Saturday, February 21, 2015

My First Paper Reflection

Writing my first paper for my WRI 100 class, was very nerve racking. Being that this was the first paper, I was unsure of how my professor grades papers. Sure there is a rubric and I reviewed it, but it is writing, not a math equation and everyone has a different style. The steps I took to complete my essay included, making a mental outline. I knew what I wanted to focus my paragraphs on, it's just making my incomplete thoughts in my head, into coherent sentences that sometimes isn't my strong suit. Yes, I know how to write a sentence, but sometimes I think of so many things at once, that my writing tends to be choppy and bounces around. Next I write topic sentences for each main paragraph and attach bullet points to each main topic, making kind of an outline. I turn my bullet points into sentences, and add a few transition words, adjectives, a conclusion/introduction and BAM! I have myself a paper.

I definitely have negative thoughts when writing. Sometimes I feel like I don't write enough like a "grown up" and don't always use large professional words. So after thinking bad about my writing. I throw those thoughts out of the way, and start to tell myself, "Tori, your writing is good and you will get a good grade." I also make sure to sit somewhere that is a little populated when writing a paper. For some reason, the background noise and people watching almost gives me ideas of what to write. That probably doesn't make sense to many people, but it works for me.

After writing this paper, I am a little more confident in myself. Writing is a lot easier that I had thought it would be. We all have our own unique writing style that works for us. With each paper we write and complete we increase our confidence level when writing and will do better on the next one.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Was it educational?

I attended Emmaus High School, where I did receive a good education, but I thought the teaching style was boring. I feel like the teachers followed the book to the t and just regurgitated information at me. Critical thinking is very important for the rest of your life, and sometimes I feel a little behind other people who had a big experience with critical thinking in high school. I had teachers that asked you a question, and you answered it with a straight-forward answer, usually found in the text you were reading. I just feel that teachers should be more open with learning styles, and as long as students are learning what they are expected to learn, they way they learn it should be a more open.