Porter 1 Danielle Porter Professor Suzanne Ingram English 1101-001 02 October 2013 English 1101 Midterm 1.

Is it bad to include a personal opinion in a paper? No! It isnt bad to include a personal opinion in a paper. The reason being is that your paper, depending on which style of writing you use is your own. Each paper regardless of topic choice is going to reflect your personal voice. Every writer has what I believe is a signature that they leave on their writing pieces, even if the writing is formal. A personal opinion included in writing a paper is sometimes even a good thing. When writing a persuasive essay for example, a personal opinion is a requirement. You are expected to pick a side of a controversial topic and include background knowledge through research in order to sway the reader to feel the same way you do about a particular issue. There are however times when including a personal opinion in a paper may not be the right thing to do for that particular paper, such as when writing a research paper. However, I believe that including personal opinions and statements in your writing is almost necessary when trying to write outside of the box. 2. What are the differences between high school competency and college success? There are many differences between high school competency and college success. The first and most significant difference, I believe, is hard work. In high school, many students including my classmates and myself have reported that they felt as though they just coasted by. Personally, I never thought to put in much effort into my education in

Porter 2 high school, I just showed up to class, handed in my work and left. When I got home, I didnt need to study and I would just prepare (barely) for the next day. In college, this changed dramatically. If you have the same attitude towards your education in college as you did in high school, you fail. There are no easy college courses. Each and every course you take requires a tremendous amount of work, studying and preparation. To be competent in high school, you learned how to work the system. You got to know your teachers routines. If they collected homework at the end of class, most likely youd sit in the back and do it during the lecture. In high school, you could easily hand in assignments late, retake tests or quizzes or just not show up to class and the teacher would have to catch you up. In college, none of those things apply. To achieve what you want out of your education, you must work for it. It requires effort and work. There is no coasting in college and it is entirely up to you to succeed. 3. What advice would you give to a current high school senior who is preparing for college academics? The most important piece of advice that I could give to a high school senior who is preparing for college is to develop good study habits early on. Take as much time if not more a week studying as you are in class. Learn how to take good notes and try and expand your attention span as much as possible. Your academic success in college begins with you. A professor isnt going to look out for you as much as you are going to have to look out for yourself. They will not babysit you when an assignment is due. Developing good organization skills is essential. For example, I color code my calendar of assignments based on what class it is in and I write every single assignment down because if you think that you will remember what pages your professor assigned

Porter 3 you at the last minute of class, you wont. Take responsibility of your actions and your work early. It is so very important to getting what you want from college. 4. Pick one of the concepts that you think you're engaging with really well and explain how you're doing that. One of the key concepts that I believe Im engaging with really well would be intellectual growth. Every day whether it be in class during discussion or outside of class with the readings my mind is constantly developing. When I first started at UNC-Charlotte, I was not used to the style that we were going to be using in this course. I had never really provided feedback to others or received peer feedback for that matter. A specific example of this would be during the peer review of my narrative essay. I really did not know where I wanted to go with my piece for the first draft, inevitably it was the epitome of a shitty first draft. When we had to pass our papers to our group members and read our pieces out loud I was nervous about how my writing would compare with my classmates or if they would judge me based on my writing style. After peer review, I realized that we were all there for the sole purpose of helping each other. The feedback that I received about my piece was really beneficial to me and I felt more comfortable with my group members and with my writing as a whole. For my second draft, I took my peers advice and added more detail to my piece, overall, I was more confident in my writing and I think it showed in my draft. 5. What's confusing or challenging about that concept, and how might you strive, in the second half of this semester, to better engage with it? At the moment I dont believe that I am struggling with any of the key concepts, however, the key concept that is the most challenging for me would probably be risk-taking. My interpretation of risktaking at the beginning of the course was a little blurred as I believe many of my peers

Porter 4 was as well. Currently, I see this key concept as a means to push us to do more with our writing. Risk-taking as a whole requires pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone and making calculated decisions that will directly impact your writing, the goal is that it impacts it in a positive way. I was struggling to take risks in my narrative piece because I had never written in that style of writing before. Being that it was unfamiliar to me I had to push myself to take risks in my writing by being specific and detailed in my writing which originally, I wasnt. My hope is for the next half of the semester that I could better develop my skills for writing in many different styles. By continuously taking risks in my writing, it could only get better and if not then you learn from your mistakes. 6. What connections can you make between any of your answers for questions 1-5? That is, how do the issues you've addressed relate to each other? A major connection that I can draw from my previous responses is that I had to put effort into my work and my writing. I had to put forth effort to continuously grow and develop as a writer and try and add as many skills as I can to my writing handbook. I have been continuously growing and developing as a writer in this class because this is one of the first classes that has not been focused on five-paragraph essays. Now that I am in a class that isnt structured on the five-paragraph essay, I could practice different writing styles and grow as a writer. Development during your education is crucial to gaining the right skills necessary to complete the task. It is also very important that you continue to build upon those skills so that you can practice and be more of a stylistic writer. 7. What questions do you still have? What do you still really want to inquire about in this course? I really dont have any questions about this course left. I really do like this class because I think it actually lets us explore our writing style and speak our voices. I

Porter 5 am really glad that this writing class is different from my high school writing classes because in high school I did not feel like I had my own unique voice. It is so important that a student gains the confidence in their own writing to develop their own voice because in some ways it is their identity. This course lets me explore a healthy medium, a way of getting comfortable with the writing styles that Im already used to and develop them further, and a way of introducing me to new writing styles and pushing me to learn how to explore and better my writing in those ways. I am excited to see what is in store for me in the next half of this course.