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ENG 111 W02

Marisa Enos

23 April 2017

My English 111 Success

Over the course of my English 111 experience I am very happy to say that I have made

significant progress and improvement in my writing abilities. This class has taught me how to

write several types of essays for an academic setting, how to synthesize and some great

brainstorming strategies. When looking at all of my essays from the first of the semester An

Explication of The Banking Concept of Education, and comparing them to the final AMS

paper, there are many improvements in writing style, word choice, and paragraph set up. One of

the biggest factors that have improved my writing style between the two essays is the use of

transition phrases and topic sentences.

In my Explication paper transition phrases were nearly nonexistent, where as of now it

seems like second nature to include them as it is vital to the flow of a paper. For example, on

page 3 of my explication paper I ended a paragraph with a quote from Freire and jumped right

into the following paragraph. I offered no explanation for the quote, no transition phrase or topic

sentence. In my AMS paper I made sure to explain all quotes and always link paragraphs. This

did improve slightly for my first compare and contrast essay Control in Language: Intentional

or Unintentional? For example, the last sentence of my introduction paragraph is Although

both of these authors make similar and valid points, they use different points of view in order to

accomplish this. Which was a decent transition phrase into the following paragraph which

discusses Schanks point of view used in Story-Skeletons. Still looking at my first compare

and contrast essay, a person can easily tell that I did not understand synthesis like I now do.
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Synthesis is getting your authors in conversation with one another, a skill that can be

difficult but one that I have learned throughout the course of this class. In my first compare and

contrast I chose to write about Schank and hooks. Both are great pieces that relate to each other

but I fail to show how the authors themselves connect. Instead, I just simply presented the ideas

along with each other if they had something in common at all. An example of this is when I said

Schank does not use his own personal experiences on the event, only those that were reported in

order to analyze them. Unlike this, hooks tells her own stories and uses personal experiences in

order to help validate her points. This is not a bad contrast sentence, but it is super vague and

doesnt engage the two in conversation. In my most recent paper, the AMS one, a better use of

synthesis occurs when I was talking about Robert Leamnson and connected him by saying

Matthew B. Crawford, whom has his PhD in Political Philosophy and is the author or

Attention as a Cultural Problem, would agree with this assumption and provides the example

of the business man. This sentence includes the assumption that the two authors would agree

with each other, and goes on to use Crawfords work to support that of Leamnson. Synthesis is

important in any essay I feel now, and is something I had no grasp of before this class. Along

with my ability to synthesize, I also picked up better habits for brainstorming this semester.

Brainstorming can be difficult, especially when writing a type of essay that you are

unfamiliar with. This semester however, I feel I found a good ground for what works best for me.

When I wrote my first explication paper I honestly just wrote a lot from memory and did not

really take notes or anything like that. It worked for that specific paper but would be terrible for a

more advanced essay like the AMS paper. Over time and for the AMS paper I found that it is

easiest for me to write down the authors I plan on using, their main points and focuses, and then

draw a topic from those points. Drawing out a web diagram for my information after I find a
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topic is also helpful so I can physically see the lines connection information and thoughts that

connect between sources. While brainstorming strategy may seem unimportant, it has been one

of the most beneficial factors for me this semester. Due to limited time, I often only have time to

write a little bit and then come back to the paper. Having all my information written or drawn out

in a way that is easily understandable to me has improved my ability as a writer. My ability to

remove unneeded sentences has improved my writing as well.

In the past I have been told that while my essays were good, they were a bit to wordy.

This semester has helped me learn what is needed and unneeded in a good essay. For instance,

rhetorical questions can be confusing and distracting from the main point of a paragraph. A good

paragraph has a topic sentence along with support, followed by a transition phrase into the

following paragraph. Part of my improvement with wording comes with improvement in

brainstorming. Brainstorming on paper ahead of time allows me to make an outline of my paper.

I used a rough sketch of topic sentences and authors who support them to help with efficient

paragraph set up.

English 111 has drastically changed my writing style for the better. I did not realize how

much I was benefitting from what I was learning until I took the time to read through old essays

and reflect. Through the use of synthesis, transition and topic phrases, and brainstorming

strategies I feel that I am better equipped to take on academic writing in the future. When

looking at my first essay of the semester compared to the final AMS paper, I feel I have become

more mature as a writer and have made significant progress when it comes to critical thinking as

well.
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CONCLUSION