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Tiffany Rittenour Mr. Harrell English Comp 1 6 December 2013 What I Have Learned in English Comp 1 As a senior still in high school taking college level classes could have been a real struggle for some students. While the classes were hard, I think it was a great experience and taught me a lot about what to expect in the fall of 2014. I know the skills Ive learned in this course will travel with me throughout the rest of my high school career and into college. Ultimately, in English Composition 111 I have learned: The writing process, how to structure an essay, write for the audience, create a thesis, use outside materials, analyze, and formats. In this paper, you will see examples from my personal, analytical, and profile essays. The writing process is more of a personal thing rather than something an instructor can teach. However, the instructor may suggest what they think is the best idea. In almost everyones writing process you will see they draft, revise, proofread, and edit. The order is different for everyone. Some, inducing myself like to receive feedback as a part of the writing process. My writing process I used for my personal essay is listed below with examples of each. 1. Brainstorm (Pick a final topic. I had to and choose to write about my Grandpa) 2. Draft main topics (I wrote about the major things in the paper. I listed things like his cancer, the funeral, and my reflection.)

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3. Draft subtopics (How the cancer game along, how serious it was, & what the doctors said) 4. Add good structure (I picked to start the paper with a flashback and worked my way back so throughout the paper the reader would want to continue. 5. Edit (I fixed grammar, added details, and rewrote sentences that were run ons.) 6. Give to someone for feedback (I gave it to my mom to read.) 7. Revise (I added her suggestions, made word order changes, and added more quotes) 8. Turn in The writing process can be long and difficult but once you have it, you have it and wont ever learn it again. After mastering the writing process, the structure of the essay should come easily. The structure of your essay is important. No one wants to read something that is all out of order and doesnt make sense. The basic essay has an introduction, body, and conclusion. Inside those you have paragraphs and transitions. Transitions allow your paper to flow. Here is a good example of a transition in my profile essay. At the end of a paragraph you see the sentence, While it may be hard, there are many benefits to coming out. The beginning of the next paragraph starts with, Not living behind closed doors opens your life to many new chances. The transition is good because it introduces the new topic at the end of the previous paragraph instead of just jumping around. Good structure helps your audience follow along. When writing you need to know who your audience is. Different audiences can change the entire tone of a paper. If writing for only a professor, your tone would be more scholarly than it would be if you were writing for peers. Knowing your audience will determine what information you need to include in your paper. For example, in my profile essay used quotes

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from Chad. Here is a paragraph from my profile essay, Chad Morrison said, My Grandma told me that everyone is born with female and male hormones and/or traits and some people just adapt more to the female traits and thats what happened to me. It may not be a proven fact but Chad believes it. Being gay was not a choice. You must add in depth details for the audience to fully see the paper like you want. Your purpose of your paper should be introduce in your thesis statement. Your audience should easily be able to identify the thesis of your paper. The thesis of a paper tells the reader what to expect. I have learned that the thesis statement should be very specific. In my analytical essay my original thesis read, Ultimately, relationships formed in The Unlikely Disciple taught Kevin Roose a lot through his experiences at Liberty. I then changed it to, . Ultimately, relationships formed in The Unlikely Disciple taught Kevin Roose to understand how evangelicals act, study, form relationships, connect with God, and stay true to who they are through his experiences at Liberty. The reader will now know all the main topics of the paper. Using the title in the thesis it shows that the paper will use outside sources as well as personal input. Outside materials must be interpreted and analyzed for a good A+ paper. You need the usage of outside materials to connect with your ideas in research and analytical papers. In my analytical paper, I used the book The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinners Semester at Americas Holiest University by Kevin Roose. When writing the paper I had to analyze the relationships in the book. Here is an example of my analytical paper: Roose writes, When Im in Room 201, I act the old model Kevin, and even though I havent told them everything about my past, I think they sense something is different about me, that Im somehow struggling with Libertys orthodoxy(Roose 119). Joey is someone Roose would have connected even outside the walls of Liberty. Roose will never forget Joey or anyone else he met. I took a

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quote from the book and then added personal input on it. The quote had to be cited correctly in MLA format. If I have learned anything in English Composition 111, it is how to write in MLA style. Before this class my header would have looked something like this: Tiffany Ritenour December 2, 2013 It now is corrected and looks like this: Tiffany Rittenour Mr. Harrell English Comp 1 2 December 2013 The first time my instructor told me to do and in text citation of the book I wrote it like this, And are we really that different? (Roose, 10). In my final draft I wrote it like this, And are we really that different (Roose 10)? Another thing I have learned about MLA is how to make the works cited page. I didnt know what need to be: italicized, underlined, bolded, or what needed quotations around it at beginning of the semester. Here are two examples of works cited for a book and an interview I used in my analytical and profile essays. Morrison, Chad. Personal Interview. 23 October 2013 Roose, Kevin. The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinners Semester at Americas Holiest University. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2009. Print. I also learned how to sandwich quotes by introducing them and closing them with a sentence after it. Mr. Harrell said Never end a paragraph with a quote. I never knew this or a lot of the things I have learned in this course.

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I know these acquired skills will help to improve my writing skills. This course has been extremely helpful and I know understand how to: Use the writing process, how to structure an essay, write for the audience, create a thesis, use outside materials, analyze, and format my paper.

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Works Cited Morrison, Chad. Personal Interview. 23 October 2013 Roose, Kevin. The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinners Semester at Americas Holiest University. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2009. Print.