entire paper. In my analytical essay Liberal and Conservative Education, I constructed a strong thesis statement. My thesis statement said, Ultimately, while the liberal and conservative schools are different in their beliefs, restrictions, and punishments, both provide an experience that prepares the student for the world in their own specific way.

Farelli 4 I stuck to this statement throughout my essay, and I made it clear that this was what I was going to discuss throughout my essay. I was not too sure what to expect coming to college. I was extremely nervous and expecting the worse. My high school teachers always warned me of college English classes. However, throughout my first semester at the University of Akron I learned several new points for my writing. Personally, I believe that my writing has greatly improved. I have discovered my own writing process, I learned to always be aware of my audience, I can now incorporate outside sources effectively, and I can make a strong thesis and stick to it.

Farelli 5 Work Cited Thelin, H. William. Writing Without Formulas. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008. Print. Viduya, Andres. Personal Interview. 24 October 2013.