Green 1 Noah Green Professor Suzanne Ingram English 1101 049 4 October 2013 Midterm Assignment 1.

. In my first blog post in English 1101, I questioned if it was a good idea to be a risk-taker when dealing with my writing. I was concerned that it could have detrimental effects on my final grade in the class, and could lower my GPA. As the weeks have gone by though, Ive realized that taking risks in my writing could be beneficial, since it allows me to experiment with various styles of writing. For example, in my literacy narrative essay, I used a lot of dialogue which I had never done before in my writing. I found that dialogue enhances a piece of writing dramatically, making a story come to life, and allowing the audience to be better engaged into the story. Ive learned that if someone doesnt take any risks while writing, they cant reach their full writing potential. Without taking risks, a writer would always write on the exact same level, and their writing would never improve. After learning that taking risks in my writing could be beneficial, I am much less apprehensive to try new writing techniques, especially since we write multiple drafts of papers. 2. After being a college student for over six weeks now, I now have a much better understanding of high school competency versus college competency. The biggest difference that I noticed almost immediately was that in college, students are responsible for learning the material and that professors dont care if you fail their class. This is much different than high school, since in high school, teachers would be constantly pestering those students who were doing poorly or falling behind. So to be successful in high school, students simply had to attend class and pay attention, though in college, it isnt that easy. To be successful in college, students have to complete all of their work on time, and also study many hours a day. To most freshman in college, studying in a foreign thing to them, but to me it is something that Ive been doing for many years. In high school, I got in a

Green 2 routine of studying a few hours every night for upcoming tests or exams; therefore, when I began college and learned that I would have to study many hours a day, it was not a dramatic change to me. 3. If I was to give advice to a high school senior concerning college academics, I would first tell them to be proactive with their school work. Meaning that, they shouldnt wait until the last minute to complete their homework. When completing homework, a student will get much more benefit out of it, if it completed early since the student wont have to rush it. I would also advise that a student should be proactive with their studying, and should not wait untill the day before the exam to study. A student should always be studying the material that was covered in class; therefore, a minimal amount of studying is required the day prior to the exam or test. Another thing that I would recommend to rising college freshman, is that they shouldnt take any more than fifteen credit hours of classes. This would allow a college freshman to adjust to college life much easily, and also to still be successful academically. Lastly, I would advise a high school senior, to read the book How to Study in College by Walter Pauk, to learn the proper techniques of being a successful student, such as how to take good notes. 4. The key concept in the syllabus that I believe that I am engaging in quite well, is the writing process and revision. In my past writing experiences, Ive typically written one draft of a paper, and made very few revisions to it. In English 1101, I have begun developing a different writing process that I believe will improve my final drafts of papers. This new writing process, includes writing multiple drafts of papers, and getting feedback from a variety of people. We used this writing process, when we wrote our Literacy Narrative Essays, and it definitely made a positive impact on my essay. Getting feedback from others, allowed me to see what I needed to critique in my essay, and also showed me what parts of my essay were well written. When Ive written past essays, Ive simply just viewed the essay from my standpoint, without thinking of the audience that my writing is aimed

Green 3 towards. As my peers have revised my essays, and given me feedback, it has shown me how my essay looks through the audiences point of view. This has been beneficial to me, since it has allowed me to revise my essays in a manner that allows my paper to be more engaging to the audience. 5. The key concept that I am having most difficulty in English 1101 is increasing my intellectual growth and maturity. This is a challenging concept to me; because it is not easy to expand your mental capabilities in a writing course lasting just a semester. Over the course of four years, while earning your degree, I do think that someone will have a great amount of intellectual growth, but in sixteen weeks, there will be very little of growth. During the past six weeks of college, I dont think that my writing ability, has improved much, which is what intellectual growth would be measured in in a writing course. As I begin my second half of English 1101, I am going to try harder to advance my writing abilities. To do this, I am going to experiment with a variety of new techniques of writing, such as using sensory details to enhance my stories. By using new techniques, I will have to learn what works well in my writing, and what doesnt work well in my writing. I believe that if I dont try new techniques in my writing, my level of writing will remain constant and never improve, meaning that I will never have any intellectual growth in my writing. 6. Most of the topics Ive discussed so far all seem to relate back to the key concept of taking risks. As I have already discussed, taking risks allows someone grow academically, and figure out ways to improve their writing skills. The reason I think this key concept, keeps coming up, is that it is something that I have never done before. In the past, I never wanted to take risks with my grades. I thought, if I changed something with my academics, it could have negative effects on my grades, and I was already making straight As so there was never a need to alter any of my techniques. Another issue that seems to be keep coming up repeatedly, is making sure to keep your audience in mind when writing an essay or paper. In my past writing experiences, I had simply written papers so

Green 4 they sounded good to me, without considering how they would sound to others. In English 1101, as we have revised our peers essays, I have begun to consider my audiences perspective of my writing, and I have learned that knowing your audience is one of the most important rules in writing. 7. As I begin my second half of English 1101, I question how Ill view writing in years to come. I wonder if I will begin to enjoy writing more, or if I will hate to write by the end of my four years here at UNC Charlotte. As I can already tell, I will have to write numerous papers throughout my studies, most of them being technical engineering reports. Even though English 1101 does not include technical writing, I do think it will help me answer my question of how I view writing. I also would like to find out how I can learn from personal writing, and how it can benefit me. Like Ive stated, I am an engineering major, which means that I will never encounter personal writing in my future studies or my future career. I think that having personal writing skills is a beneficial trait though, since I will always need them to write personal letters to my friends and family. Lastly, In English 1101, I would like to explore other writers, and try to determine what specific writing techniques they use to engage their audience into their piece of literature.