Final Writing

You have 30 minutes to respond to the following prompt:

This class fulfills your first year writing requirement. To what extent and in what ways have your writing and communication improved (also consider your other language skills including nonver al! electronic! and ver al communication as well as reading! speaking! listening! voca ulary! and grammar"# $ow have the topics you have considered in %nglish &0& impacted your acquisition of greater writing and communication skills#

's you answer these questions a ove! you might also consider the following: (o you feel more confident as a communicator now than you did when you egan the semester# )hat steps can you take now to uild on the progress you have made# )hich topics were most en*oya le# )hich surprised you or challenged your eliefs or opinions most#

)hen you are finished please upload a copy of your writing to +lack oard ',( also email a copy to yourself. )hile a thesis is not required! we have learned that thesis statements are very useful tools for organi-ation! and . will e looking at the flow of ideas! suita ility and complexity of voca ulary! sophistication and correct use of grammar! as well as the accuracy of spelling and punctuation in your answer.

I extremely appreciate that this class has improved my English writing skills through intensive working amounts. Never exposed to academic papers before, I found that there were considerable complicated and strict rules for writing papers. I recalled the time when I began my first formal writing, my topic was too general and I had to start over. After I narrowed down the

topic, another unexpected thing occurred: I had difficulty reaching the word re uirements. !truggling for almost two weeks, I finally solved all the problems and finished my first version. After that, it became a lot easier for me to write papers: it only took me four or five nights to complete my second formal paper. "he assignment of writing weekly blog posts was also very beneficial to me. At the beginning, I found it was tough to write two pages about a simple food experience, even though it only re uires #$$ words each. %owever, now I did not feel that way anymore. &oreover, when we need to select five posts to be graded, I went through my previous blog posts, pleasantly surprised at how big the progress I have made. &y previous essays were less organi'ed, and had lots of redundant or illogical sentences. And I am able to fix the grammar errors and awkward expressions without the help of E!( tutors.

In addition, I am capable of making an effective and informative presentation by taking this course. I used to be scared and timid when I presented in front of the whole class, especially speaking in my second language. )ut watching other students presenting their pro*ects and getting feedbacks for my presentation helped me a lot. It allowed me to make a +do and don,tlist for making presentations. .or instance, we should use strong body language, naturally transit from one topic to another, and interact with audiences to keep their attentions/ we should not use passive tone, read too much from the pro*ector, or put overwhelming information without any visual aid. As a result, not only do I present better, but also build more self0confidence and become more comfortable with speaking English now.

(ast but not least, I gained a wealth of other skills such as creating a multimodal website and a captivating video. 1sing 2eebly to set up our own websites was thrilling in my eyes because I always desired to build my website which can reflect who I am. "he theme, which is about foods, cannot be more perfect. I put an abundant of time and energy into this assignment, but I truly en*oyed the whole process. "he 3ompared to writing papers, making a video was so much fun. Although the work was demanding 4picking the background music, collecting pictures, recording, adding descriptions, etc.5, using i&ovie made the whole process easier and I had fun creating my own digital story. After the video was done, I felt a rich, rewarding sense of fulfillment. I could not help watching it again and again and certainly did not hesitate to show it off to my parents and friends.