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Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Confidence—due December 19
What level of confidence regarding composition have you developed? "Confidence comes from one source: demonstrated ability." —Coach Don Meyer Reply with 150+ words.
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"Confidence comes from one source: demonstrated ability." –Coach Don Meyer. I always thought I was good at composition but did not know what it all entailed. I would constantly write stories, essays, and blogs and did not think of all that came with it. I always thought I was phenomenal at writing, but I was wrong. You can always change things and write better. Through the semester of composition, I have not only gained more knowledge but bettered my writing. I feel as though writing comes easier to me, and that I can get more words typed in one sitting. I know more about sentence structures and other grammar things that will help with my writing. My confidence regarding composition has increased phenomenally and I feel great about my writing. I am excited for Literature next semester, but I will miss Composition and the writing that came with it a lot.
Composition has given me a stronger feeling of satisfaction when I write. I no longer feel that useless verbiage is falling out of my brain and onto the paper. The words and new writing tricks tend to plaster the page like a mural on a wall--the margins of the page acting as a frame to confine the work. Art has the power to move people in ways that are not as facile to understand as math or economics; on the page the mural of words is able to create an image that readers can see and comprehend. They also have a voice. Their once annoying ring of sentiment now reverbs with interesting vocabulary and sentences that interest even me. I am proud of my progress and very thankful for what I have learned. In a world of monotonous, insignificant, and quite frankly boring words, I am glad that there is a class that can make my, and others, words more interesting. In resolution, I’d say that I have gained a new level of confidence in composition. The road is still long, but the destination is closer in the distance than it seems.
Coming into English 101: Composition, I already felt like I had a fairly strong grip on composition. From writing lengthy essays in my past English classes to completing numerous application statements, I believed that there was not that much more I could learn about writing. However, this class completely changed the way that I view my papers. After entering the class, I was instantly introduced to nearly 100 important composition terms, filling me with the knowledge to effectively style sentences in a more complex manner, and the vocabulary taught in this class helped me become more articulate with my writing. Most importantly, the frequent essay assignments allowed me to constantly experiment with each lesson the class provided. As practicing is one of the best ways to learn, every essay drastically improved my abilities as a writer. In the end, this transformative class took me on a compositional journey, changing the way I approach writing a paper for the rest of my life.
Composition has provided me with the opportunity to enhance my writing to a more prestigious level. I have written numerous essays and presented speeches to the general public on quite a few occasions; however, to the standard level of a college course, I could say they lacked the vocabulary and complex sentence structures we have learned in class. In this class, I have been provided with the opportunity to explore many topics of my personal interest and gain a better understanding of how to formulate sentences, introduce new vocabulary terms, and submit a product that I am proud of. I am rather happy to have my name attached to my work now and see the payoff. Through composition, I have a newfound interest in writing and the urge to gain knowledge. With this interest, I have been often caught with my eyes gliding over the pages of numerous books, seeing the different writing styles of authors in hopes to divulge and savor every word. I am quite pleased with the outcome composition has left me with and look forward to how my writing style will continue to change and develop throughout the next decade.
Composition has provided me with a unique opportunity, and that is to enhance my writing skills. I had some basic understanding of how to write effectively, but composition goes into more depth, and that benefits me. Not only have I learned so much, but I can also effectively apply terms within my writing. Grammatical classification has been beneficial as well. To be honest, I do not think I have ever had the five grammatical classifications discussed in class before; I have never even heard of those terms until composition. There is a myriad of terms that I can now correctly use in my writing. Applying all of our new terms into our essays has been beneficial towards all of us students; it makes us look more professional, in-a-way. In the long run, Composition may or may not help others towards future occupations, but it has all impacted us positively. I am satisfied with how my writing has come along over the course of five months, and I am pleased with the knowledge I have learned in composition. I am excited about what literature has to offer next semester.
Before coming into this class, I thought I had a decent grasp on writing essays, but I had no idea how much more I could learn. This class has taught me five different grammatical classification ways to style a sentence which I had no idea even existed before this year. Learning 100 more terms to spice up an essay was even more intriguing and helped me elaborate on all of my papers. I now feel more confident in my writing and I feel as though I have grown tremendously from the beginning of the year. Adding new vocabulary to every one of my essays has allowed me to explore the realm of prestigious writing. I know feel my readers are able to see a better picture and understand more about each topic I compose about. I am thankful for this opportunity to grow this much in such a short time span and I cannot wait for what next semester will bring.
I feel like I have come a long way in my ability to compose an essay. I think that I sound more mature and educated than I did coming into this class at the beginning. I definitely have more confidence in citing my sources, and writing an essay that is correctly MLA formatted. I didn’t know what an annotated bibliography was before last essay, so that is something else I can use to my advantage in the future. I think I have learned how important it is to vary sentence lengths and types. I know that I don’t tend to use compound-complex enough, and I need to be intentional with adding those into my writing. I also never thought about adding intentional fragments into my writing, but it adds something interesting. Writing 5-7 page essays has always seemed like a daunting task, but this class has prepared me for writing them in college.
This class has taught me so many aspects of writing that I had no idea about. When I go back and compare my old essays with my more recent ones I can tell a difference in my writing. I have learned to use bigger and more meaningful words throughout my writing. Grammatical classification was nothing of importance to me until this class. Studying deeper into the grammatical classification I now realize why it is so important. I had very little knowledge of what it meant to be a good and intelligent writer. I now have way more confidence in my own writing and also able to catch small mistakes throughout the essay. As much as I dread having to write a 6-page essay it has developed me into a better student. The different tools I learned in this class also affect almost all my other classes. Composition has taught me to think out of the box with my ideas and how I express my thoughts. Overall I am happy that I took this class because I know it will benefit me in the future.
Composition has been a very successful class for me. I feel like I have come a long way from where I was writing in previous years. Nothing against my previous teachers, but I am a much better writer now than I was before I started this class. Before this class, I could barely write a 3-page essay, but now I am typing 8 to 10-page essays. I could barely use any big words, and I made every sentence the same. Now, I can make essays that include vocabulary, and sentences that do not have to start with a subject. I have learned how to write different types of sentences and use them to make my writing more fluent and thorough. Sentences—like complex, compound, and compound-complex—have helped me to not have to use a simple sentence every time. I also have learned how to quote authors or speakers and how to make a fantastic title. I think that this class has helped me out immensely and will allow me to be successful in my years of education to come. My confidence from composition has gone through the roof.
I believe that I have gained a decent level of confidence in my ability to compose essays. I have always felt fairly confident but this class has taught me more things to look for in my essays. The final exam terms that were necessary in our writing have helped me to be a more diverse writer. I feel like my grammar has also improved more than previous years. Noredink has not worked for long term memory for me but I think that what I have learned in this class will be more permanent in my mind. I believe that this class has helped to develop my individual writing style instead of forcing me into a box of rules like previous classes did. The freedoms given to me in composition allowed me to branch out into a more unique writing style. I feel like the skills learned in composition will have more useful applications in college than what other classes taught me will.
Over the course of this semester, I have gathered a lot of confidence regarding my ability to type essays. In previous years my essays would struggle to reach the limit which would hover around the 3-page mark. But this year I have been able to type 6 pages on my own. In previous years I have felt my self adding fluff and unneeded items in my essay just to make it reach the limit. But, this year I have developed the skill of adding more helpful and useful information into my essay to help further and develope my point to convey my message to the reader.I have also been able to elaborate upon boring words in my essays that I have been using in previous years. But, now I use a lot of vocab words in my writing to make my essay seem more persuasive and show that I know what I am talking about. I have also learned a lot about grammatical classification and classifying sentences to which has helped my writing to make my sentences whole and grammatically correct.
When it comes to composition, this class has improved my confidence in writing greatly. I still feel that there are areas that I still struggle with or could improve on. Instead of feeling uneasy about writing overall, this composition class has allowed me to test out a variety of prompts and writing styles. Through this, I had the ability to find the type of style that I actually enjoy and excel at. By writing over topics that I showed interest in, it helped me go back through my essays and feel confident with what I was composing and submitting. Instead of just trying to meet requirements, I felt like I wanted to continue to write and convey my messages. I feel that I have found my own unique way of writing. I have figured out ways to make my essays grab the reader's attention and push past generic sayings and styles. I learned that the skills I have obtained through this class will effectively help in my future even if it's not in another Composition or English class.
Going into this class, I was very weak in my writing and was not confident in being able to correctly write my ideas down. I had never worked hard on essays in class because they were never over a topic that I enjoyed. This class has not only helped me to enjoy what I am writing but it has also helped me become a better composer and become more confident in my writing. Incorporating vocab words and terms into my writing has helped me create more interesting essays to read. I have really enjoyed composing in class and learning how to portray my ideas in a better way. I have learned a lot about grammar and how to use it correctly in my essays. I am grateful that I have been able to learn these skills and have been able to apply them to essays I have written for college applications.
I feel that Composition 101 has greatly improved my writing skills. Before I took the class, I was only able to write lame titles and thesis statements, somewhere along the lines of "in this essay..." or "you will learn about..." Composition 101 taught me how to write thesis statements much better than I ever could before, and the class also taught me how to write better in general. Term Tuesday and the terms study guide really did help me to better learn new terms and/or ways to structure a sentence. At first, I wasn't excited to write essays all the time. However, now I see the value in writing essays consistently, as there is no other way to improve my writing skills.
The level of confidence regarding composition has developed, expanded, and surged to a new level I thought I could never reach. At first, I barely knew what a verb and a noun was, but now after typing essay after essay, I am starting to get the hang of it. Don’t get me wrong, I still have much to learn. When I am composing, I notice that I begin to be more drawn into what I am writing. For example, I convinced myself that living in the city is better than living in the country by constantly researching it for our argumentative essay. This class has taught me to use terms that I would never think of using. Some of the terms include: colons, dashes, hyphens, and ellipsis. Just the simple terms I would never think to use. I wish I would have taken Composition 101 before taking my history class. I would say that my confidence in composing has broadened since last year.
From experience writing essays in previous grades and classes, I thought I had a pretty steady grip on essay composing. I had a penchant for writing essays. I was able to express my opinions and facts through writing. But from joining Composition 101, my skills have improved immensely. I have a better knowledge of grammatical classification. By gaining this skill, it makes it easier to edit my essays while being able to change my sentence flow and structure by making a compound/complex sentence for example. Overall, this year I have learned and understood more grammatical topics. I have always had a harder time understanding grammar, but from listening in class to Term Tuesday's and Mr. C's mini-lectures, I can know more about these topics then I knew before. Besides writing essays and learning a greater depth of grammar, vocabulary tests have expanded my vocabulary. For my essays, I can change boring or meaningless words with different vocabulary words we have learned. I also use these vocabulary words in other classes to elaborate better on what I am trying to say. I am glad I have joined and partaken in this class. I have learned more than I thought I would, can't wait to see what Literature will bring.
Throughout this semester I have grown a lot more comfortable with composing. I used to hate getting assigned an essay, but now I enjoy writing them. Being able to have two weeks to work on one essay used to seem impossible. Now, I know how to manage my time. The thought of an essay does not scare me anymore. Before this year I was terrified to take comp and lit because of all the writing I would have to do. I used to think that I was a really poor writer. Now, I know that I can write a decent essay that is up to nine pages in length. Writing up to three pages used to be a struggle for me. This class has helped build the confidence I need for writing in my future college classes. My confidence level is much higher than it was at the start of the semester and I am a whole different writer than I was freshman year.
I think I have grown to be a lot more confident with my writing throughout the semester during the composition class. I became more comfortable with the idea of having to write a multiple page essay because we had to do it many times. I used to struggle with knowing how to construct a sentence, especially if the sentence was more complex. However, I became more confident and comfortable because of all the different writing styles and grammar rules I learned from the term Tuesdays. Some of the many new writing tools I learned was how to use different types of quotes, MLA format, hyphens, and dashes. I still get a little confused about a couple grammar rules and punctuation but definitely not as much as I used to. I now feel like my writing is more intelligent sounding and creative which makes me feel better about going into college where the essays are longer and expectations are set higher.
Coming into the year for composition, I did not feel that confident. Previously in school, I always found it a challenge when I was assigned an essay. I never knew where to start or how to introduce my topic. Now after writing several page essays over a broad range of topics, I feel much more confident. I know how to compose a strong thesis statement that creates a great introduction to the essay and my ideas. I have broadened my range of vocab words in my essay, and this helps creates a stronger essay. My knowledge of grammar has also increased immensely. Before taking this class I would not have known how to put a participial phrase into my essay. Knowing all the terms we learned from term Tuesday helps write essays at a greater level. I have learned so much from this composition class and I have enjoyed learning how to write a proper process.
I have always loved writing essays and stories. I would search for a topic on google and write an argumentation essay. I have learned so much this year and I am so grateful. Throughout my year in Composition 101, I have learned and experienced a lot. I feel stronger and more confident when I am facing a writing prompt. When we wrote the letters to a business or thanking someone, I was inspired to send a letter thanking my vet for helping treat my dog. Coming into my senior year I thought I knew how to write an essay and how to formulate the introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Now I know there is so much more to writing an essay. There are different ways to formulate sentences and to order the information. I learned about CHESS in argumentation essays which I think is very helpful! This class taught me to use different terms and to apply everything I know in order to get my point across.
Through the course of Composition class and with a great deal of practice, I have become a much more confident composer. Prior to taking Composition, my writing was simply average. It was far from great; however, it was not necessarily bad. Not possessing the more advanced composing skills that I do today, I also severely lacked confidence. I was never self-assured when I would turn in an essay. It seems that over the course of my educational career, composing was not seen as a priority skill and essays were few and far between. I wrote essays maybe a couple times a year and they were far less demanding. Because of this, it was hard to develop good writing strategies and skills. Not only did I lack confidence, but I also never saw myself becoming a good writer. I am much better at composing now than I ever have been. I now feel an unprecedented sense of confidence when I turn in my papers. Far more confident in my writing, I remain aware that there is still massive room for improvement. With further practice and persistence, I believe I could develop greater composing skills and my writing will only improve.
Before taking Composition this year, I was a terrible writer. I did not know how to write smoothly or how to structure my sentences. Throughout this semester I have been challenged and pushed more than I ever thought I would. I am beyond grateful for all the new ideas and information I have learned this semester and I can't wait to learn more in Literature. Not only has my essay writing gotten better, so has the way I speak in general. Now that I know all these little pieces of information about grammar and English, it is easier to piece it all together and show people that I know what I'm doing or talking about. I never thought that I would ever write a paper that got me a good grade, or even want other people to read my writing because I was so embarrassed by it. But now, I have learned that everyone makes mistakes, nobody is judging your writing harshly, and you always have room to improve. I am nowhere near being as good as I can be when it comes to composing, but I have, definitely, taken giant steps in the right direction. I am excited to further my writing abilities and go into college knowing that I can write a good paper.
I never used to be good at writing essays, I actually hated writing essays because I could never get my words across by writing. Now that I am in composition, I found more ways to say the words I have in my head that I couldn't get out. I always struggled with being able to write 2 pages, much less 7 pages. But now, 7 pages aren't enough pages to fill up all my thoughts on the topic we have. I like how we have to be creative with some of the topics because we might not be able to think of a good essay or have trouble writing. Composition has given me the confidence to be able to be creative in my writing and to be able to write about anything, even if I don't agree with it.
English and writing have always been my better subjects in school, and so I feel like I came into this class with a decent amount of confidence in my skills. That is not to say I have not been challenged this semester because I certainly have! The number of pages required for each essay and how many essays we completed this semester have pushed me to better my time management skills and be able to work on multiple projects at the same time. I have learned much more about sentence structure, writing style, and vocabulary integration than I have in any other class. Before this class, I was never really concerned with contractions or expletives and have since come to understand how they can affect the professionalism of an essay and why limiting them is important. Learning to merge different writing styles on partner essays has also been a skill that I have had to learn this semester.
English was always the subject that I was decently good at but it was not my favorite subject. Coming into this class I was a little nervous because I thought it was going to be a lot more difficult compared to other English classes I have taken in the past. Towards the end of the semester, I have become more confident with my writing. I am able to write my essays in a more professional way and correctly punctuate them. I have pushed myself to become a more avid writer. My confidence when it comes to writing essays depends on what I am writing about. If I am interested in the essay then I can go on for pages and pages. If I am not interested in the essay, I am not as near as confident. I have learned many different writing styles this semester and I think I am fairly confident in writing in all of them. This class has also made me more confident in stepping outside of my comfort zone and being more creative when it came to my writing.
I have never been very confident in my writing. English and reading have never been the strongest subjects for me. Throughout this semester, I have learned many things about myself and my writing. I feel more confident when composing and am open to accepting criticism. When I first looked at the requirements for our first essay, I was anxious and did not think I would be able to write that much. Reminiscing on that today, I am proud of how much my writing has grown this semester. I also enjoy having the opportunity to read the essays written by my classmates; it sparks a lot of creative ideas for me. This semester I have learned that it is easier to compose with what is on my mind at the moment and go back to edit it later. I have learned a wide variety of writing styles when being required to emulate them in my essay.
My confidence regarding composition has developed tremendously. I am more confident in writing an essay; whether it be narrative, argumentative, or a letter. I have always been better at English than any other subject, and specifically writing. I did learn how to format a letter this year, which I can imagine will help me a lot in the future. The ethos, pathos, and lathos formats helped me a lot during it. I think the writing style that I have gained the most confidence in was in research. I have learned how to properly do the MLA formal that college professors will prefer, and I can imagine it will help me a lot in the next few years. I also learned how to properly insert quotes into my essay. Of course much like with the MLA format, I already knew how to do it. Now, however, I have been refreshed on the proper way to cite my sources. I have never been good at research essays because of the reason that I can not put my own opinion. I am more confident because I have learned and realized that I can make it my own style.
At the beginning of English Composition 101, I had no idea how to compose. All I knew how to do was poorly write essays. During the first few days of class, I thought there would be no way that I could possibly compose a seven-page essay, as my longest essay prior to the class was only three pages. Now both my confidence and ability have increased in knowing how to correctly compose an essay instead of just writing one. Looking back and comparing the first essays to the most recent ones it is very obvious how much better my composing skills have become. I have learned to use grammatical classification while composing to make my essay more enjoyable. I have learned to incorporate both vocab and other terms to make me seem very educated on my topic. I am positive that the skills I have learned in this class will help me in my future, far beyond another English class.
Since the first day of 101 Composition, my confidence regarding composing has grown by leaps and bounds. Through term Tuesdays and vocabulary quizzes on Wednesday, I have learned the necessary tools to compose well. I was able to practice incorporating these tools into the six different essays that were assigned this semester. The essays were all so different from each other, so you were able to see how different techniques applied and fit each style. Instead of typing meaningless phrases, my typing now has a purpose and appeal. Through other tools and techniques, like "CHESS" and Aristotle’s Logos, Ethos, & Pathos, I know how to add intrigue to essays, and how to back up my ideas. Having these sources led to a better understanding of citing different kinds of sources. This all contributed to my composing becoming stronger and more fluid after each essay. I will continue to utilize my newfound confidence regarding composition in college and in life.
Being in Composition this year, I feel that my writing skills are much improved. I have never been fully confident in my essays until this year. In the past years of high school, I never thought my essays were written to my best abilities. I love creative writing or argumentative essays but I thought I could always improve, especially when it comes to grammar or vocabulary. Having to add in vocabulary and label final exam terms, I realized how it can make an average essay become a pristine college-level essay. I can now write an efficient seven-page essay, compared to previous years of struggling to write a good two-page essay. Composition has really taught me how to take writing to the next level without the stresses of learning grammar or being pressured by the teacher to write something perfect. Without this stress, I can write confidently and I know this confidence will well prepare me for college.
In my opinion, I believe that my writing skills have improved greatly. Before this class, if you asked me to write a two-page essay I probably would have laughed at you but now I feel as if I can write a five-page essay pretty easily. I feel like I can write much more fluently and gracefully compared to before. I know a lot more ways to emphasize my points such as CHESS. But I think one of the most important things I’ve learned has been getting my ideas across. Before this class started I could write essays fairly well, but they lacked any sort of impact in the end. By the end of this class, I learned about logos, pathos, and ethos and how to apply them correctly. I feel as if this has greatly increased my writing overall and has helped me to learn how to write more solid essays.
Over the span of only a couple of months, my composition confidence has soared. I have seen myself go from a writer to a composer, due to the support from Mr. C. and my classmates when we would work on a paper together. Or from my parents who would proofread most of my papers, and tell me they were great, but needed some improvement. The more time went by the less mistakes I would make and the better my composition was. The way Mr. C. starts off with only a five page paper and slowly works up to 7 or 8, eases students into composing more. I was always scared I wasn’t going to be able to write about one topic for that long, but as my confidence built, the more comfortable I felt. Not only writing longer, but the term Tuesdays helped me use different techniques to take my paper to the next level.
My ability to compose and write essays has increased exponentially! My writing skills have improved ten-fold it seems, this comes with the use of different sentences, vocabulary, and terms to help my essay become stronger. At the start of the year, a five-page essay was incredibly daunting, I had no clue what I would write about or how to compose the essay to make sense. But over this semester I feel that I have new comprehension on how to write and make my essays better. Using certain ideas and points to make my essay topics more comprehensible or persuasive has been a large improvement to my writing. Learning about CHESS has been a very influential piece in writing better essays and continuing to grow in my writing. Understanding and learning how to get my ideas across when composing an essay has also been on the best things possible. Without being able to get my ideas across I wouldn't be able to write well or have anyone understand my writing. Overall I think my confidence has grown exponentially and will continue to grow as long as I keep writing.
Coming into this class, I wasn't exactly sure how to write interesting, engaging papers that were more than a page or two long. Since I've been in this class, I believe I have developed more tools and better writing methods in my arsenal. In August, writing three to eight pages would have seemed like a daunting, nearly impossible task. Now, after writing 6 essays on various topics, gained a new sense of confidence, I have. The letters at the beginning of the semester taught me how to write to someone personally and convince them I am worth a reply. The classification essay allowed me to practice the skill of comparing like things to make them seem very different. The compare and contrast essay gave me the skill to further differentiate two like things. The causal essay included a bit of research and works cited. This essay was one of my favorites because I learned how to incorporate sources and quotes into an essay efficiently. The narration essay was something that didn't take a lot of research, which made it easier to write quickly. I had a lot of fun writing this essay and looking back at one life-changing event. Lastly, the argumentative essay was my favorite. Using pictures, articles, and pre-knowledge in the essay made it a lot of fun to come up with an argument to write against two other people. Out of all the essays we wrote, the argumentative essay was definitely my favorite. Typing the last sentence in the essay came with a sense of satisfaction that we had met all the requirements and had a good, solid argument. This class has greatly improved the confidence I have going into college where I will be writing plenty more papers and essays.
What I have learned from learning to compose rather than just write is that I learned and gained a better understanding of the English grammar structure that any other class from middle school to high school. In this year only, I have learned and used more grammatical structures due to the composed essays I have written have received the best grades I have ever gotten on any other essay I have written from middle school to now. The constant positive reassurance of the fact of receiving nothing lower than an "A" on my essays rather than, the at best, "B" on an essay I got last year in Honors English Eleven; this is possibly due to my previous teachers trying to teach how to write rather than compose, forcing me to repeat what a gerund is or how to place dependent clauses did not necessarily help me write, It rather confused me and didn't explain why this was that or how to use dashes, commas properly, semi-colons, or colons in an essay.
Coming into Composition, I was not quite sure what to expect. I had a decent view and composing writing style already; Mr. Canfield had made us write essays for nearly the entire last semester. Even though I feel like I already had decent writing, I feel I learned a lot more. There were important sentence structures and improvements that I learned could be made to essays. I learned about essays as well. I learned better essay structures and the better way to organize them so that the paragraphs seem to actually fit in. This class taught me a lot of vocabulary that could be integrated to make my essay much more adult-like and professional sounding. I do believe I had more confidence in my writing compared to last year when I was throwing things together in the hopes that I could get a good score. Now my writing is purposeful and well organized. I actually know for sure what I'm doing and I'm able to put that into my writing style.
Coming into composition, I thought I was a decent writer. I enjoyed writing especially about things that were relatable to my life. When I first started the class, I was shocked at how long the papers were because in years prior they were a lot shorter. Throughout the semester, I feel like I have developed greatly in my writing and in my approach before writing. When writing, I believe confidence is key because it helps you feel satisfied with your paper while doing it and when it is completed. Although at times I was frustrated learning about grammar, I can guarantee it helped to take my writing to a more sophisticated level. Writing is something that I will do at the college level in classes like speech so I feel that by taking this class it will help to enhance my grade throughout the class. Composition not only helped me to realize my writing is far from perfect, but also a paper can always be better.
Starting off in composition, I felt like I was an average, if not, below-average writer. I did not really enjoy writing essays and I was not confident in my writing. Learning about Grammical Classification and the Final Exam terms enhanced my writing. I learned different types of sentences and how to make my essays more enjoyable to read. I learned a lot of vocabulary which helped my essays sound more intelligent and logical. I am now more confident in my writing and feel like I have developed my own writing style. I especially was interested in our partner essay because it opened up my eyes to someone else's writing style. I think more essays with partners will help with future students because it will broaden their writing and notice how everyone writes in a different way. Overall, I think I have become more confident in my writing and enjoy composing essays more than before I took this class.
Composition has helped me gain significant confidence in my writing over this semester. I have always been an "ok" composer at best but I feel like my skills have greatly improved after continuing to practice my writing techniques. Previous to this class, I had no idea that there were different structures to sentences and couldn't tell the difference between an independent and dependent clause. Now I feel like I could distinguish or compose every type of sentence that exists in a document. I have actually had to apply myself in this class to create a literary essay that flows well and incorporates relevant information. Also, my grammar and vocabulary have improved immensely through learning and repetition in my essays. In college, I hope to further my writing skills but I'm confident this class helped push me in the right direction. I believe that knowing how to write properly is extremely useful in the real world because people are able to recognize your abilities and intelligence through your writing.
On the first day of class, I felt so overwhelmed. I thought taking Composition, a class consisting of essay after essay, was probably a bad idea. I disliked writing essays and never really felt I was any good at it. But over the semester, I have gained a great deal of confidence in my writing. Having prompts that allow lots of freedom on what to write helped. Being able to write on my interests allowed me to explore my own writing style and even learn to enjoy the process. Needing to use vocab words and final exam terms was a large challenge at first. But now, I can see the positive impact this has had on my writing. Using these items has made my writing more interesting. Now, instead of dreading essays, I have come to enjoy it because of the techniques I have learned in this class. This class has many real-life applications such as college applications and scholarship essays. Overall, I am grateful I took Composition.
I have reached a level of confidence in my composition that I did not think possible. Yes, I lagged behind a little bit but I realized that in some forms of writing, I am very confident. I saw right away that including the different classifications of sentences was no struggle for me, as I write in varying types of complexity. I also had very little trouble including vocabulary words and grammatical terms, as many of them I have seen in writing so often that I use them unconsciously. The biggest discovery I have made this year in regards to my composition skills is my ability to write passionately. Essays that needed a myriad of sources were a little difficult for me, as I have a lot of knowledge in my own brain. Essays that required a lot of opinion-based reasoning were easier because I am a very opinionated person, and I can very easily let that flow into my writing. The easiest parts of essays were ones in which the use of Pathos was widespread. I saw that I can communicate my feelings and my thoughts very easily through writing, and I have an apt ability to describe such things with clear imagery and immersive language. The best I have ever written has been in this class and I find that without it, I would be lagging very far behind in my confidence and skills in writing.
I have never been a very good writer and I think it can be pretty hard at times. When I heard how long the essays we would be writing in this class would have to be I was nervous because I thought it would be really hard. Now I have written multiple essays that have been 5-7 pages long and I didn't know I would be able to do that. My confidence level has definitely gotten higher after taking this class. I think I am capable of writing a decent essay but not only just writing it, composing it. I have learned to use certain sentence structures in order to make my essays more impressive. I have also practiced incorporating different vocabulary words into my essays. I would say that on a scale of 1-10 my confidence is now at a solid seven. I still have a lot of improvement to go but I have seen some growth in my writing.
I was so nervous to take composition because I am terrible at writing essays and just writing in general. I'm not very good at grammar, my sentences are never really connected or smooth, and overall I would just use simple sentences like a 1st grader. Now after taking this class, I still feel I am not great at writing essays, but I have learned a lot and feel I have become a better writer. As I wrote more essays it became easier to use different sentences such as compound and complex, but also I was able to add things to my essay to make it more sophisticated such as anadiplosis and inversion of the whole sentence. I learned a lot about writing and different ways to write a sentence. Looking at my first essay to the last, I can see the improvement; I have grown as a writer and will continue to grow as I write more through the years.
To put it very simply I believe that my level of writing has improved immensely with my basic use and understanding of different skills and techniques of writing. I believe this due to the fact that I came into the class with some basic knowledge of how to write, but not how to compose. At this point in my life, my vocabulary appears to have exponential growth that it could obtain with the abundance of words that have been shown to me, and are yet to come I believe that I have been given a great opportunity to learn from the abundance that is Mr. Christensen’s mind — though it has been a struggle at times— I whole heartily believe that I have never in my thirteen years of school have gotten a teacher with a deeper and stronger ways of teaching and preparing me for a class the way Mr. Christensen has.
"A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval." ~Mark Twain
I chose to answer your quote with this quote because I believe confidence and comfort are correlated; confidence is comfort with any potential outcome of a situation. A year ago I would not have been comfortable with people reading my thoughts and words on certain subjects, so I exposed myself to that vulnerability through this class and gained pseudo-confidence based on reader's reactions. Eventually I became "confident" that an audience would like my writing, but that's not really right, either. Confidence is when that doesn't matter in the first place.
In writing, confidence is indifference to whether your audience agrees with your words, supports your thoughts, or is disgruntled by your writing. Because deep down, you know you said what needed to be; you know you spoke what was in the silence between everybody's words.
I believe I gained this this year, especially around college essay time. I articulated my truth and didn't leave any lines to read between, and I decided if colleges don't like it, I don't want to go there anyway. Knowing the worth in my words and knowing who doesn't know it is an efficient way to find who's values might line up with mine. Colleges who can't value my truth—I probably wouldn't appreciate what they teach.
This may seem kind of cocky but I just know my worth, gained my compositional confidence, and am comfortable with however people may react. :)
I have developed relatively good confidence in my composition skills. I used to think I wasn't all that great at composing. When I used to write it all just felt like a mess of words on a page or two. Now, I can actually see the coherency in each composition I create. The grammatical errors also held me back in my confidence in composing before. It just didn't necessarily make a whole lot of sense but now I see the patterns and am able to use the correct grammar in each of my compositions. incorporating the different terms from the final exam list has definitely helped me understand the correct way to use certain grammatical symbols in my writing as well. I have found that it is much easier to compose bout something that I get to choose not something assigned. When I get to write about something I choose, the words just tend to come to me versus having to take a lot of time trying to figure out how I am going to write several pages on one topic. I would say overall, my skill in composing has improved greatly over the semester.
Coming into this class, I was worried about succeeding. In previous English classes, I have always exceeded expectations; however, I was still nervous about Composition. My confidence in taking this class was not as high because I have always struggled with writing good essays. While writing essays may not have always been my forte, as this class continued on, I felt my writing starting to turn into composing. My confidence in my composing continued to increase throughout this semester. While I know that there are many areas that I can still improve on, I feel that I have improved greatly. Once Composition 101 is over, I still plan on continuing to improve my composing. Overall, while I was nervous about this class, I am glad that I took Composition 101, due to all the new topics and ways to write that I have learned.
I cannot believe where I have come with composing and writing from this class. When I enrolled in this class last year, a lot of people told me this class would be overwhelming and extremely difficult; however, I was determined to take the class anyway because I love to write and I wanted to get better at it. I have gained a significant level of confidence in composition because this class presented a way that I could understand grammar rules and literary devices. I think that doing essays repeatedly really gave me an understanding of not only how to write and compose, but also how to plan (having rough draft deadlines definitely helped me avoid procrastination). I also think this class has helped me gain confidence in going to college because there were a lot of opportunities to learn about college and prepare for it academically. Overall, I would call myself a confident composer!
I am amazed by how confident I have become with my writing from this class. When I first decided to take this class I was definitely stress. First, I did not even think I was going to make get into the class. Also, I questioned whether I should take the class or not. Writing and composing were never really my strong suits, I fell more into more of the literature category. I always struggled with grammar, sentence types, and composing complete thoughts. But after this class, my confidence has really boosted. I feel confident in my writing and composing. I feel that I now know what I am doing with grammar, I can tell what the different sentence types are, and I can compose complete thoughts without sounding like I am mindlessly babbling. In the end, I am really thankful that I got over my fear and took this class. Without this newfound confidence, I will write more essays and hopefully continue to get better essays.
Writing essays or just English classes, in general, have always been a struggle for me, at least compared to my math and science classes. Going into this class I expected to dread the endless essays but I have been pleasantly surprised. Not only was I worried about the essays I had to write for this class but also for the essays that I would have to write in college which always seemed like such a daunting task. After this semester I have garnered knowledge and confidence in what manner to craft my essays. I now know basic things such as how to put the right header on my page and how to make a good title. Also, having gained experience writing, I can now add grammatical tools such as absolute construction into my essays. I am no longer worried about what essays lie ahead but excited to present what I have learned.
During this semester, I have developed a confidence I have never had before this semester. Before this year, I wrote essays to get done and they were very bland with only boring, basic writing techniques. With the new knowledge that this class has bestowed upon me, I have been able to improve my writing skills for my future years of education. The grades I have got in the past for essays have not been as good as the ones I have worked for this year. I went from getting C's and B's on most of my essays to now getting A's on almost all of my essays. Using the writing techniques I have learned, I can continue to improve my writing and go more in-depth when writing an essay. College professors will appreciate the maturity of my writing. I went from writing down ideas with no structure to carefully outlining when I write down certain information and how I write it down. This class has boosted my confidence so I can write stellar essays in the future.
At the beginning of the semester, I was not very confident in my writing ability. As I have practiced writing the essays for this class it has become easier for me to find things to say and word things. Learning the terms/writing techniques and practicing them in my essays has helped tremendously to the point where I can apply them without having to think about it. For example, I did not even know what ethos pathos and logos were before this class and I can now apply them quite easily. Before taking this class I had never written anything more than 4 pages so I feel more confident in my ability to find material to write about and really elaborate on the subject while keeping the information relevant. I think the quote about confidence coming from demonstrated ability is a very accurate quote because by using and practicing the techniques in my essays I feel much more confident in my writing.
Throughout this semester confidence in my writing ability has greatly increased. Starting out this class early in the year, I was a little weary of whether I would be able to write at the highest level that this class requires; however, as time progressed, I quickly found out that I need not worry. Composing essays every couple of weeks is not the most exciting activity, but one quality that results from composing repeatedly is the creation of good writing skills. Learning about the different ways of composing has greatly enhanced my ability to correctly convey my thoughts in a clear and orderly manner. Personally, I believe that confidence in my own writing is at an all time high. Being able to spend time writing about different topics in Composition has helped me become the best composer I have ever been. Due to the fact that practice makes you better, I believe that all of the development that has resulted in my composition skills is from repeated practice. Overall, my confidence is quite high, but I am aware that there is always room for improvement when composing and I am open to learning more about composing in order to achieve greater.
Before entering this class, I felt that I wasn't a very successful writer, and I didn't know the ways to improve. Since I have entered this class, it has allowed me to become more confident in myself and my writing due to the fact that I have learned—and continue to learn— new writing tactics, along with improving the tactics I knew before. By writing week after week, topic after topic, I have gained knowledge within my writing skills. Before taking this class, I felt that my writing could not meet the standards of this class, but I quickly realized after a couple of weeks that this was not true. Each essay has improved immensely. When I look back to the beginning of the semester at the items that I have written and compare them to my more recent essays, I can truly see an enormous difference. In all, I have clearly noticed my improvements and my confidence will help me in my future years as I continue my education at a college level.
Coming into Composition, I was not very confident in my writing. It would take countless hours and a lot of thought to write my essays. Throughout the semester, I’ve learned how to use a variety of sentence types and terms. From simple and compound to fragment and complex, including different sentence types has improved my writing immensely. Writing is no longer a chore, it has become a hobby. Before Composition, I would struggle writing 2-3 pages essays. Now I can crank out 5-6 page papers in just a few days. Although this is a class of writing, my vocabulary has expanded remarkably. I am able to eliminate dull words and replace them with intelligent vocab. This makes my writing a lot less bland and much more exciting. Looking back at my previous essays, there is a clear difference in the strength of my papers now. I have learned a lot in Composition and am finally proud of my work.
I believe that my composition confidence has increased greatly. At the beginning of the semester writing a two-page essay was a struggle for me, putting all my thoughts into an essay and trying to make it sound all put together. Now, writing a two-page essay is like frosting on a cake. We started small with the two pages but now we ended with seven-page essays. I think the thing I improved on the most was adding vocabulary into my essay, I would always use such common words that made my essay sound boring and uneducated. Saying strong vocab words can make anyone's essay sound even better if used right. Also, Term Tuesday helped me out a lot too, thinking about putting compound and complex sentences in and labeling them, or using different writing techniques and not just going with the same old same old. I think this class was super fun and relaxing to just think and type the whole time!!
Before signing up for Composition 101, I was told that writing essays are an essential part of the class. Writing essays has never been a strength of mine so I was extremely nervous upon entering the class. However, it was not until this class where I learned how to properly compose an essay as I learned the true difference between writing and composing. Through grammatical classification and other terms, I learned how to properly import these useful tools into my writing. I used to avoid using semicolons and dashes in my writing as I was too scared to be using them wrong; I can now confidently apply these to my writing. My vocabulary has tremendously grown as well throughout this semester. I learned to avoid expletives and use strong verbs, all of which make my essays sound more professional. I believe this class has prepared me for college in ways I could not have myself.
Over the course of this class, I have developed a new kind of confidence in my composition skills. Given the ability to explore many types of essays and topics allowed me to find out what kind of writing I am more drawn to. Not only did I get to experience different writing styles and essay types, I learned new techniques and further educated myself on how to make an essay sound and look more professional. There are terms that I had never heard of before this year that I ended up using in my essays. Being able to include these seemingly difficult things into my writing with ease was a definite confidence boost. Before this year, essay writing was not something I took as seriously as I should have, but after actually being taught the intricacies that comprise writing, I can say that my skills have increased and I am much more serious about the composition process. Some of these essays have been a challenge, as I wasn't used to writing 5+ pages, but the push to expand my thoughts was a necessary evil that ultimately allowed me to grow as a composer and put myself on a path of further essay writing.
Originally, my confidence regarding composition and writing was pretty weak. I never viewed myself as a strong writer, but through this class, I have gained a lot more confidence. Through all of the Term Tuesdays, I have learned plenty of new writing strategies and tools to use. A majority of my writing and composition before this were mostly simple sentences, but now I've learned to add a lot of imagery and make lots of complex sentences. The thought of having to type a lot of multi-paged essays was incredibly daunting. Also, I didn’t believe I could type 5 pages about 1 topic, but I proved myself wrong on every account. I learned how to compose effectively, and I also learned how to just sit down and focus on my writing. I was able to look deeper into my writing this semester than I ever have before. Every word that I typed was read many times over and changed to my view of perfection. I feel like this class has immensely prepared me for any composition I may have to do in the future.
I have achieved a great deal of new skills from this semester alone of composition. At the beginning of the year, I did not know the difference between a clause and phrase, I rarely paid any attention to what types of sentences I was using in any essays and I had no idea what half of the final exam terms meant. After practicing over this semester (practice makes perfect yet, I am far from perfect) I have improved my skills in all of those areas and more vastly. I can now recognize the different types of sentences and implement them accordingly in my essays. Now, many of the final exam terms make sense and I can use them to enhance the meaning and make my essays more professional and interesting. With all of the new methods that I have learned to help compose better essays, my confidence in my skills as a writer has drastically increased.
The level of confidence I have come to reach is much grader than it used to be previously. I have learned to expand much better on the topics I am writing about and I have also learned to show emphasis on certain things in my writing, such as imagery and including a good amount of detail to all of my writing. I believe that my writing has gotten better in the grammar aspect too. I am no longer guessing as to where or what something might be in my essay by I can confidently label things in my essay that I would not have been able to label last year. I personally enjoy writing and seeing that I have actually gotten further in my writing skills this year brings me much more confidence than I had at the beginning of the year. I am happy I took this class because it gave me an opportunity to really grow my writing.
My confidence levels have risen extremely when it comes to my composing. I have also gained confidence in understanding the terms that we add to our essays to enhance them. I think that because of the constant practice that we have been doing with each and every essay, I have grown as a writer and composer. I am able to think more clearly about how I am going to write and what I am going to be writing about. It helps when I am writing about a topic that I am very interested in. This helps my brain to express an opinion better and can get my point across better. I would like to thank Mr. C for teaching us and giving us the resources to have grown in our writing abilities and confidence. I enjoy going to class each and every day for it makes me happy to have such a great teacher. But also, the fact that I am able to compose and write what I enjoy writing about. I can't wait for next semester!
I have never felt as though I was the strongest writer. I always found myself stuck in writing. With the help of Mr. Christensen, I feel as though I have a better understanding of what composing really is. I also feel more confident in my skills compared to the first day of class. In fact, I believe that my confidence in composing elevated with each essay. This really goes to show that repeated practice of something makes you better over time. Along with that, each Term Tuesday boosted my confidence because I was gaining knowledge on topics I have never learned about. If you pay attention to your peers during their presentation, you come to find out that they are one of the greatest tools for enhancing your writing. I especially enjoy Mr. Christensen's class because it is never the same day to day. C makes things interesting by telling stories, playing games and clearly explaining until everyone understands. Because of these things my writing is better.
I have definitely gained more confidence in writing through this class. I think confidence is vital in almost everything you do. Everyone prefers the person who considers the cup half full over the one who sees it half empty. But in writing, being able to write about something and write confidently and knowledgeably is also very important. I think that when you are knowledgeable about your topic, you can surely write more confidently. But for me, sometimes it is hard to be sure of myself in new situations or when I am around things that are unknown to me. Things that I do not know or do not fully understand somewhat scare or intimidate me in a way. That is why it is always good to learn more things and broaden your horizons through knowledge. Once you become more understanding of these topics, is when you can finally be confident, relax and trust in your own abilities to succeed.
When I first came to composition, my knowledge of writing, methods of expression, and rhetorical skills were very limited; I used little more than just commas and periods, and I resorted to simple sentence structures to convey my ideas. However, over the past few months, I have become a much more advanced writer. From understanding the differences between the many writing styles—such as argumentative, narrative, and casual—to implementing advanced literary techniques—such as procatalepsis, elliptical construction, and absolute constructions—these skills have allowed me to express my ideas in ways that I could never before. As someone planning on entering the field of science, writing will be a critical component to express my findings in my research papers. As such, this class as been essential at preparing me to be successful later in life, with it giving me skills that I will make use of nearly every day.
I have never been a strong writer. So coming into this class I was nervous yet excited for all the composing we would do. Now I feel more confident in my writing and more prepared for college and composing papers then. Before this class, I always used the same structure and this class forced me to vary my structure and use more literary techniques. I am excited to take these skills and apply them as I continue on in life. I can now express my ideas more clearly and in ways that I never was able to before this class. Sentence variation is now much easier for me to do and even easier to spot. I have also learned new literary devices that I am excited to continue to use. I have always been able to help other people out in editing but am unable to do the same to my own writing. That still has not changed, I struggle in finding weak points of my own essays. but overall my confidence level has gotten better and my writing has grown considerably. Through this class, I learned better how to plan out the structure from the start.
I have developed a much higher sense of confidence when composing my essays and letters. When I first started composition, my confidence and skill levels were very low. I almost regretted taking this class and considered dropping out and taking the easy route, but I knew that was a bad idea, as my college years would not be easy at all. As I went about the class, I felt my confidence in myself rising as my ability to compose papers became stronger. This class helped me understand different writing styles and how to use grammar in the correct manner. Term Tuesdays assisted in composing my essays as I acquired new ways of expressing words and new ways to compose exquisite sentences. They also helped me to inadvertently take better notes while a lecture is going on, as I normally do not take notes during class. I will go on to use these skills all throughout my university years.
This class has helped me become better at composing essays for other classes. I am able to use different grammatical terms throughout my essay without questioning if I am using them correctly. I am sadly not taking this class for college credit but it does mean I will be extra prepared when it comes to taking this class in college. I have learned how different writing styles can influence the way the story is being conveyed to the audience. I also learned how to format my essays in order for it to be organized and easy to read. I have enjoyed the essays we have written and have noticed that I can write better when I am writing about topics that do not take much thought. If I already have prior knowledge about a topic, then I believe it becomes easier for me to write and make stories more interesting. I will miss this class because you are a great teacher and I have enjoyed learning these helpful skills in your class.
While I do believe as a result of having to consistently write essays in this class that I have gained more confidence in my writing, I overall still struggle with the writing process. Through these multiple essays, I have discovered that I really enjoy writing when it is over a topic I was passionate about. I loved being able to relay information over a topic I have extensive knowledge of. Whenever I wrote an essay over less interesting topics, I found myself less motivated to sit down and compose and my writing would suffer because of it. I still struggle with certain aspects of grammar such as when to place commas and how to use more unique forms of composing in my writing. While I have definitely improved in this area, I still believe I have a little ways to go until I master it as I still rely on people to help point out those mistakes when reading my work.
Before this class, my confidence in writing was low. Many things have been cleared up that have confused me for a while and having it cleared up takes some stress away. I have written more this semester than I have in my whole life. I doubted being able to do as much writing as I did. It also helped to be able to pick what I would be writing about. I have always written essays that had specific criteria and topics. I think it is very important to write about something you are genuinely interested in. I feel that it inspires me to make my essay the best that it can be and can be done while having some fun with it. My mind has sort of opened up a little bit, and I definitely have become more fluent in writing. The way I think has changed. I still am a bad writer, but I am now better than garbage. I know college involves a good amount of writing, so taking this class will give me a great head start I need.
I have developed a confidence in my grammar. I used to fear writing anything "out of the norm". Write in simple sentences. Don't use intentional fragments. Don't use semicolons; you don't know how to use them correctly. How do you even use a colon? I couldn’t tell you. If I strayed from the comfortable home of the writing style I used for years, I lost all confidence in my work and wouldn't submit such work. This class has helped me feel comfortable and strong in a more advanced and impressive writing style and I'm very grateful for that. I think that the need to use terms in our essays and discussing them and working on them frequently was very helpful. We have worked on grammar in past classes but I never seemed to truly get it until now. I hope that in my coming years of education and my years past that I continue to advance my writing style.
Since the beginning of the first semester, my confidence in writing and composing has risen greatly. I have realized that in previous years I had just been writing to get my papers done. Now, I write about a topic because I enjoy the topic I am writing about. Another thing that has soared my confidence in composing is the final exam terms. With the final exam terms, I can now drastically improve my writings because of all of the terms. When I first came into the class, I did not think I would even be able to come close to finishing a 5-page essay, let alone 7 or 8 pages. As I kept writing, my confidence kept elevating and composing became less of a chore and easier to do. CHESS is another topic I came into the class not knowing much about. As the year has continued, I have been able to incorporate the CHESS strategy into my writing to improve it.
I have never really considered myself the greatest writer, but I feel this class has helped me a lot. I have definitely become more confident in composing and not just writing to write. This class has helped me use more grammatical terms throughout my essays and make my writing more complex. Before this class, I feel I would just keep writing with the same structure and composition 1 has taught me to think differently. Term Tuesday has also been a helpful tool throughout the semester and has definitely helped when studying for the final exam. I have also gained a better understanding of different sentences and how to differentiate them. I still have a lot of improvements to make, but this class has definitely given me the tools to create more confidence in my composing. Overall I have enjoyed taking this class and learning from my mistakes.
This class has helped me enhance and better my writing. My confidence levels have grown significantly when I compose because I actually know and have an idea of how to fit in grammatical classification and structure into my writing. There are still some aspects of composing that I am still hesitant on, but for the most part, this class has enabled me to expand my mind and increase my creativity and implement what I have learned into my writing. When I initially took this class, I was intimidated and anxious about the fact of how many essays we had to construct, but as time passed and we began to learn and take in information about composition. This made writing a substantial amount easier and much more entertaining. I appreciate and thank you for everything that you have done for us and this class.
I have been able to develop confidence in my composition skills. Throughout the semester, I feel that I have gained several useful skills and tools throughout the semester. My confidence has definitely grown because of this toolkit I now have. I am able to feel way more comfortable in my writing this year than I have been in the past. For example, I can spice up my writing and have more effect on the reader because of the skills I have gained. For example, I now know how to properly use semicolons, colons, hyphens, dashes, and even parentheses. Thes all help the writing be more interesting and dramatic. I also learned about simple, compound, complex, compound-complex sentences, and fragments. With these, I am able to vary the types of sentences I use in a writing piece. Overall, I have gained a lot of confidence through this class and the semester.
English has always been my favorite subject in school and with writing essays in other classes, I felt that I had a good idea on writing essays. However, since taking this class, my confidence has grown immensely. Before this class, writing an essay that was more than three pages seemed to be a daunting and challenging task. Now, I am able to write an essay that is over three pages without much trouble. One thing I have struggled with this semester is grammatical classification and constructing sentences. Throughout the semester, I feel that my ability in constructing sentences has grown. I feel more comfortable with using the correct grammar rules from term Tuesday and the final exam terms. I feel that my
Coming into the year I was rather worried about my capability to compose essays. However, as the year has progressed, I have gained more and more confidence in my ability to compose. My toolkit has grown throughout the semester, and now I feel that I have gained several useful skills and tools. As the year has gone, I feel that my essays have gotten better and better and I feel that I am very ready for college. I would say my word choice is now more explicit because of the vocab tests and the multitude of words we have learned from them. Before this class, I hadn't written many papers, but this class gave me a heavy dose of writing and how to properly punctuate. I now am able to intrigue people more into reading my essays by writing convincing introductions and having a good thesis statement. Now have the utmost confidence in myself when it comes to writing.
Composition has made me feel much more like an author. Before taking this course, I feel like whenever I would write I would kind of just write words down that I thought made sense. I used to add in extra, not needed words, to make my stories longer, but now after taking the class I am much more confident in my sentence structures and I do not find it necessary to add in the extra verbiage. I feel like I have also become more confident in inserting more useful vocab words by taking this class. By having to include a few words every essay, it has made me begin to use more of them even when not required, so I guess my vocab confidence has increased as well. Overall, I feel like the sentence structure of my writing has improved the most and has given me confidence in my writing.
I have always liked writing but I have not always been very confident about my writing skills. Writing comes easy to me when I am writing about something that I am passionate about. I always have a really hard time writing when I have to write about something I am not interested in. My confidence has definitely grown a lot since I started Composition 1. I have learned many more techniques to help improve my writing and make my essay more pleasant to read. I have never really liked English classes because of all of the confusing definitions that you need to memorize. Since I have been required to but many of these definitions in my essays it has made it a lot easier to learn and really understand what these things actually mean. Being able to put these things into my essay and knowing where they work makes me confident and makes me feel like I know what I am doing. I have a way better understanding of essays and in making them sound good.
Before taking Composition, I was not terrible at composing and editing essays; however, with this class, I have become more confident in my writing and composing abilities. Through the lessons of sentence structure, grammar, and vocabulary, I have learned how to be more confident in my abilities. I took the skills I learned in this class and applied them to my essays, whether that be for informative essays, argumentative, narratives, and so on. I learned how to define the differences between dashes and hyphens—how to use them correctly—inside the body of my essays. With these special skills, my essays have become more intriguing and flavorful. Composing beautiful, flowing essays is like painting an oil canvas—smooth, soft, and inspiring. I learned how to write with vision (like in the last sentence, also a simile). I experienced that no matter how good you are at writing, you can always improve and that the essay is never finished, even when you turn it in.
I have developed stronger confidence in myself when it comes to composition. This class has provided me with a lot of opportunities to develop my writing and English skills. I took this class to really develop my writing so I can more effectively describe my opinions and this class has done a good job with that. Through many essays, I have discovered good techniques and strategies to make my writing more convincing and appeal to readers in a better fashion. My writing before this class was average and I did not put a lot of effort into it because I believed it wasn't going to prove a very good point. This class has shown me that composing effectively is really important and allows for better communication with other people. I think I could get better at using bigger, more complex words in my writing, but I am going to keep working on it.
I believe that I have grown as a writer throughout this semester in this class. I think I have become more comfortable with more difficult terms throughout Term Tuesday's. Procodelpsis and euphemisms are words that I had never heard of before. I have been in Honors English classes throughout high school, and have practiced different writing styles in the past. This class has given me the opportunity to use ideas I have worked on in the past and try to work them into my essays. Learning through students has helped me to learn the correct way to write and has made writing more fun and enjoyable. I don't feel like I have perfected any type of writing, but I think I have received more information and instruction on how to write. This instruction has definitely helped me compose, rather than write. Although I am not completely confident in myself as a composer, I feel that I have grown in my writing throughout the year.
Composition has helped me demonstrate my ability to write with confidence. With the many papers, we had to write in a limited amount of time. I learned how to write quickly, yet effectively. Although I have never considered myself a great writer, I feel that I have grown more experienced from this class. I was very nervous about this class because writing papers terrified me. Before this class, I was struggling to put my words on a page that made any sense whatsoever. Although, I am not yet and professional writer, I am much closer to writing in a professional way. The thought of writing more than 5 pages on one topic sounded impossible to me. However, the essay topics in this class were very easy to write about, which solved the problem of "writer's block." Also, the challenge of adding the many vocab words, final exam terms, and varied sentence structures increased my confidence in writing.
When I began Composition, my writing skills were not perfect by any standards. I never put enough thought into forming essays, so my writing was usually incoherent and broken. It was not unreadable, but it was not ideal either. My composition skills are by no means perfect now but I can definitely see some improvement over the semester. I had no idea how to use dashes or semicolons as well as many other literary devices before I started this class and now I use them often. If you asked me one year ago what "procatalepsis" was, I might have said that it was a cold medicine. I also am getting better at forming essays. I can plan out how my essays will go so that once I write my thoughts down, it flows well. I now have less trouble with choppiness in my writing, because I am much better at transferring coherent thoughts onto paper.
I have always liked creating stories and using my imagination to think about different scenarios. I don't like planned writing; I want to be able to create what I want to with few limitations. There were a couple times I wanted a creative writing class for the following year, but my teacher told me the class didn't pass. I have always had confidence myself; however, I know that it has risen. My peers have always asked me to peer edit their documents, give them suggestions, and other things. I am very confident in my revising skills. I am, however, not as confident in my creations. When it comes to creating what I want to create, I am very confident and happy. When I am creating something I am required to, I am always a blank slate. I am nervous, I always want to be perfect, and half the time I have no idea what I am talking about. Sometimes, I feel like my paper doesn't even make sense. Other times, I want to branch off onto other topics or I cannot put into words what I am trying to explain. This may have declined since taking Composition, but I still deal with this issue. I want to create something that I want to. I want to write stories and create a world that only I know and understand completely. I just don't have enough grammar and vocabulary knowledge to write something to my satisfaction. I am also very impatient when it comes to making a point. I want something to be said or I want something to happen quickly and I don't have the patience to add details. I have always had this problem. That is why if I ever create books, I tell myself they will be children's books or short stories.
The level of confidence regarding composition that I have developed I would say is above average but not excellence. I understand how to have sentences run smoothly and use different words for variation in sentences. Without this knowledge, my sentences would most likely sound the same, making the overall essay sound like a blended together piece of trash. Also, I think the most important information I had gathered from this class is understanding the complexity of the English lexicon. Without the class, and classes before this, I would employ the same words over and over to reach the final page requirement with little to no sentence variation. With the final terms, I learned how to use varying different types of sentence structuring tools to make sentences seem distinct and stand out on there own. Not only did this class increase my confidence regarding the composition of essays, but it has been a great college preparation tool.
After becoming more familiar with composing multiple essays, I feel that I have become more confident in my ability to think outside of the box. After taking several english classes, it seems like it was the same thing but a different year. I love the idea that my essay can become whatever I want it to be. I feel like i have never really been able to decide that in my past classes. Composition compared to regular english is different because you follow a very lax outline. I think that having the opportunity to write a variety of essays also helps develop my confidence because it causes my thoughts to be pushed further without me realizing it. Also, having to write these essays for a grade applies more pressure to make sure it is perfect and without that aspect I feel like I wouldn't of wanted to push as hard as I did.
Throughout this semester, I believe that my confidence in composition has increased immensely. I believe that I have begun writing with more enthusiasm and I believe my essay in total sounds more mature. I also have learned that changing my lengths of my paragraphs is very useful when writing, and I believe that I have done well with doing that. When researching for a topic, I feel more confident in finding useful website to cite in my essay. Along with that, I have improved on completing citations for my essay following the MLA format. Before this class, I did not tend to change my sentences into complex or compound-complex sentences. When looking back at my essays, I realized that those types of sentences have been mixed in without intentionally doing it. Usually when I would hear about writing a 7 page paper, I would cringe. After completing this semester I know that I am capable of doing it for the future.
From this comp class, I have become more confident in my composition skills. I have learned many techniques on how to evolve, strengthen, and elevate my ability to write papers and essays. Before this class, my writing skills and level were fairly basic. Once as I started this class I have honed in on new writing techniques and writing styles that I had never imagined of using. My confidence has skyrocketed in my writing abilities. Before I would shake in my boots when needing to write a two or three-page paper. As the past semester progressed and the papers got longer I found it easier to elaborate on my ideas and write. Suddenly I would be a half-page over the requirement and still have more to write. This allowed me to fully elaborate and then later edit it so that the ideas were more concise and not repeated.
If someone asked me if this class were worth taking, I would tell them that it 100% is. You learn writing skills that you did not know you had, not only from the teacher, but other kids in the class, or the partner helping you with the essay. You learn how to get up in the nitty gritty parts of writing that need special attention. Not only is the essay portion of this class good to learn, but the vocab test can help a lot with further knowledge of words (obviously) and they can help you spicy up your writing with a word or two that nobody knows. If I had to choose to change on thing in this class, it would just be to have more time with the semester test information, in my personal opinion, I just did not think that I learned as much of that as I should have, so maybe just go through it more throughout the semester, or make it a new requirement for the essays:))))
Throughout this semester, my level of confidence from a writing standpoint has gone through the roof. When I started the semester on the first few essays, I was slightly concerned. I kept asking myself if I really belonged in this class? Should I drop this class at the end of the first semester? All sorts of thoughts were running through my head, but then something changed one day. Words started to fly from my thoughts to my computer screen like they never have before. And with each essay, my confidence has grown tremendously. Then we did the argumentative essay with a partner. I got to choose who I wanted to write my essay with, and I thought that was awesome because I could surround myself with somebody that is a great writer, and I could learn some tips, and see how they express their thoughts onto their paper. Then, as we were getting our start, we had another great mind added to our group, and the amount of knowledge that I gained from those to is truly immeasurable. So with the help of my teacher, and working hard on my writing, and getting to work with a few bright friends, I definitely am confident in all of my writing.
Throughout the Composition class I gained very much confidence in my writing. Knowing how to add little writing techniques adds more definition and depth into my writing and I feel that I have become a much stronger writer than I was before. Now, when going into an essay I know what to expect and how to properly format things like quotes and titles of works that are incorporated into my essays. I also now know how to title my own essay correctly using a colon and making the title grab the readers and make them pay attention and want to read the essay by giving an introduction into my essay cleverly. When going into an essay I know how to write it and organize it very well and taking this class has helped with this very much by giving me opportunities to write and take the time to properly order everything and make it clear for any reader. I have become much more confident in my writing.
Throughout this class, I have grown tremendously in my ability to write in many ways. Knowing how to grab the attention of the readers with little keywords that make a huge difference. Also knowing what words not to overuse to get the readers in boredom. I use to have trouble starting off my essays but now I learned how to grab the attention with a quote or something clever to get them to not want to stop reading. When the first essay came around I was like how in the world am I going to finish this and over the course of the year it just began to come more natural and the days that use to be painful writing all day just seem to be more enjoyable now. I have defiantly become way more confident in my writing capability and starting to trust myself more every time I write.
94 comments:
"Confidence comes from one source: demonstrated ability." –Coach Don Meyer. I always thought I was good at composition but did not know what it all entailed. I would constantly write stories, essays, and blogs and did not think of all that came with it. I always thought I was phenomenal at writing, but I was wrong. You can always change things and write better. Through the semester of composition, I have not only gained more knowledge but bettered my writing. I feel as though writing comes easier to me, and that I can get more words typed in one sitting. I know more about sentence structures and other grammar things that will help with my writing. My confidence regarding composition has increased phenomenally and I feel great about my writing. I am excited for Literature next semester, but I will miss Composition and the writing that came with it a lot.
Composition has given me a stronger feeling of satisfaction when I write. I no longer feel that useless verbiage is falling out of my brain and onto the paper. The words and new writing tricks tend to plaster the page like a mural on a wall--the margins of the page acting as a frame to confine the work. Art has the power to move people in ways that are not as facile to understand as math or economics; on the page the mural of words is able to create an image that readers can see and comprehend. They also have a voice. Their once annoying ring of sentiment now reverbs with interesting vocabulary and sentences that interest even me. I am proud of my progress and very thankful for what I have learned. In a world of monotonous, insignificant, and quite frankly boring words, I am glad that there is a class that can make my, and others, words more interesting. In resolution, I’d say that I have gained a new level of confidence in composition. The road is still long, but the destination is closer in the distance than it seems.
Coming into English 101: Composition, I already felt like I had a fairly strong grip on composition. From writing lengthy essays in my past English classes to completing numerous application statements, I believed that there was not that much more I could learn about writing. However, this class completely changed the way that I view my papers. After entering the class, I was instantly introduced to nearly 100 important composition terms, filling me with the knowledge to effectively style sentences in a more complex manner, and the vocabulary taught in this class helped me become more articulate with my writing. Most importantly, the frequent essay assignments allowed me to constantly experiment with each lesson the class provided. As practicing is one of the best ways to learn, every essay drastically improved my abilities as a writer. In the end, this transformative class took me on a compositional journey, changing the way I approach writing a paper for the rest of my life.
Composition has provided me with the opportunity to enhance my writing to a more prestigious level. I have written numerous essays and presented speeches to the general public on quite a few occasions; however, to the standard level of a college course, I could say they lacked the vocabulary and complex sentence structures we have learned in class. In this class, I have been provided with the opportunity to explore many topics of my personal interest and gain a better understanding of how to formulate sentences, introduce new vocabulary terms, and submit a product that I am proud of. I am rather happy to have my name attached to my work now and see the payoff. Through composition, I have a newfound interest in writing and the urge to gain knowledge. With this interest, I have been often caught with my eyes gliding over the pages of numerous books, seeing the different writing styles of authors in hopes to divulge and savor every word. I am quite pleased with the outcome composition has left me with and look forward to how my writing style will continue to change and develop throughout the next decade.
Composition has provided me with a unique opportunity, and that is to enhance my writing skills. I had some basic understanding of how to write effectively, but composition goes into more depth, and that benefits me. Not only have I learned so much, but I can also effectively apply terms within my writing. Grammatical classification has been beneficial as well. To be honest, I do not think I have ever had the five grammatical classifications discussed in class before; I have never even heard of those terms until composition. There is a myriad of terms that I can now correctly use in my writing. Applying all of our new terms into our essays has been beneficial towards all of us students; it makes us look more professional, in-a-way. In the long run, Composition may or may not help others towards future occupations, but it has all impacted us positively. I am satisfied with how my writing has come along over the course of five months, and I am pleased with the knowledge I have learned in composition. I am excited about what literature has to offer next semester.
Before coming into this class, I thought I had a decent grasp on writing essays, but I had no idea how much more I could learn. This class has taught me five different grammatical classification ways to style a sentence which I had no idea even existed before this year. Learning 100 more terms to spice up an essay was even more intriguing and helped me elaborate on all of my papers. I now feel more confident in my writing and I feel as though I have grown tremendously from the beginning of the year. Adding new vocabulary to every one of my essays has allowed me to explore the realm of prestigious writing. I know feel my readers are able to see a better picture and understand more about each topic I compose about. I am thankful for this opportunity to grow this much in such a short time span and I cannot wait for what next semester will bring.
I feel like I have come a long way in my ability to compose an essay. I think that I sound more mature and educated than I did coming into this class at the beginning. I definitely have more confidence in citing my sources, and writing an essay that is correctly MLA formatted. I didn’t know what an annotated bibliography was before last essay, so that is something else I can use to my advantage in the future. I think I have learned how important it is to vary sentence lengths and types. I know that I don’t tend to use compound-complex enough, and I need to be intentional with adding those into my writing. I also never thought about adding intentional fragments into my writing, but it adds something interesting. Writing 5-7 page essays has always seemed like a daunting task, but this class has prepared me for writing them in college.
This class has taught me so many aspects of writing that I had no idea about. When I go back and compare my old essays with my more recent ones I can tell a difference in my writing. I have learned to use bigger and more meaningful words throughout my writing. Grammatical classification was nothing of importance to me until this class. Studying deeper into the grammatical classification I now realize why it is so important. I had very little knowledge of what it meant to be a good and intelligent writer. I now have way more confidence in my own writing and also able to catch small mistakes throughout the essay. As much as I dread having to write a 6-page essay it has developed me into a better student. The different tools I learned in this class also affect almost all my other classes. Composition has taught me to think out of the box with my ideas and how I express my thoughts. Overall I am happy that I took this class because I know it will benefit me in the future.
Composition has been a very successful class for me. I feel like I have come a long way from where I was writing in previous years. Nothing against my previous teachers, but I am a much better writer now than I was before I started this class. Before this class, I could barely write a 3-page essay, but now I am typing 8 to 10-page essays. I could barely use any big words, and I made every sentence the same. Now, I can make essays that include vocabulary, and sentences that do not have to start with a subject. I have learned how to write different types of sentences and use them to make my writing more fluent and thorough. Sentences—like complex, compound, and compound-complex—have helped me to not have to use a simple sentence every time. I also have learned how to quote authors or speakers and how to make a fantastic title. I think that this class has helped me out immensely and will allow me to be successful in my years of education to come. My confidence from composition has gone through the roof.
I believe that I have gained a decent level of confidence in my ability to compose essays. I have always felt fairly confident but this class has taught me more things to look for in my essays. The final exam terms that were necessary in our writing have helped me to be a more diverse writer. I feel like my grammar has also improved more than previous years. Noredink has not worked for long term memory for me but I think that what I have learned in this class will be more permanent in my mind. I believe that this class has helped to develop my individual writing style instead of forcing me into a box of rules like previous classes did. The freedoms given to me in composition allowed me to branch out into a more unique writing style. I feel like the skills learned in composition will have more useful applications in college than what other classes taught me will.
Over the course of this semester, I have gathered a lot of confidence regarding my ability to type essays. In previous years my essays would struggle to reach the limit which would hover around the 3-page mark. But this year I have been able to type 6 pages on my own. In previous years I have felt my self adding fluff and unneeded items in my essay just to make it reach the limit. But, this year I have developed the skill of adding more helpful and useful information into my essay to help further and develope my point to convey my message to the reader.I have also been able to elaborate upon boring words in my essays that I have been using in previous years. But, now I use a lot of vocab words in my writing to make my essay seem more persuasive and show that I know what I am talking about. I have also learned a lot about grammatical classification and classifying sentences to which has helped my writing to make my sentences whole and grammatically correct.
When it comes to composition, this class has improved my confidence in writing greatly. I still feel that there are areas that I still struggle with or could improve on. Instead of feeling uneasy about writing overall, this composition class has allowed me to test out a variety of prompts and writing styles. Through this, I had the ability to find the type of style that I actually enjoy and excel at. By writing over topics that I showed interest in, it helped me go back through my essays and feel confident with what I was composing and submitting. Instead of just trying to meet requirements, I felt like I wanted to continue to write and convey my messages. I feel that I have found my own unique way of writing. I have figured out ways to make my essays grab the reader's attention and push past generic sayings and styles. I learned that the skills I have obtained through this class will effectively help in my future even if it's not in another Composition or English class.
Going into this class, I was very weak in my writing and was not confident in being able to correctly write my ideas down. I had never worked hard on essays in class because they were never over a topic that I enjoyed. This class has not only helped me to enjoy what I am writing but it has also helped me become a better composer and become more confident in my writing. Incorporating vocab words and terms into my writing has helped me create more interesting essays to read. I have really enjoyed composing in class and learning how to portray my ideas in a better way. I have learned a lot about grammar and how to use it correctly in my essays. I am grateful that I have been able to learn these skills and have been able to apply them to essays I have written for college applications.
I feel that Composition 101 has greatly improved my writing skills. Before I took the class, I was only able to write lame titles and thesis statements, somewhere along the lines of "in this essay..." or "you will learn about..." Composition 101 taught me how to write thesis statements much better than I ever could before, and the class also taught me how to write better in general. Term Tuesday and the terms study guide really did help me to better learn new terms and/or ways to structure a sentence. At first, I wasn't excited to write essays all the time. However, now I see the value in writing essays consistently, as there is no other way to improve my writing skills.
The level of confidence regarding composition has developed, expanded, and surged to a new level I thought I could never reach. At first, I barely knew what a verb and a noun was, but now after typing essay after essay, I am starting to get the hang of it. Don’t get me wrong, I still have much to learn. When I am composing, I notice that I begin to be more drawn into what I am writing. For example, I convinced myself that living in the city is better than living in the country by constantly researching it for our argumentative essay. This class has taught me to use terms that I would never think of using. Some of the terms include: colons, dashes, hyphens, and ellipsis. Just the simple terms I would never think to use. I wish I would have taken Composition 101 before taking my history class. I would say that my confidence in composing has broadened since last year.
From experience writing essays in previous grades and classes, I thought I had a pretty steady grip on essay composing. I had a penchant for writing essays. I was able to express my opinions and facts through writing. But from joining Composition 101, my skills have improved immensely. I have a better knowledge of grammatical classification. By gaining this skill, it makes it easier to edit my essays while being able to change my sentence flow and structure by making a compound/complex sentence for example. Overall, this year I have learned and understood more grammatical topics. I have always had a harder time understanding grammar, but from listening in class to Term Tuesday's and Mr. C's mini-lectures, I can know more about these topics then I knew before. Besides writing essays and learning a greater depth of grammar, vocabulary tests have expanded my vocabulary. For my essays, I can change boring or meaningless words with different vocabulary words we have learned. I also use these vocabulary words in other classes to elaborate better on what I am trying to say. I am glad I have joined and partaken in this class. I have learned more than I thought I would, can't wait to see what Literature will bring.
Throughout this semester I have grown a lot more comfortable with composing. I used to hate getting assigned an essay, but now I enjoy writing them. Being able to have two weeks to work on one essay used to seem impossible. Now, I know how to manage my time. The thought of an essay does not scare me anymore. Before this year I was terrified to take comp and lit because of all the writing I would have to do. I used to think that I was a really poor writer. Now, I know that I can write a decent essay that is up to nine pages in length. Writing up to three pages used to be a struggle for me. This class has helped build the confidence I need for writing in my future college classes. My confidence level is much higher than it was at the start of the semester and I am a whole different writer than I was freshman year.
I think I have grown to be a lot more confident with my writing throughout the semester during the composition class. I became more comfortable with the idea of having to write a multiple page essay because we had to do it many times. I used to struggle with knowing how to construct a sentence, especially if the sentence was more complex. However, I became more confident and comfortable because of all the different writing styles and grammar rules I learned from the term Tuesdays. Some of the many new writing tools I learned was how to use different types of quotes, MLA format, hyphens, and dashes. I still get a little confused about a couple grammar rules and punctuation but definitely not as much as I used to. I now feel like my writing is more intelligent sounding and creative which makes me feel better about going into college where the essays are longer and expectations are set higher.
Coming into the year for composition, I did not feel that confident. Previously in school, I always found it a challenge when I was assigned an essay. I never knew where to start or how to introduce my topic. Now after writing several page essays over a broad range of topics, I feel much more confident. I know how to compose a strong thesis statement that creates a great introduction to the essay and my ideas. I have broadened my range of vocab words in my essay, and this helps creates a stronger essay. My knowledge of grammar has also increased immensely. Before taking this class I would not have known how to put a participial phrase into my essay. Knowing all the terms we learned from term Tuesday helps write essays at a greater level. I have learned so much from this composition class and I have enjoyed learning how to write a proper process.
I have always loved writing essays and stories. I would search for a topic on google and write an argumentation essay. I have learned so much this year and I am so grateful. Throughout my year in Composition 101, I have learned and experienced a lot. I feel stronger and more confident when I am facing a writing prompt. When we wrote the letters to a business or thanking someone, I was inspired to send a letter thanking my vet for helping treat my dog. Coming into my senior year I thought I knew how to write an essay and how to formulate the introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Now I know there is so much more to writing an essay. There are different ways to formulate sentences and to order the information. I learned about CHESS in argumentation essays which I think is very helpful! This class taught me to use different terms and to apply everything I know in order to get my point across.
Through the course of Composition class and with a great deal of practice, I have become a much more confident composer. Prior to taking Composition, my writing was simply average. It was far from great; however, it was not necessarily bad. Not possessing the more advanced composing skills that I do today, I also severely lacked confidence. I was never self-assured when I would turn in an essay. It seems that over the course of my educational career, composing was not seen as a priority skill and essays were few and far between. I wrote essays maybe a couple times a year and they were far less demanding. Because of this, it was hard to develop good writing strategies and skills. Not only did I lack confidence, but I also never saw myself becoming a good writer. I am much better at composing now than I ever have been. I now feel an unprecedented sense of confidence when I turn in my papers. Far more confident in my writing, I remain aware that there is still massive room for improvement. With further practice and persistence, I believe I could develop greater composing skills and my writing will only improve.
Before taking Composition this year, I was a terrible writer. I did not know how to write smoothly or how to structure my sentences. Throughout this semester I have been challenged and pushed more than I ever thought I would. I am beyond grateful for all the new ideas and information I have learned this semester and I can't wait to learn more in Literature. Not only has my essay writing gotten better, so has the way I speak in general. Now that I know all these little pieces of information about grammar and English, it is easier to piece it all together and show people that I know what I'm doing or talking about. I never thought that I would ever write a paper that got me a good grade, or even want other people to read my writing because I was so embarrassed by it. But now, I have learned that everyone makes mistakes, nobody is judging your writing harshly, and you always have room to improve. I am nowhere near being as good as I can be when it comes to composing, but I have, definitely, taken giant steps in the right direction. I am excited to further my writing abilities and go into college knowing that I can write a good paper.
I never used to be good at writing essays, I actually hated writing essays because I could never get my words across by writing. Now that I am in composition, I found more ways to say the words I have in my head that I couldn't get out. I always struggled with being able to write 2 pages, much less 7 pages. But now, 7 pages aren't enough pages to fill up all my thoughts on the topic we have. I like how we have to be creative with some of the topics because we might not be able to think of a good essay or have trouble writing. Composition has given me the confidence to be able to be creative in my writing and to be able to write about anything, even if I don't agree with it.
English and writing have always been my better subjects in school, and so I feel like I came into this class with a decent amount of confidence in my skills. That is not to say I have not been challenged this semester because I certainly have! The number of pages required for each essay and how many essays we completed this semester have pushed me to better my time management skills and be able to work on multiple projects at the same time. I have learned much more about sentence structure, writing style, and vocabulary integration than I have in any other class. Before this class, I was never really concerned with contractions or expletives and have since come to understand how they can affect the professionalism of an essay and why limiting them is important. Learning to merge different writing styles on partner essays has also been a skill that I have had to learn this semester.
English was always the subject that I was decently good at but it was not my favorite subject. Coming into this class I was a little nervous because I thought it was going to be a lot more difficult compared to other English classes I have taken in the past. Towards the end of the semester, I have become more confident with my writing. I am able to write my essays in a more professional way and correctly punctuate them. I have pushed myself to become a more avid writer. My confidence when it comes to writing essays depends on what I am writing about. If I am interested in the essay then I can go on for pages and pages. If I am not interested in the essay, I am not as near as confident. I have learned many different writing styles this semester and I think I am fairly confident in writing in all of them. This class has also made me more confident in stepping outside of my comfort zone and being more creative when it came to my writing.
I have never been very confident in my writing. English and reading have never been the strongest subjects for me. Throughout this semester, I have learned many things about myself and my writing. I feel more confident when composing and am open to accepting criticism. When I first looked at the requirements for our first essay, I was anxious and did not think I would be able to write that much. Reminiscing on that today, I am proud of how much my writing has grown this semester. I also enjoy having the opportunity to read the essays written by my classmates; it sparks a lot of creative ideas for me. This semester I have learned that it is easier to compose with what is on my mind at the moment and go back to edit it later. I have learned a wide variety of writing styles when being required to emulate them in my essay.
My confidence regarding composition has developed tremendously. I am more confident in writing an essay; whether it be narrative, argumentative, or a letter. I have always been better at English than any other subject, and specifically writing. I did learn how to format a letter this year, which I can imagine will help me a lot in the future. The ethos, pathos, and lathos formats helped me a lot during it. I think the writing style that I have gained the most confidence in was in research. I have learned how to properly do the MLA formal that college professors will prefer, and I can imagine it will help me a lot in the next few years. I also learned how to properly insert quotes into my essay. Of course much like with the MLA format, I already knew how to do it. Now, however, I have been refreshed on the proper way to cite my sources. I have never been good at research essays because of the reason that I can not put my own opinion. I am more confident because I have learned and realized that I can make it my own style.
At the beginning of English Composition 101, I had no idea how to compose. All I knew how to do was poorly write essays. During the first few days of class, I thought there would be no way that I could possibly compose a seven-page essay, as my longest essay prior to the class was only three pages. Now both my confidence and ability have increased in knowing how to correctly compose an essay instead of just writing one. Looking back and comparing the first essays to the most recent ones it is very obvious how much better my composing skills have become. I have learned to use grammatical classification while composing to make my essay more enjoyable. I have learned to incorporate both vocab and other terms to make me seem very educated on my topic. I am positive that the skills I have learned in this class will help me in my future, far beyond another English class.
Since the first day of 101 Composition, my confidence regarding composing has grown by leaps and bounds. Through term Tuesdays and vocabulary quizzes on Wednesday, I have learned the necessary tools to compose well. I was able to practice incorporating these tools into the six different essays that were assigned this semester. The essays were all so different from each other, so you were able to see how different techniques applied and fit each style. Instead of typing meaningless phrases, my typing now has a purpose and appeal. Through other tools and techniques, like "CHESS" and Aristotle’s Logos, Ethos, & Pathos, I know how to add intrigue to essays, and how to back up my ideas. Having these sources led to a better understanding of citing different kinds of sources. This all contributed to my composing becoming stronger and more fluid after each essay. I will continue to utilize my newfound confidence regarding composition in college and in life.
Being in Composition this year, I feel that my writing skills are much improved. I have never been fully confident in my essays until this year. In the past years of high school, I never thought my essays were written to my best abilities. I love creative writing or argumentative essays but I thought I could always improve, especially when it comes to grammar or vocabulary. Having to add in vocabulary and label final exam terms, I realized how it can make an average essay become a pristine college-level essay. I can now write an efficient seven-page essay, compared to previous years of struggling to write a good two-page essay. Composition has really taught me how to take writing to the next level without the stresses of learning grammar or being pressured by the teacher to write something perfect. Without this stress, I can write confidently and I know this confidence will well prepare me for college.
In my opinion, I believe that my writing skills have improved greatly. Before this class, if you asked me to write a two-page essay I probably would have laughed at you but now I feel as if I can write a five-page essay pretty easily. I feel like I can write much more fluently and gracefully compared to before. I know a lot more ways to emphasize my points such as CHESS. But I think one of the most important things I’ve learned has been getting my ideas across. Before this class started I could write essays fairly well, but they lacked any sort of impact in the end. By the end of this class, I learned about logos, pathos, and ethos and how to apply them correctly. I feel as if this has greatly increased my writing overall and has helped me to learn how to write more solid essays.
Over the span of only a couple of months, my composition confidence has soared. I have seen myself go from a writer to a composer, due to the support from Mr. C. and my classmates when we would work on a paper together. Or from my parents who would proofread most of my papers, and tell me they were great, but needed some improvement. The more time went by the less mistakes I would make and the better my composition was. The way Mr. C. starts off with only a five page paper and slowly works up to 7 or 8, eases students into composing more. I was always scared I wasn’t going to be able to write about one topic for that long, but as my confidence built, the more comfortable I felt. Not only writing longer, but the term Tuesdays helped me use different techniques to take my paper to the next level.
My ability to compose and write essays has increased exponentially! My writing skills have improved ten-fold it seems, this comes with the use of different sentences, vocabulary, and terms to help my essay become stronger. At the start of the year, a five-page essay was incredibly daunting, I had no clue what I would write about or how to compose the essay to make sense. But over this semester I feel that I have new comprehension on how to write and make my essays better. Using certain ideas and points to make my essay topics more comprehensible or persuasive has been a large improvement to my writing. Learning about CHESS has been a very influential piece in writing better essays and continuing to grow in my writing. Understanding and learning how to get my ideas across when composing an essay has also been on the best things possible. Without being able to get my ideas across I wouldn't be able to write well or have anyone understand my writing. Overall I think my confidence has grown exponentially and will continue to grow as long as I keep writing.
Coming into this class, I wasn't exactly sure how to write interesting, engaging papers that were more than a page or two long. Since I've been in this class, I believe I have developed more tools and better writing methods in my arsenal. In August, writing three to eight pages would have seemed like a daunting, nearly impossible task. Now, after writing 6 essays on various topics, gained a new sense of confidence, I have. The letters at the beginning of the semester taught me how to write to someone personally and convince them I am worth a reply. The classification essay allowed me to practice the skill of comparing like things to make them seem very different. The compare and contrast essay gave me the skill to further differentiate two like things. The causal essay included a bit of research and works cited. This essay was one of my favorites because I learned how to incorporate sources and quotes into an essay efficiently. The narration essay was something that didn't take a lot of research, which made it easier to write quickly. I had a lot of fun writing this essay and looking back at one life-changing event. Lastly, the argumentative essay was my favorite. Using pictures, articles, and pre-knowledge in the essay made it a lot of fun to come up with an argument to write against two other people. Out of all the essays we wrote, the argumentative essay was definitely my favorite. Typing the last sentence in the essay came with a sense of satisfaction that we had met all the requirements and had a good, solid argument. This class has greatly improved the confidence I have going into college where I will be writing plenty more papers and essays.
What I have learned from learning to compose rather than just write is that I learned and gained a better understanding of the English grammar structure that any other class from middle school to high school. In this year only, I have learned and used more grammatical structures due to the composed essays I have written have received the best grades I have ever gotten on any other essay I have written from middle school to now. The constant positive reassurance of the fact of receiving nothing lower than an "A" on my essays rather than, the at best, "B" on an essay I got last year in Honors English Eleven; this is possibly due to my previous teachers trying to teach how to write rather than compose, forcing me to repeat what a gerund is or how to place dependent clauses did not necessarily help me write, It rather confused me and didn't explain why this was that or how to use dashes, commas properly, semi-colons, or colons in an essay.
Coming into Composition, I was not quite sure what to expect. I had a decent view and composing writing style already; Mr. Canfield had made us write essays for nearly the entire last semester. Even though I feel like I already had decent writing, I feel I learned a lot more. There were important sentence structures and improvements that I learned could be made to essays. I learned about essays as well. I learned better essay structures and the better way to organize them so that the paragraphs seem to actually fit in. This class taught me a lot of vocabulary that could be integrated to make my essay much more adult-like and professional sounding. I do believe I had more confidence in my writing compared to last year when I was throwing things together in the hopes that I could get a good score. Now my writing is purposeful and well organized. I actually know for sure what I'm doing and I'm able to put that into my writing style.
Coming into composition, I thought I was a decent writer. I enjoyed writing especially about things that were relatable to my life. When I first started the class, I was shocked at how long the papers were because in years prior they were a lot shorter. Throughout the semester, I feel like I have developed greatly in my writing and in my approach before writing. When writing, I believe confidence is key because it helps you feel satisfied with your paper while doing it and when it is completed. Although at times I was frustrated learning about grammar, I can guarantee it helped to take my writing to a more sophisticated level. Writing is something that I will do at the college level in classes like speech so I feel that by taking this class it will help to enhance my grade throughout the class. Composition not only helped me to realize my writing is far from perfect, but also a paper can always be better.
Starting off in composition, I felt like I was an average, if not, below-average writer. I did not really enjoy writing essays and I was not confident in my writing. Learning about Grammical Classification and the Final Exam terms enhanced my writing. I learned different types of sentences and how to make my essays more enjoyable to read. I learned a lot of vocabulary which helped my essays sound more intelligent and logical. I am now more confident in my writing and feel like I have developed my own writing style. I especially was interested in our partner essay because it opened up my eyes to someone else's writing style. I think more essays with partners will help with future students because it will broaden their writing and notice how everyone writes in a different way. Overall, I think I have become more confident in my writing and enjoy composing essays more than before I took this class.
Composition has helped me gain significant confidence in my writing over this semester. I have always been an "ok" composer at best but I feel like my skills have greatly improved after continuing to practice my writing techniques. Previous to this class, I had no idea that there were different structures to sentences and couldn't tell the difference between an independent and dependent clause. Now I feel like I could distinguish or compose every type of sentence that exists in a document. I have actually had to apply myself in this class to create a literary essay that flows well and incorporates relevant information. Also, my grammar and vocabulary have improved immensely through learning and repetition in my essays. In college, I hope to further my writing skills but I'm confident this class helped push me in the right direction. I believe that knowing how to write properly is extremely useful in the real world because people are able to recognize your abilities and intelligence through your writing.
On the first day of class, I felt so overwhelmed. I thought taking Composition, a class consisting of essay after essay, was probably a bad idea. I disliked writing essays and never really felt I was any good at it. But over the semester, I have gained a great deal of confidence in my writing. Having prompts that allow lots of freedom on what to write helped. Being able to write on my interests allowed me to explore my own writing style and even learn to enjoy the process. Needing to use vocab words and final exam terms was a large challenge at first. But now, I can see the positive impact this has had on my writing. Using these items has made my writing more interesting. Now, instead of dreading essays, I have come to enjoy it because of the techniques I have learned in this class. This class has many real-life applications such as college applications and scholarship essays. Overall, I am grateful I took Composition.
I have reached a level of confidence in my composition that I did not think possible. Yes, I lagged behind a little bit but I realized that in some forms of writing, I am very confident. I saw right away that including the different classifications of sentences was no struggle for me, as I write in varying types of complexity. I also had very little trouble including vocabulary words and grammatical terms, as many of them I have seen in writing so often that I use them unconsciously. The biggest discovery I have made this year in regards to my composition skills is my ability to write passionately. Essays that needed a myriad of sources were a little difficult for me, as I have a lot of knowledge in my own brain. Essays that required a lot of opinion-based reasoning were easier because I am a very opinionated person, and I can very easily let that flow into my writing. The easiest parts of essays were ones in which the use of Pathos was widespread. I saw that I can communicate my feelings and my thoughts very easily through writing, and I have an apt ability to describe such things with clear imagery and immersive language. The best I have ever written has been in this class and I find that without it, I would be lagging very far behind in my confidence and skills in writing.
I have never been a very good writer and I think it can be pretty hard at times. When I heard how long the essays we would be writing in this class would have to be I was nervous because I thought it would be really hard. Now I have written multiple essays that have been 5-7 pages long and I didn't know I would be able to do that. My confidence level has definitely gotten higher after taking this class. I think I am capable of writing a decent essay but not only just writing it, composing it. I have learned to use certain sentence structures in order to make my essays more impressive. I have also practiced incorporating different vocabulary words into my essays. I would say that on a scale of 1-10 my confidence is now at a solid seven. I still have a lot of improvement to go but I have seen some growth in my writing.
I was so nervous to take composition because I am terrible at writing essays and just writing in general. I'm not very good at grammar, my sentences are never really connected or smooth, and overall I would just use simple sentences like a 1st grader. Now after taking this class, I still feel I am not great at writing essays, but I have learned a lot and feel I have become a better writer. As I wrote more essays it became easier to use different sentences such as compound and complex, but also I was able to add things to my essay to make it more sophisticated such as anadiplosis and inversion of the whole sentence. I learned a lot about writing and different ways to write a sentence. Looking at my first essay to the last, I can see the improvement; I have grown as a writer and will continue to grow as I write more through the years.
To put it very simply I believe that my level of writing has improved immensely with my basic use and understanding of different skills and techniques of writing. I believe this due to the fact that I came into the class with some basic knowledge of how to write, but not how to compose. At this point in my life, my vocabulary appears to have exponential growth that it could obtain with the abundance of words that have been shown to me, and are yet to come I believe that I have been given a great opportunity to learn from the abundance that is Mr. Christensen’s mind — though it has been a struggle at times— I whole heartily believe that I have never in my thirteen years of school have gotten a teacher with a deeper and stronger ways of teaching and preparing me for a class the way Mr. Christensen has.
"A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval." ~Mark Twain
I chose to answer your quote with this quote because I believe confidence and comfort are correlated; confidence is comfort with any potential outcome of a situation. A year ago I would not have been comfortable with people reading my thoughts and words on certain subjects, so I exposed myself to that vulnerability through this class and gained pseudo-confidence based on reader's reactions. Eventually I became "confident" that an audience would like my writing, but that's not really right, either. Confidence is when that doesn't matter in the first place.
In writing, confidence is indifference to whether your audience agrees with your words, supports your thoughts, or is disgruntled by your writing. Because deep down, you know you said what needed to be; you know you spoke what was in the silence between everybody's words.
I believe I gained this this year, especially around college essay time. I articulated my truth and didn't leave any lines to read between, and I decided if colleges don't like it, I don't want to go there anyway. Knowing the worth in my words and knowing who doesn't know it is an efficient way to find who's values might line up with mine. Colleges who can't value my truth—I probably wouldn't appreciate what they teach.
This may seem kind of cocky but I just know my worth, gained my compositional confidence, and am comfortable with however people may react. :)
~Lizzi Boomsma~
I have developed relatively good confidence in my composition skills. I used to think I wasn't all that great at composing. When I used to write it all just felt like a mess of words on a page or two. Now, I can actually see the coherency in each composition I create. The grammatical errors also held me back in my confidence in composing before. It just didn't necessarily make a whole lot of sense but now I see the patterns and am able to use the correct grammar in each of my compositions. incorporating the different terms from the final exam list has definitely helped me understand the correct way to use certain grammatical symbols in my writing as well. I have found that it is much easier to compose bout something that I get to choose not something assigned. When I get to write about something I choose, the words just tend to come to me versus having to take a lot of time trying to figure out how I am going to write several pages on one topic. I would say overall, my skill in composing has improved greatly over the semester.
Coming into this class, I was worried about succeeding. In previous English classes, I have always exceeded expectations; however, I was still nervous about Composition. My confidence in taking this class was not as high because I have always struggled with writing good essays. While writing essays may not have always been my forte, as this class continued on, I felt my writing starting to turn into composing. My confidence in my composing continued to increase throughout this semester. While I know that there are many areas that I can still improve on, I feel that I have improved greatly. Once Composition 101 is over, I still plan on continuing to improve my composing. Overall, while I was nervous about this class, I am glad that I took Composition 101, due to all the new topics and ways to write that I have learned.
I cannot believe where I have come with composing and writing from this class. When I enrolled in this class last year, a lot of people told me this class would be overwhelming and extremely difficult; however, I was determined to take the class anyway because I love to write and I wanted to get better at it. I have gained a significant level of confidence in composition because this class presented a way that I could understand grammar rules and literary devices. I think that doing essays repeatedly really gave me an understanding of not only how to write and compose, but also how to plan (having rough draft deadlines definitely helped me avoid procrastination). I also think this class has helped me gain confidence in going to college because there were a lot of opportunities to learn about college and prepare for it academically. Overall, I would call myself a confident composer!
I am amazed by how confident I have become with my writing from this class. When I first decided to take this class I was definitely stress. First, I did not even think I was going to make get into the class. Also, I questioned whether I should take the class or not. Writing and composing were never really my strong suits, I fell more into more of the literature category. I always struggled with grammar, sentence types, and composing complete thoughts. But after this class, my confidence has really boosted. I feel confident in my writing and composing. I feel that I now know what I am doing with grammar, I can tell what the different sentence types are, and I can compose complete thoughts without sounding like I am mindlessly babbling. In the end, I am really thankful that I got over my fear and took this class. Without this newfound confidence, I will write more essays and hopefully continue to get better essays.
Writing essays or just English classes, in general, have always been a struggle for me, at least compared to my math and science classes. Going into this class I expected to dread the endless essays but I have been pleasantly surprised. Not only was I worried about the essays I had to write for this class but also for the essays that I would have to write in college which always seemed like such a daunting task. After this semester I have garnered knowledge and confidence in what manner to craft my essays. I now know basic things such as how to put the right header on my page and how to make a good title. Also, having gained experience writing, I can now add grammatical tools such as absolute construction into my essays. I am no longer worried about what essays lie ahead but excited to present what I have learned.
During this semester, I have developed a confidence I have never had before this semester. Before this year, I wrote essays to get done and they were very bland with only boring, basic writing techniques. With the new knowledge that this class has bestowed upon me, I have been able to improve my writing skills for my future years of education. The grades I have got in the past for essays have not been as good as the ones I have worked for this year. I went from getting C's and B's on most of my essays to now getting A's on almost all of my essays. Using the writing techniques I have learned, I can continue to improve my writing and go more in-depth when writing an essay. College professors will appreciate the maturity of my writing. I went from writing down ideas with no structure to carefully outlining when I write down certain information and how I write it down. This class has boosted my confidence so I can write stellar essays in the future.
At the beginning of the semester, I was not very confident in my writing ability. As I have practiced writing the essays for this class it has become easier for me to find things to say and word things. Learning the terms/writing techniques and practicing them in my essays has helped tremendously to the point where I can apply them without having to think about it. For example, I did not even know what ethos pathos and logos were before this class and I can now apply them quite easily. Before taking this class I had never written anything more than 4 pages so I feel more confident in my ability to find material to write about and really elaborate on the subject while keeping the information relevant. I think the quote about confidence coming from demonstrated ability is a very accurate quote because by using and practicing the techniques in my essays I feel much more confident in my writing.
Throughout this semester confidence in my writing ability has greatly increased. Starting out this class early in the year, I was a little weary of whether I would be able to write at the highest level that this class requires; however, as time progressed, I quickly found out that I need not worry. Composing essays every couple of weeks is not the most exciting activity, but one quality that results from composing repeatedly is the creation of good writing skills. Learning about the different ways of composing has greatly enhanced my ability to correctly convey my thoughts in a clear and orderly manner. Personally, I believe that confidence in my own writing is at an all time high. Being able to spend time writing about different topics in Composition has helped me become the best composer I have ever been. Due to the fact that practice makes you better, I believe that all of the development that has resulted in my composition skills is from repeated practice. Overall, my confidence is quite high, but I am aware that there is always room for improvement when composing and I am open to learning more about composing in order to achieve greater.
Before entering this class, I felt that I wasn't a very successful writer, and I didn't know the ways to improve. Since I have entered this class, it has allowed me to become more confident in myself and my writing due to the fact that I have learned—and continue to learn— new writing tactics, along with improving the tactics I knew before. By writing week after week, topic after topic, I have gained knowledge within my writing skills. Before taking this class, I felt that my writing could not meet the standards of this class, but I quickly realized after a couple of weeks that this was not true. Each essay has improved immensely. When I look back to the beginning of the semester at the items that I have written and compare them to my more recent essays, I can truly see an enormous difference. In all, I have clearly noticed my improvements and my confidence will help me in my future years as I continue my education at a college level.
Coming into Composition, I was not very confident in my writing. It would take countless hours and a lot of thought to write my essays. Throughout the semester, I’ve learned how to use a variety of sentence types and terms. From simple and compound to fragment and complex, including different sentence types has improved my writing immensely. Writing is no longer a chore, it has become a hobby. Before Composition, I would struggle writing 2-3 pages essays. Now I can crank out 5-6 page papers in just a few days. Although this is a class of writing, my vocabulary has expanded remarkably. I am able to eliminate dull words and replace them with intelligent vocab. This makes my writing a lot less bland and much more exciting. Looking back at my previous essays, there is a clear difference in the strength of my papers now. I have learned a lot in Composition and am finally proud of my work.
I believe that my composition confidence has increased greatly. At the beginning of the semester writing a two-page essay was a struggle for me, putting all my thoughts into an essay and trying to make it sound all put together. Now, writing a two-page essay is like frosting on a cake. We started small with the two pages but now we ended with seven-page essays. I think the thing I improved on the most was adding vocabulary into my essay, I would always use such common words that made my essay sound boring and uneducated. Saying strong vocab words can make anyone's essay sound even better if used right. Also, Term Tuesday helped me out a lot too, thinking about putting compound and complex sentences in and labeling them, or using different writing techniques and not just going with the same old same old. I think this class was super fun and relaxing to just think and type the whole time!!
Before signing up for Composition 101, I was told that writing essays are an essential part of the class. Writing essays has never been a strength of mine so I was extremely nervous upon entering the class. However, it was not until this class where I learned how to properly compose an essay as I learned the true difference between writing and composing. Through grammatical classification and other terms, I learned how to properly import these useful tools into my writing. I used to avoid using semicolons and dashes in my writing as I was too scared to be using them wrong; I can now confidently apply these to my writing. My vocabulary has tremendously grown as well throughout this semester. I learned to avoid expletives and use strong verbs, all of which make my essays sound more professional. I believe this class has prepared me for college in ways I could not have myself.
Over the course of this class, I have developed a new kind of confidence in my composition skills. Given the ability to explore many types of essays and topics allowed me to find out what kind of writing I am more drawn to. Not only did I get to experience different writing styles and essay types, I learned new techniques and further educated myself on how to make an essay sound and look more professional. There are terms that I had never heard of before this year that I ended up using in my essays. Being able to include these seemingly difficult things into my writing with ease was a definite confidence boost. Before this year, essay writing was not something I took as seriously as I should have, but after actually being taught the intricacies that comprise writing, I can say that my skills have increased and I am much more serious about the composition process. Some of these essays have been a challenge, as I wasn't used to writing 5+ pages, but the push to expand my thoughts was a necessary evil that ultimately allowed me to grow as a composer and put myself on a path of further essay writing.
Originally, my confidence regarding composition and writing was pretty weak. I never viewed myself as a strong writer, but through this class, I have gained a lot more confidence. Through all of the Term Tuesdays, I have learned plenty of new writing strategies and tools to use. A majority of my writing and composition before this were mostly simple sentences, but now I've learned to add a lot of imagery and make lots of complex sentences. The thought of having to type a lot of multi-paged essays was incredibly daunting. Also, I didn’t believe I could type 5 pages about 1 topic, but I proved myself wrong on every account. I learned how to compose effectively, and I also learned how to just sit down and focus on my writing. I was able to look deeper into my writing this semester than I ever have before. Every word that I typed was read many times over and changed to my view of perfection. I feel like this class has immensely prepared me for any composition I may have to do in the future.
I have achieved a great deal of new skills from this semester alone of composition. At the beginning of the year, I did not know the difference between a clause and phrase, I rarely paid any attention to what types of sentences I was using in any essays and I had no idea what half of the final exam terms meant. After practicing over this semester (practice makes perfect yet, I am far from perfect) I have improved my skills in all of those areas and more vastly. I can now recognize the different types of sentences and implement them accordingly in my essays. Now, many of the final exam terms make sense and I can use them to enhance the meaning and make my essays more professional and interesting. With all of the new methods that I have learned to help compose better essays, my confidence in my skills as a writer has drastically increased.
The level of confidence I have come to reach is much grader than it used to be previously. I have learned to expand much better on the topics I am writing about and I have also learned to show emphasis on certain things in my writing, such as imagery and including a good amount of detail to all of my writing. I believe that my writing has gotten better in the grammar aspect too. I am no longer guessing as to where or what something might be in my essay by I can confidently label things in my essay that I would not have been able to label last year. I personally enjoy writing and seeing that I have actually gotten further in my writing skills this year brings me much more confidence than I had at the beginning of the year. I am happy I took this class because it gave me an opportunity to really grow my writing.
My confidence levels have risen extremely when it comes to my composing. I have also gained confidence in understanding the terms that we add to our essays to enhance them. I think that because of the constant practice that we have been doing with each and every essay, I have grown as a writer and composer. I am able to think more clearly about how I am going to write and what I am going to be writing about. It helps when I am writing about a topic that I am very interested in. This helps my brain to express an opinion better and can get my point across better. I would like to thank Mr. C for teaching us and giving us the resources to have grown in our writing abilities and confidence. I enjoy going to class each and every day for it makes me happy to have such a great teacher. But also, the fact that I am able to compose and write what I enjoy writing about. I can't wait for next semester!
I have never felt as though I was the strongest writer. I always found myself stuck in writing. With the help of Mr. Christensen, I feel as though I have a better understanding of what composing really is. I also feel more confident in my skills compared to the first day of class. In fact, I believe that my confidence in composing elevated with each essay. This really goes to show that repeated practice of something makes you better over time. Along with that, each Term Tuesday boosted my confidence because I was gaining knowledge on topics I have never learned about. If you pay attention to your peers during their presentation, you come to find out that they are one of the greatest tools for enhancing your writing. I especially enjoy Mr. Christensen's class because it is never the same day to day. C makes things interesting by telling stories, playing games and clearly explaining until everyone understands. Because of these things my writing is better.
I have definitely gained more confidence in writing through this class. I think confidence is vital in almost everything you do. Everyone prefers the person who considers the cup half full over the one who sees it half empty. But in writing, being able to write about something and write confidently and knowledgeably is also very important. I think that when you are knowledgeable about your topic, you can surely write more confidently. But for me, sometimes it is hard to be sure of myself in new situations or when I am around things that are unknown to me. Things that I do not know or do not fully understand somewhat scare or intimidate me in a way. That is why it is always good to learn more things and broaden your horizons through knowledge. Once you become more understanding of these topics, is when you can finally be confident, relax and trust in your own abilities to succeed.
When I first came to composition, my knowledge of writing, methods of expression, and rhetorical skills were very limited; I used little more than just commas and periods, and I resorted to simple sentence structures to convey my ideas. However, over the past few months, I have become a much more advanced writer. From understanding the differences between the many writing styles—such as argumentative, narrative, and casual—to implementing advanced literary techniques—such as procatalepsis, elliptical construction, and absolute constructions—these skills have allowed me to express my ideas in ways that I could never before. As someone planning on entering the field of science, writing will be a critical component to express my findings in my research papers. As such, this class as been essential at preparing me to be successful later in life, with it giving me skills that I will make use of nearly every day.
I have never been a strong writer. So coming into this class I was nervous yet excited for all the composing we would do. Now I feel more confident in my writing and more prepared for college and composing papers then. Before this class, I always used the same structure and this class forced me to vary my structure and use more literary techniques. I am excited to take these skills and apply them as I continue on in life. I can now express my ideas more clearly and in ways that I never was able to before this class. Sentence variation is now much easier for me to do and even easier to spot. I have also learned new literary devices that I am excited to continue to use. I have always been able to help other people out in editing but am unable to do the same to my own writing. That still has not changed, I struggle in finding weak points of my own essays. but overall my confidence level has gotten better and my writing has grown considerably. Through this class, I learned better how to plan out the structure from the start.
I have developed a much higher sense of confidence when composing my essays and letters. When I first started composition, my confidence and skill levels were very low. I almost regretted taking this class and considered dropping out and taking the easy route, but I knew that was a bad idea, as my college years would not be easy at all. As I went about the class, I felt my confidence in myself rising as my ability to compose papers became stronger. This class helped me understand different writing styles and how to use grammar in the correct manner. Term Tuesdays assisted in composing my essays as I acquired new ways of expressing words and new ways to compose exquisite sentences. They also helped me to inadvertently take better notes while a lecture is going on, as I normally do not take notes during class. I will go on to use these skills all throughout my university years.
This class has helped me become better at composing essays for other classes. I am able to use different grammatical terms throughout my essay without questioning if I am using them correctly. I am sadly not taking this class for college credit but it does mean I will be extra prepared when it comes to taking this class in college. I have learned how different writing styles can influence the way the story is being conveyed to the audience. I also learned how to format my essays in order for it to be organized and easy to read. I have enjoyed the essays we have written and have noticed that I can write better when I am writing about topics that do not take much thought. If I already have prior knowledge about a topic, then I believe it becomes easier for me to write and make stories more interesting. I will miss this class because you are a great teacher and I have enjoyed learning these helpful skills in your class.
While I do believe as a result of having to consistently write essays in this class that I have gained more confidence in my writing, I overall still struggle with the writing process. Through these multiple essays, I have discovered that I really enjoy writing when it is over a topic I was passionate about. I loved being able to relay information over a topic I have extensive knowledge of. Whenever I wrote an essay over less interesting topics, I found myself less motivated to sit down and compose and my writing would suffer because of it. I still struggle with certain aspects of grammar such as when to place commas and how to use more unique forms of composing in my writing. While I have definitely improved in this area, I still believe I have a little ways to go until I master it as I still rely on people to help point out those mistakes when reading my work.
Before this class, my confidence in writing was low. Many things have been cleared up that have confused me for a while and having it cleared up takes some stress away. I have written more this semester than I have in my whole life. I doubted being able to do as much writing as I did. It also helped to be able to pick what I would be writing about. I have always written essays that had specific criteria and topics. I think it is very important to write about something you are genuinely interested in. I feel that it inspires me to make my essay the best that it can be and can be done while having some fun with it. My mind has sort of opened up a little bit, and I definitely have become more fluent in writing. The way I think has changed. I still am a bad writer, but I am now better than garbage. I know college involves a good amount of writing, so taking this class will give me a great head start I need.
I have developed a confidence in my grammar. I used to fear writing anything "out of the norm". Write in simple sentences. Don't use intentional fragments. Don't use semicolons; you don't know how to use them correctly. How do you even use a colon? I couldn’t tell you. If I strayed from the comfortable home of the writing style I used for years, I lost all confidence in my work and wouldn't submit such work. This class has helped me feel comfortable and strong in a more advanced and impressive writing style and I'm very grateful for that. I think that the need to use terms in our essays and discussing them and working on them frequently was very helpful. We have worked on grammar in past classes but I never seemed to truly get it until now. I hope that in my coming years of education and my years past that I continue to advance my writing style.
Since the beginning of the first semester, my confidence in writing and composing has risen greatly. I have realized that in previous years I had just been writing to get my papers done. Now, I write about a topic because I enjoy the topic I am writing about. Another thing that has soared my confidence in composing is the final exam terms. With the final exam terms, I can now drastically improve my writings because of all of the terms. When I first came into the class, I did not think I would even be able to come close to finishing a 5-page essay, let alone 7 or 8 pages. As I kept writing, my confidence kept elevating and composing became less of a chore and easier to do. CHESS is another topic I came into the class not knowing much about. As the year has continued, I have been able to incorporate the CHESS strategy into my writing to improve it.
I have never really considered myself the greatest writer, but I feel this class has helped me a lot. I have definitely become more confident in composing and not just writing to write. This class has helped me use more grammatical terms throughout my essays and make my writing more complex. Before this class, I feel I would just keep writing with the same structure and composition 1 has taught me to think differently. Term Tuesday has also been a helpful tool throughout the semester and has definitely helped when studying for the final exam. I have also gained a better understanding of different sentences and how to differentiate them. I still have a lot of improvements to make, but this class has definitely given me the tools to create more confidence in my composing. Overall I have enjoyed taking this class and learning from my mistakes.
This class has helped me enhance and better my writing. My confidence levels have grown significantly when I compose because I actually know and have an idea of how to fit in grammatical classification and structure into my writing. There are still some aspects of composing that I am still hesitant on, but for the most part, this class has enabled me to expand my mind and increase my creativity and implement what I have learned into my writing. When I initially took this class, I was intimidated and anxious about the fact of how many essays we had to construct, but as time passed and we began to learn and take in information about composition. This made writing a substantial amount easier and much more entertaining. I appreciate and thank you for everything that you have done for us and this class.
I have been able to develop confidence in my composition skills. Throughout the semester, I feel that I have gained several useful skills and tools throughout the semester. My confidence has definitely grown because of this toolkit I now have. I am able to feel way more comfortable in my writing this year than I have been in the past. For example, I can spice up my writing and have more effect on the reader because of the skills I have gained. For example, I now know how to properly use semicolons, colons, hyphens, dashes, and even parentheses. Thes all help the writing be more interesting and dramatic. I also learned about simple, compound, complex, compound-complex sentences, and fragments. With these, I am able to vary the types of sentences I use in a writing piece. Overall, I have gained a lot of confidence through this class and the semester.
English has always been my favorite subject in school and with writing essays in other classes, I felt that I had a good idea on writing essays. However, since taking this class, my confidence has grown immensely. Before this class, writing an essay that was more than three pages seemed to be a daunting and challenging task. Now, I am able to write an essay that is over three pages without much trouble. One thing I have struggled with this semester is grammatical classification and constructing sentences. Throughout the semester, I feel that my ability in constructing sentences has grown. I feel more comfortable with using the correct grammar rules from term Tuesday and the final exam terms. I feel that my
Coming into the year I was rather worried about my capability to compose essays. However, as the year has progressed, I have gained more and more confidence in my ability to compose. My toolkit has grown throughout the semester, and now I feel that I have gained several useful skills and tools. As the year has gone, I feel that my essays have gotten better and better and I feel that I am very ready for college. I would say my word choice is now more explicit because of the vocab tests and the multitude of words we have learned from them. Before this class, I hadn't written many papers, but this class gave me a heavy dose of writing and how to properly punctuate. I now am able to intrigue people more into reading my essays by writing convincing introductions and having a good thesis statement. Now have the utmost confidence in myself when it comes to writing.
Composition has made me feel much more like an author. Before taking this course, I feel like whenever I would write I would kind of just write words down that I thought made sense. I used to add in extra, not needed words, to make my stories longer, but now after taking the class I am much more confident in my sentence structures and I do not find it necessary to add in the extra verbiage. I feel like I have also become more confident in inserting more useful vocab words by taking this class. By having to include a few words every essay, it has made me begin to use more of them even when not required, so I guess my vocab confidence has increased as well. Overall, I feel like the sentence structure of my writing has improved the most and has given me confidence in my writing.
I have always liked writing but I have not always been very confident about my writing skills. Writing comes easy to me when I am writing about something that I am passionate about. I always have a really hard time writing when I have to write about something I am not interested in. My confidence has definitely grown a lot since I started Composition 1. I have learned many more techniques to help improve my writing and make my essay more pleasant to read. I have never really liked English classes because of all of the confusing definitions that you need to memorize. Since I have been required to but many of these definitions in my essays it has made it a lot easier to learn and really understand what these things actually mean. Being able to put these things into my essay and knowing where they work makes me confident and makes me feel like I know what I am doing. I have a way better understanding of essays and in making them sound good.
Before taking Composition, I was not terrible at composing and editing essays; however, with this class, I have become more confident in my writing and composing abilities. Through the lessons of sentence structure, grammar, and vocabulary, I have learned how to be more confident in my abilities. I took the skills I learned in this class and applied them to my essays, whether that be for informative essays, argumentative, narratives, and so on. I learned how to define the differences between dashes and hyphens—how to use them correctly—inside the body of my essays. With these special skills, my essays have become more intriguing and flavorful. Composing beautiful, flowing essays is like painting an oil canvas—smooth, soft, and inspiring. I learned how to write with vision (like in the last sentence, also a simile). I experienced that no matter how good you are at writing, you can always improve and that the essay is never finished, even when you turn it in.
I have developed stronger confidence in myself when it comes to composition. This class has provided me with a lot of opportunities to develop my writing and English skills. I took this class to really develop my writing so I can more effectively describe my opinions and this class has done a good job with that. Through many essays, I have discovered good techniques and strategies to make my writing more convincing and appeal to readers in a better fashion. My writing before this class was average and I did not put a lot of effort into it because I believed it wasn't going to prove a very good point. This class has shown me that composing effectively is really important and allows for better communication with other people. I think I could get better at using bigger, more complex words in my writing, but I am going to keep working on it.
I believe that I have grown as a writer throughout this semester in this class. I think I have become more comfortable with more difficult terms throughout Term Tuesday's. Procodelpsis and euphemisms are words that I had never heard of before. I have been in Honors English classes throughout high school, and have practiced different writing styles in the past. This class has given me the opportunity to use ideas I have worked on in the past and try to work them into my essays. Learning through students has helped me to learn the correct way to write and has made writing more fun and enjoyable. I don't feel like I have perfected any type of writing, but I think I have received more information and instruction on how to write. This instruction has definitely helped me compose, rather than write. Although I am not completely confident in myself as a composer, I feel that I have grown in my writing throughout the year.
Composition has helped me demonstrate my ability to write with confidence. With the many papers, we had to write in a limited amount of time. I learned how to write quickly, yet effectively. Although I have never considered myself a great writer, I feel that I have grown more experienced from this class. I was very nervous about this class because writing papers terrified me. Before this class, I was struggling to put my words on a page that made any sense whatsoever. Although, I am not yet and professional writer, I am much closer to writing in a professional way. The thought of writing more than 5 pages on one topic sounded impossible to me. However, the essay topics in this class were very easy to write about, which solved the problem of "writer's block." Also, the challenge of adding the many vocab words, final exam terms, and varied sentence structures increased my confidence in writing.
When I began Composition, my writing skills were not perfect by any standards. I never put enough thought into forming essays, so my writing was usually incoherent and broken. It was not unreadable, but it was not ideal either. My composition skills are by no means perfect now but I can definitely see some improvement over the semester. I had no idea how to use dashes or semicolons as well as many other literary devices before I started this class and now I use them often. If you asked me one year ago what "procatalepsis" was, I might have said that it was a cold medicine. I also am getting better at forming essays. I can plan out how my essays will go so that once I write my thoughts down, it flows well. I now have less trouble with choppiness in my writing, because I am much better at transferring coherent thoughts onto paper.
I have always liked creating stories and using my imagination to think about different scenarios. I don't like planned writing; I want to be able to create what I want to with few limitations. There were a couple times I wanted a creative writing class for the following year, but my teacher told me the class didn't pass. I have always had confidence myself; however, I know that it has risen. My peers have always asked me to peer edit their documents, give them suggestions, and other things. I am very confident in my revising skills. I am, however, not as confident in my creations. When it comes to creating what I want to create, I am very confident and happy. When I am creating something I am required to, I am always a blank slate. I am nervous, I always want to be perfect, and half the time I have no idea what I am talking about. Sometimes, I feel like my paper doesn't even make sense. Other times, I want to branch off onto other topics or I cannot put into words what I am trying to explain. This may have declined since taking Composition, but I still deal with this issue. I want to create something that I want to. I want to write stories and create a world that only I know and understand completely. I just don't have enough grammar and vocabulary knowledge to write something to my satisfaction. I am also very impatient when it comes to making a point. I want something to be said or I want something to happen quickly and I don't have the patience to add details. I have always had this problem. That is why if I ever create books, I tell myself they will be children's books or short stories.
The level of confidence regarding composition that I have developed I would say is above average but not excellence. I understand how to have sentences run smoothly and use different words for variation in sentences. Without this knowledge, my sentences would most likely sound the same, making the overall essay sound like a blended together piece of trash. Also, I think the most important information I had gathered from this class is understanding the complexity of the English lexicon. Without the class, and classes before this, I would employ the same words over and over to reach the final page requirement with little to no sentence variation. With the final terms, I learned how to use varying different types of sentence structuring tools to make sentences seem distinct and stand out on there own. Not only did this class increase my confidence regarding the composition of essays, but it has been a great college preparation tool.
After becoming more familiar with composing multiple essays, I feel that I have become more confident in my ability to think outside of the box. After taking several english classes, it seems like it was the same thing but a different year. I love the idea that my essay can become whatever I want it to be. I feel like i have never really been able to decide that in my past classes. Composition compared to regular english is different because you follow a very lax outline. I think that having the opportunity to write a variety of essays also helps develop my confidence because it causes my thoughts to be pushed further without me realizing it. Also, having to write these essays for a grade applies more pressure to make sure it is perfect and without that aspect I feel like I wouldn't of wanted to push as hard as I did.
Throughout this semester, I believe that my confidence in composition has increased immensely. I believe that I have begun writing with more enthusiasm and I believe my essay in total sounds more mature. I also have learned that changing my lengths of my paragraphs is very useful when writing, and I believe that I have done well with doing that. When researching for a topic, I feel more confident in finding useful website to cite in my essay. Along with that, I have improved on completing citations for my essay following the MLA format. Before this class, I did not tend to change my sentences into complex or compound-complex sentences. When looking back at my essays, I realized that those types of sentences have been mixed in without intentionally doing it. Usually when I would hear about writing a 7 page paper, I would cringe. After completing this semester I know that I am capable of doing it for the future.
From this comp class, I have become more confident in my composition skills. I have learned many techniques on how to evolve, strengthen, and elevate my ability to write papers and essays. Before this class, my writing skills and level were fairly basic. Once as I started this class I have honed in on new writing techniques and writing styles that I had never imagined of using. My confidence has skyrocketed in my writing abilities. Before I would shake in my boots when needing to write a two or three-page paper. As the past semester progressed and the papers got longer I found it easier to elaborate on my ideas and write. Suddenly I would be a half-page over the requirement and still have more to write. This allowed me to fully elaborate and then later edit it so that the ideas were more concise and not repeated.
If someone asked me if this class were worth taking, I would tell them that it 100% is. You learn writing skills that you did not know you had, not only from the teacher, but other kids in the class, or the partner helping you with the essay. You learn how to get up in the nitty gritty parts of writing that need special attention. Not only is the essay portion of this class good to learn, but the vocab test can help a lot with further knowledge of words (obviously) and they can help you spicy up your writing with a word or two that nobody knows. If I had to choose to change on thing in this class, it would just be to have more time with the semester test information, in my personal opinion, I just did not think that I learned as much of that as I should have, so maybe just go through it more throughout the semester, or make it a new requirement for the essays:))))
Throughout this semester, my level of confidence from a writing standpoint has gone through the roof. When I started the semester on the first few essays, I was slightly concerned. I kept asking myself if I really belonged in this class? Should I drop this class at the end of the first semester? All sorts of thoughts were running through my head, but then something changed one day. Words started to fly from my thoughts to my computer screen like they never have before. And with each essay, my confidence has grown tremendously. Then we did the argumentative essay with a partner. I got to choose who I wanted to write my essay with, and I thought that was awesome because I could surround myself with somebody that is a great writer, and I could learn some tips, and see how they express their thoughts onto their paper. Then, as we were getting our start, we had another great mind added to our group, and the amount of knowledge that I gained from those to is truly immeasurable. So with the help of my teacher, and working hard on my writing, and getting to work with a few bright friends, I definitely am confident in all of my writing.
Throughout the Composition class I gained very much confidence in my writing. Knowing how to add little writing techniques adds more definition and depth into my writing and I feel that I have become a much stronger writer than I was before. Now, when going into an essay I know what to expect and how to properly format things like quotes and titles of works that are incorporated into my essays. I also now know how to title my own essay correctly using a colon and making the title grab the readers and make them pay attention and want to read the essay by giving an introduction into my essay cleverly. When going into an essay I know how to write it and organize it very well and taking this class has helped with this very much by giving me opportunities to write and take the time to properly order everything and make it clear for any reader. I have become much more confident in my writing.
Throughout this class, I have grown tremendously in my ability to write in many ways. Knowing how to grab the attention of the readers with little keywords that make a huge difference. Also knowing what words not to overuse to get the readers in boredom. I use to have trouble starting off my essays but now I learned how to grab the attention with a quote or something clever to get them to not want to stop reading. When the first essay came around I was like how in the world am I going to finish this and over the course of the year it just began to come more natural and the days that use to be painful writing all day just seem to be more enjoyable now. I have defiantly become way more confident in my writing capability and starting to trust myself more every time I write.
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