Husain Alqallaf Professor Fuentes ENGL 1101 The Worst Paper Like many things in life, beginnings can

be harsh and difficult. The beginning of my journey in the United State as a nonnative speaker was tough because I thought that my English was good enough for university study. However, after I received feedback on my first paper from my teacher in the ESL center, I realized that I was wrong about my English. It was the worst paper I ever wrote, I got an F because I wrote one large paragraph and the teacher wanted a five paragraph essay. Also I did not write an introduction or conclusion, and I did not use punctuation correctly; additionally, I had not written a thesis statement. All this happened because I did not have any information about writing academically; back in Kuwait we did not learn anything about MLA format or rules for academic writing . It was shocking for me to realize that I had no idea about how to write correctly. The essay was about my school, and I keep it to remind myself of the progress Ive made with writing at university level. After I got my paper back from the teacher I was disappointed. However, this moment made me work hard to improve my writing; I asked my friends to review my work and to tell me of my mistakes before turning in my papers. I took the teachers comments, and have used them to help improve my writing. I continued to work hard for the rest of the semester to develop my writing skills, and learned how to better use MLA format. Also my teacher advised me to go to the writing resource center to get additional help. After the work I put in to my writing, and with the help I received from my teacher, friends and the writing resource center, I got an A on my final paper.