- Throughout this course, I have seen myself grow in many different ways. One important area of growth is in my writing. Writing was never a strong point for me; I always needed guidance and knew what I wanted to write but I had a problem putting it down in words. My wording would also be awkwardly phrased and I was unsure of how to modify it to make it sound right. After gaining more experience in writing, these problems I faced lessoned. Now, I have an easier time with my wording because I have had to write about several different topics which taught me how to correct myself and broadened my scope of vocabulary too. When I have a writing assignment to do, I first make an outline to organize my thoughts and then put them into sentences that focus more on expressing my thoughts rather than proper phrasing. Finally, I go through my thoughts and change the phrasing because usually the phrasing that I want comes from reading over my previous thoughts. By repeating this process every time I do a writing assignment, I have increasingly strengthened my weak points.
This
class also taught me how to use my resources more. I enrolled myself in English 5 and my tutor
was very helpful. In our weekly sessions,
he helped me with problems such as picking and narrowing my topics, phrasing,
and vocabulary. However, sometimes I
found that this was not enough to revise my papers because they were only 35
minutes long. I wanted to reach out for
more guidance in my writing. Therefore,
I looked up places that offered free writing tutors. After finding this information, I found
myself to be a commoner at the Bouke Building.
I have always gone there for math but it wasn’t until I took this class
that I started to go there for writing.
I also went to tutor sessions at the Pattee Library. I truly believe that using my resources at
Penn State helped me improve my writing.
Even
though I am a freshman, I never knew that Penn State offered so many cultural
events/readings until I took this class.
This is another way I learned to use my resources. The cultural events not only catch my
attention but they are free to all Penn State students. Getting an education is not only about
getting good grades on exams, but it is also about learning about different
aspects of the world and broadening your horizons. The first cultural event I attended was the
Gallary Talk at the Palmer Museum. The
speaker talked about the history of the circus.
I was never curious as to how the circus was originated to begin with,
but after listening to this lecture, I was intrigued by the topic and happy I
went. The second cultural event I went
to was the reading the Mary Rolling Reader Series presented in the Foster
Auditorium. At this reading, two popular
poets, Nicole Cooley and Julia Kasdorf, read poems of their life
experiences. Nicole Cooley’s poems
inspired me because she went through the challenges she faced living through
Hurricane Katrina. I have never known
anyone who had gone through Hurricane Katrina, so it was really interesting
listening to her detailed descriptions of her experience. By attending these two cultural events, I
have learned to expand my knowledge outside the classroom. In the future, I plan on taking advantage of
these resources to explore about different aspects of the world.
Overall,
I have improved my writing and learned an immense amount about the resources
Penn State offers students. I plan on
deepening my knowledge to learn about things other than what is taught inside
my classes and use free tutoring for the rest of my college career.
2.
http://shainamelnickenglish15.blogspot.com/2012/02/i-am-very-new-to-whole-blogging.html#comment-form
3. I completed my SRTEs!
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