Portrait of a Writer Before taking [ENC1101], I had never considered looking at myself as a writer or comparing my writing style and habits to those of other writers, both good and bad. Looking at myself as a writer and the processes I go through when writing might help me identify my weaknesses and adopt new habits more conducive to good writing. Not only has this class changed what I define to be a good writer, but this past unit has also taught me many new writing strategies that could help me become that good writer. Prior to taking this class, my definition of a good writer was rather basic. I considered a good writer to be anyone who could effectively convey a message to a reader.
The way I improved my paper was taking my instructors constructive criticism and making the necessary corrections, to the best of my ability. I had obvious problems with the comma usage, dangling modifiers, and it was no question that I have to improve my vocabulary. Referring back to the text book and using the Thesaurus definitely helped me make the best revisions that I can make. The most challenging part of this assignment for me was to expand the use of my vocabulary. I know a lot of words; I just don’t use them in my everyday conversation, thus making it more difficult to incorporate in my essay.
I did not realize how easy it is to unintentionally use bias language. Specifically, careless use of pronouns, subject-verb agreement, using open-ended age definitions, or how the order of presentation of groups can show superiority over others is all examples of errors I commit in my writing. Chapter 3 of the APA Manual will serve as a useful resource not only throughout my career, and for future writing I undertake. It provides a clear explanation of the essential components of sound expository writing and I walk away with more attention, and to pay careful attention to in my future
I do not have any misconceptions about writing I'm just very out of practice and I'm sure with time it will become a lot easier and feel more natural. I need to focus on staying on topic, grammar and punctuation. I tend to go off topic once I get another idea something similar but not part of the idea I was going for in my paper. In order to improve this weakness is by keeping my ideas organize will help me stay on topic After reading chapter one it gave me a new motivation to learn about writing. I have always just gave myself the excuse that I am not a good writer and that’s how I am going to live.
My second issue would be my ability to proofread. I always miss something when I proof read, once my other half reads it, he finds it right away, but I just cannot see all of my own errors. I would say my third problem is tone. Sometimes I am not sure which tone to use and if it is being conveyed correctly. I plan to work on all of these things, I am sure this class will help me learn all the skills needed to make my papers better.
I don’t take anything at face value. I believe that we need to research on our own and from multiple reliable sources before we conform to a believe or thought. 5) Discuss how open-minded you feel yourself to be. I think that I am an extremely open minded person. Growing up in a family that was very closed minded about everything I think that I have always gone out of my way to be open-minded to the world around me.
There are many different learning styles and why does everyone have their own way of learning even when it's the same thing the other person is learning. Why do we have our own way of learning and how did we get that learning style. How do people get their own way to learn the same thing another person is trying to learn. Do peoples brain think differently or is it just the method we learn from our educators! The reason I choose to continue my education is because I felt it was time for me the receive an education so that I could look back and tell myself I did something worthwhile!
Just as a professional musician no longer has to consciously think about time signatures, keys, or techniques, a fluent reader should no longer have to call to mind specific phonics or spelling rules. For a fluent reader, these skills will have become so embedded in the process of reading that they will come naturally (Reading Fluency, p. 2). In order for these skills to be ingrained in a student’s mind, they must be taught systematically and explicitly, at the proper time and in the proper sequence. Hollis Scarborough depicts this learning process as a rope being woven together strand by strand (How Children learn to Read, p. 11). The strands making up the word recognition portion of the rope are phonological awareness, decoding, and sight recognition.
All authors write with an intended purpose; to entertain, persuade, inform, express etc. knowledge is gained from texts that inform us, theses text though can be valuable and enlightening, but can also be deceptive and untrustworthy. Through what we are reading the author has the ability to manipulate the information within the text to suit the preferred perspective. For this reason it is important that we develop a critical lens to challenge the multiple messages within those texts. This requires the readers to be able to analyse beneath the surface of the text rather than simply accepting and following the author's perspective.
My personal learning style is Tactile and Kinesthetic. What that means is that I am a hands on kind of learner. I learn way better by moving around and touching stuff as opposed to reading, listening, and watching. This has been true about me my entire life as I have always learned more better by touching and working through items. Sometimes I try to switch it up to reading and watching, but I always seem to fail at that.