Alejandra Rodriguez

Stacc English 100, #72051

Professor Adler
16 December 2015

Accomplishments and Barriers in Reading and Writing

Throughout the semester in STACC English 100, I was surprised of the outcome of this
class. I have learned and developed my reading and writing skills more than expected. Being part
of this class, has made me a powerful person in not giving up despite the essays and books that
were assigned throughout the semester.
I have always been afraid of writing essays or reading certain articles/books. It is
something that has always made me feel horrendous if I made certain mistakes. I had trouble
analyzing texts, writing essays, such as literary analysis. Never in my life have I interpreted a
book before, so I was nervous for the outcome of the essay. The Norton Field Guide to Writing
with Readings, has definitely helped me when it came to reading and/or writing essays. It gave
me plenty of examples that were useful. All I needed was to open up and ask for help from the
Professor.
In my early days as a college student at Pasadena City College, I wanted to know the true
meaning of the work or what the author intended within everything the class will accomplish
when it came to reading. I have now realized that individual interpretations can bring insights
into a work and it is quite interesting to point out messages that the author may include with
every piece of his/her writing. When reading The Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell, it
wasnt as bad as I thought it would be since it was an easy reading. But I felt that I wanted a
challenge. I have always been a critical thinker, but was afraid to even try since I thought it

wouldnt be great. I had trouble analyzing the text of A Place to Stand by Jimmy Santiago
Baca, throughout the book, I had trouble understanding it on my own. But when my class and I
would have group discussions, it would help me understand deeply. My attitude towards
reading, writing and learning throughout the semester wasnt great because of the lack of
confidence. It would come to the point where I would think negatively and feel that the class will
be too much for me to deal with. This made me rethink and put more effort than usual. Instead of
focusing on proposed meaning or biological backgrounds, I have came to question why all the
time. I would challenge myself into digging deeper within the text in order to understand. I have
learned to develop the difference of writing style the authors use. Finally understanding the word
Analyze, which I use often in order to understand the novels. Not only has it helped me with
reading but with writing as well.
Writing has always been a challenging thing when it came to this class. I know that the
ability to write and express my ideas will continue to grow through upcoming semesters. I have
always struggled to put my thoughts together on paper in a manner that can is coherent and
correct, according to the assignments that are assigned. Being taught to organize my thoughts, or
provide more examples and support have been my difficulty. Essays that would be assigned
would sometimes be brad, and unorganized. But I overcame them. When it came to peer review
in class, it is something that helped me a lot. Thanks to that I had my own classmates critique my
work and give me advice in order to make it better. I changed my attitude when it came to
writing thanks to peer review and the help I was getting.
My reading and writing skills have changed for good. They have evolved even better than
expected. Although, some essays werent as easy as I thought, I thrived into succeeding. I have
learned how to analyze, look deeper into the text, think critically. Learning how to use databases

and find good articles for research papers was definitely useful. It has widened the scope of my
research. Due to all the help and trying to push myself further, my writing is much more
interesting than how it used to be.
Within this English 100 class, we had a couple of essays that were worth so many points.
I have generated ideas that I am satisfied with when it came to writing a Literacy Narrative. This
was the second essay assigned within the semester. English 100 helped me make my writing
better. I was having trouble at first because it was my first time having to interpret a book, so I
was devastated since I didnt know what to do. If it werent for the peer review, I honestly think I
would have not done as good as I thought. My struggle was having to expand a short narrative
into a full length essay. After a considerable amount of time of trying to tweak and elaborate on
my essay, I finally understood and began adding more detail and tried being very descriptive. A
friend of mine peer reviewed my draft for the Literacy Narrative. She helped a lot. In one of the
critiques that I encountered was You need an outside source, you use the word I so much, try to
include more examples. This helped my essay improve a lot, and made me feel confident about
myself.
An essay that I encountered struggle with was the research paper. I felt as if this was the
most difficult one since it required more time, work and a lot of dedication. I encountered
problems because I didnt really know how to use articles from databases, websites, etc. I
struggled and felt lost, as if it were going to be my worse essay yet. I slowly started to overcome
the struggle because of peer review. Although, I had an awful first draft, my peers helped me on
what I needed to include, fix, in order to make a better essay. It is how I started to slowly
overcome this. Staying up late, looking up information, making sure the information is useful,
asking for help, were certainly useful tools. Sadly, Im not sure what I have received on this

essay yet, but it is the one that I feel less confident about than the previous essays. I tried my best
into making an excellent essay to state my point, but I felt that I could have done better.
Furthermore, looking into the future for the Spring Term 2016, I am looking forward into
succeeding and improving my writing skills. I felt that I am kind of getting the idea of reading
and making a better understanding when analyzing and using specific skills to make sense of the
reading. Im looking into thriving and overcoming the barriers when it comes to writing. I feel
that I need to work on my research skills more, including interpretation. But I know that Ill put
double the effort in order to overcome this obstacle. It is why I will spend more time focusing on
my writing performance the upcoming semester in STACC English 1A. Although, I spent a good
amount of time writing and developing every essay assigned in this course, I believe if I had
spent even an extra amount of time, my essays could have been very strong pieces of writing that
I would indeed be proud of.