Balcorta 1 Edgar Balcorta Holly Jacobus ENG 101 Final Exam December 9, 2013 My Overall Learning Progress Throughout

the semester there were many things that were covered in the English 101 course. Many of which I needed improvement on and others that were review and served as practice and helped me become even more proficient in them. There were five different learning modules that covered many different interesting topics. Within these modules there were a total of four essays which covered the topics of education, environmental issues, social media, and personal freedoms. Some of these essays were easy to write about while I struggled with others, but in the end I always learned something new. I will now discuss about where I was successful, where I still need improvement and what I learned throughout the semester. Overall the English 101 course helped me learn many new things like becoming better at analyzing essays, organizing my writing, using appropriate conventions, quoting, formatting my essays, and mostly being able to reflect on my writing and determine my own strengths and weaknesses. First I will begin by discussing about how my first essay, which was about a personal experience that influenced my future career, helped me pay close attention to how I organized my writing. I had to be careful to have a clear beginning middle and end because I was describing my personal experience and if my essay was not clear I would have thrown off my reader and they would not have fully understood how important this experience was for me. I wrote about how I had a heart surgery at a very young age and it later motivated me to want to

Balcorta 2 work in the medical field and help others with their health just like I was once helped. I start out by introducing myself to my reader and then move to telling them what the reason behind my heart surgery was. I then transition to telling my reader how my life changed from having a surgery and moving from Chihuahua, Mexico to Phoenix, Arizona. Finally I let my reader know how this all played part in who I am today and how I am reminded everyday of how lucky I am to have an opportunity to make my educational dreams come true. If I would have started out without having a coherent essay my message would not be so clear and my reader would lose interest and credibility in my writing. For the second essay that was assigned in the English 101 course there was an option of writing about a cause and effect or a compare and contrast essay. I chose to write about the effect of climate change on ocean acidification. I used several quotes from different articles that I found on the internet as evidence of what I was saying which added credibility to my paper. I received feedback from my instructor and was told that I should start paragraphs with my own ideas, not someone else's words. Lead into and out of quotes with my own words. The reason why I was told this was because I started some of my paragraphs with a direct quote from an article. What I should have done was to state my idea and use the quote to back up my idea instead of using the quote to start off my idea. It makes sense because it makes what I am saying more reliable and makes it seem more like I know what I am talking about. I also noticed that I misused commas a lot in this essay but even so I also received very good feedback from my instructor. I was told that this was a very good essay that has a very clear cause/effect organization she also said that she liked how I incorporated evidence in the form of cited quotes to help prove my ideas.

Balcorta 3 The third essay assigned in the English 101 course consisted of writing a proposal argument paper. The module theme was social media and I decided to write about how children are exposed to different risks on the internet and how parents can play a role in keeping their children safe online. With this essay I had to format my essay in a way to let my reader discover for themselves that social media can be a problem. I did not want to tell my audience what the problem was, it made my essay stronger by allowing them to realize the problem themselves. I had a hard time with this essay because I had to keep reminding myself to not actually tell my audience what the problem was. I had to remind myself to just have proof of what could go wrong and how it could be prevented. The third essay was the most difficult one for me. This essay consisted of analyzing an article and determining its strengths and weaknesses. The reason why I found it so difficult was because I chose an article that I was not fully interested in. Concentrating on the article made it harder and there were times where I felt like I was off topic. The article was about how five families filled a law suit against the school that their children attended in order to ban school prayer. They won the case and not only were the school prayer banned from the school their children attended but it was also banned from many other schools in the United States. This particular law suit did not ban the prayer from all the schools but it was what helped other acts begin and spread around the idea of banning school prayer. When the course first started I felt like I needed help and more practice on organizing my writing. Throughout the course of English 101 I feel like I am finally better able to organize my writing. I learned that great organization helps make essays stronger and it is easier for the reader to understand the main concepts of the writing. I have also learned that I have gotten better at analyzing writing. It has helped me read between the lines and understand the main reason

Balcorta 4 behind pieces of writing. By the feedback that I was given by the instructor I have also learned that the use of quotes is a great way to back up what I am saying and give more credibility to my writing. There are also things that I still need to improve on but I do feel like I am already doing better in these areas compared to when I first started the online English 101 course. For example, I do understand that I need more improvement on using commas. From the feedback I received from the instructor I also understand that I need to learn how to cite sources correctly. There are times where I feel like I do it correctly but it turns out I do not. I know that with a little more practice I will become better at it. Overall I have learned to gain confidence in my writing and understand that it takes several times to review an essay in order to get it close to perfect although there is always room for improvement. I feel like I am a much better writer and have learned many new interesting things about the world that surrounds me. I learned about environmental issues and how they affect the world. I also learned about personal freedoms and with the discussion boards that were done online I learned about the views of other on these issues around the world. It was interesting to see how many people had the same perspective on things. It was also interesting to see the differences in my classmates opinions which helped me to see things in a different way that did not occur to me. In conclusion I learned about the ethics of writing and how it helps to keep a specific audience in mind when writing. I also discovered that receiving feedback from my instructor was of great help and it motivated to keep up the good work and or to try harder. Taking an online English course was something new and different for me. I was not quite sure how I would do but it was of great help having many resources available and having my instructor answer e-mails as soon as she could. I turned in a few assignments late which lowered my grade but if I would have

Balcorta 5 turned those assignments in on time I believe I should not receive a score lower than a B. Although, since I turned in those assignments late I know there are consequences but I still believe I should not receive a grade lower than a C. I am very pleased with how the course was set up and I am also very pleased with my instructor and I believe that I should receive a passing grade for an overall score for my hard work throughout the semester.