I have learned many essential elements for writing quality English from the assigned writing essays, reading, in class activities, and book group discussions throughout this quarter in English 1A. I improved my reading skills and enhanced my critical thinking from the Sociology text book, articles, and especially the book our reading group chose, “Educated: A Memoir” by Tara Westover. Most importantly, I learned the process of how to write a good essay. Additionally, I learned that structure, form, and flow are essential to hook a reader’s attention to one’s essay. The paragraph concept of PIE – Point, Information, and Explanation – was essential in forming my knowledge on what a proper writing should be. This course taught me a lot of reading and writing skills that will help in my future course work and even my career work in the real world.
Two reading sources really stood out for me in this course. Our class textbook, “Introduction to Sociology” and our reading book, “Educated: A Memoir”, were essential reading sources for this course. Most importantly, the group reading we chose was very inspirational to me. Tara Westover’s story in her book “Educated” was similar to my own life experience since the she lost the chance to get a proper education in her childhood, but she overcome her barriers and achieved her goal. She became successful in her journey to become educated. Her spirit, effort, and determination give me the energy to achieve my goals. Additionally, the textbook reading about sociology was very important since learning about the three different sociological theories gave me perspective to look at society in different ways. The textbook helped my critical thinking because I was able to frame my essay ideas within known theories. These perspectives helped me to think critically. At the beginning of this class, I was worried about my English ability since this was not just a grammar or vocabulary course, but one that required me to understand how to write. Reading these books not only helped my understanding to think about writing, but inspired me to write.
Learning the PIE structure as a tool to understand proper writing was very important in helping me understand how I should organize my paragraphs. Strong topic sentences in the point, relevant information in the middle, and a succinct and integrated explanation are elements I learned in this course. The topic sentence should reveal main point of the paragraph and also very clearly to answer the thesis. In class I practiced putting sentences in right locations in the PIE context. The instruction also helped me to know how to put information and explanation in a paragraph. I didn’t know this framework in my previous English classes. I know now how to use the PIE form in essay body paragraphs. Understanding this process and structure for my writing will be very essential for my next English 1B class.
My writing skills have improved tremendously because I had a lot of writing assignments. I had six hard essays that were the main part of my grade so I had a lot of incentive and time to practice writing. Initially, I was stuck in how to start and I was confused about the writing process. Even though I already knew something about the writing process from my previous English class such as understanding the prompt and making an outline, I still felt I needed to learn more techniques. In this class, the teacher use different strategies including constantly writing in our journals, and letting every student evaluate others and themselves when the first essay draft was submitted. The strategies of continuous practice and the student evaluations helped me understand where I needed to improve.
I learned specific techniques and from other examples in order to write better. In my first in class essay, I got a low score. I didn’t exactly know which parts were weak and how to improve them. When I read the good examples of native English writers handed out by the teacher, I then began to know which areas I needed to push myself to improve. Additionally, from the comments of other students, combined with the teacher’s lecture I began to learn about how controlling ideas are important in the thesis, how to organize and develop the body paragraphs, how to quote, and how to make the whole essay smooth and cohesive. My subsequent essays were much better. I was very proud of my 4th essay, “Education Creates Identity”. I got a much better score from other students and my teacher. I reworked this essay many times to the point I felt confident in what I wrote. I know it wasn’t perfect but since I am a foreign student, but I feel my writing skills improved tremendously from this class.
I have learned many importing writing essentials from this English 1A class – critical thinking in the context of a broader (in this class, sociological) theory, continuous practice in reading and writing, paragraph and essay structure, and most importantly the inspiration to write in topics important to me. The main benefits of this course to me are how to improve my reading with practice, how to organize my thoughts, how to structure my writing, and how to develop a consistent process in creating good, thoughtful essays. I will use these important tools and techniques in my next class, English 1B, and my future career.
education will change me 