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Bryanna Restelli
Mrs. Oliveira
College Writing
18 January 2017
Reflections
College writing is a course that explores all your creative styles and freedoms to write
astonishing pieces. Throughout the year I have struggled numerous times trying to find the right
word to write to make the sentence flow, removing passive voice from sentences, and even
working on my grammar. The quote I choose to explain this writing course is a quote by
Margaret Atwood, If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word, (Atwood). This
quote demonstrated my first semester in this course. As a perfectionist I needed to make sure
every sentence in my paper flowed well and that it was something that enjoyed writing. I learned
from Mrs. Oliveira that if you are not passionate about what you're writing, to start over. Dont
just write something because it's an assignment and you need a grade, write something that is
meaningful and makes a long lasting impact, even after the course is over. Throughout each
writing assignment I put in time and effort which reflected in the grades and feedback I received
from my instructor. This course has prepared me for the future, college, by teaching me to love
what I write and to write it well.
The first assignment we were assigned was the research paper. Research papers are
difficult and can become overwhelming throughout the process of gathering information,
outlining the information, and then composing a paper that is 5-8 pages long. For this assignment
I had to first distinguish the audience I needed to target. My target audience was everyone, due to

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the fact that I don't know who is reading this paper in February I needed to prepare for anything
(1a). I decided to write about mentoring programs, especially at the YMCA which meant that the
content in my paper needed to be accurate. To prepare for the heavy task in front of my eyes, I
received numerous time in the library to carefully develop a topic to research that corresponded
with my senior project. Once I found my topic the research for documents and statistics took
multiple weeks in order to have a sufficient amount of information to write a paper about. I was
fortunate enough to receive a mentoring binder from the local YMCA which provided me with
good information about the program to include in my paper (1b). However, the process became
stressful when documents contained the same information but just explained the material in a
different way. Finding reliable information became a difficult task however by the end I obtained
good information to help add to my paper.
The writing process overwhelmed me, but an outline became an important piece to put a
lot of effort into. I spent hours outside and during school composing an outline for my paper by
using notes from the articles, direct quotes, facts, basically anything that would help convey my
thesis. Once I finished writing the rough draft a little stress was relieved however when I
received the corrections for my paper back the stress quickly rebuilt. After scoring an okay grade
I began revising my paper and looking at the numerous comments left on every page. I soon
realized that there is a huge difference between revising and editing. Then sitting at my desk I
started to revise sentences in the paper going one page at a time. While editing the grammatical
errors and word choosing to make everything flow the way I wanted it too, it became clear that
my counterclaim needed to change dramatically (2a). I researched a new topic to make more
sense with my thesis. The next step, gathering information, helped me to compose a new

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paragraph. After rewriting the counterclaim I submitted my paper for more critics and positive
notes back (2c). Then a couple weeks later I received the paper back, scoring 9 points higher
than the original. Although, I needed to make more changes my teacher commented that my
sentences and arguments were tighter and were composed with good information. After reading,
the positive comment I began looking through the new corrections, mainly being grammatically
errors and word choice. However, when I flipped to page 6 I noticed my counterclaim once again
needed revisions. Revising the counterclaim was a struggle. Every time I would come up with a
topic I could never find information to back it up. There are no articles online stating that
mentoring programs are bad which caused a lot of stress. Mainly due to the fact that if I could
not find a proper counterclaim that main idea of my paper may of had to be changed.
Therefore, I fixed all the minor errors first and then started thinking of a new
counterclaim. Drawing a blank on what to write about with valid information I met with my
mentor for my senior project who helped me come up with a logical counterclaim that connected
with my thesis . Then I began researching cases for children who were mistreated while in the
care of a mentor and began writing my counterclaim. Soon after I had a friend look over the
counterclaim before adding it into the paper (2b). Once the counterclaim and minor errors were
corrected it became time to resubmit my senior paper for the reading conducted in February.
Then for the last time my paper was corrected and handed back to me. I immediately flipped to
page 6 to see the corrections for my counterclaim and I found myself shocked. The counterclaim
flowed with my paper and only needed minor editing. Thrilled with my hard work, I no longer
had to comprise a whole new counterclaim for the same response back. In addition to, my
teacher noted that even though there is good sentencing structure my paper still consisted of

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passive voice. My instructor soon helped me fix passive voice within sentences that made me
feel more comfortable and confident in the process (3a). For instance, one sentence read, A
common misconception of sexual offenders is they are often thought to be unknown to the
victim, however the truth is that the sexual offender more often is a family member or someone
with whom the victim is familiar with (Restelli). This one sentence contained 6 passive verbs
which is overwhelming for one sentence. Therefore, my instructor and I talked about how to
revise the sentence making it concise with little to none passive voice. Through numerous
revision my instructor and I changed the sentence to read, All too often, people worry about sex
abusers as those outside of ones home, but more often the predator lives in the home (Restelli).
Within this process I learned how important it is to cut out unnecessary words especially passive
verbs which can disrupt the flow of the paper. After finalizing the corrects my instructor gave I
handed in my paper for the very last time. The process of writing the senior paper endured some
difficulties at times but with the assistance of my mentor and my teacher I constructed a paper I
knew would pass the table read (3c).
The next assignment, the profile, offered me an opportunity to grow as writer, composing
a paper primarily with no direction about another individual. To prepare for the assignment, as a
class our instructor composed packets of sample essays including some student examples. The
examples of other profiles helped to promote ideas on questions to ask my interviewee and
allowed myself to observe how the profile should be constructed (1a). All of the examples given
during class incorporated facts, sensory details, and emotions that allowed the profile to run and
sound smoothly (1b). Once I analyzed the articles it seemed important that a dominant
impression should be made by the end of the profile. In addition to, writing a free write on what I

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would want my dominant impression to be on others helped to propose the dominant impression
I wanted readers to have on my interviewee (1c).
To prepare for the actual task of conducting an interview, I interviewed a fellow
classmate in a mock interview a mock interview, giving me feedback on whether or not my
questions prepared gave enough information to write a profile. After I completed the mock
interview I began writing a poem describing my interviewee comparing her in to Beyonce. The
poem was a great start to the writing process but I knew that this comparison between people
would not work for the actual paper (3b). I realized that I did not obtain enough information to
write an entire essay (2b). Therefore, I made a mental note to ask more questions and even ask
follow up questions depending on the answers I receive during the interview. After taking into
consideration the questions and the length of the interview I wanted to conduct I began to
prepare questions for my actual interviewee. I used questions from the mock interview that
seemed to work and generate a long, meaningful response, and also prepared other questions that
could spark follow up questions. For instance, during the interview I asked, Have you ever
travelled anywhere that you loved, that you would go back to in a heartbeat? in which my
interviewee Crystal responded with a city in Belgium that sparked many follow up questions to
receive more information about the quaint city (2c). The interview I coordinated became a little
hectic, mostly due to the fact that my interviewee currently lives in Bronx, New York. Therefore,
I met my interviewee in New Haven, CT at Ikea and conducted the interview in the cafeteria. I
do believe that if the interview took place in a more calming and relaxing environment the
interview would have been better, but I had to work with what I had. I observed the surroundings
but did not use that to determine the persona of my interviewee, instead I observed her

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appearance and the food she picked out in the cafeteria. After I recorded the interview it became
time to develop a profile and make a dominant impression of my interviewee. The writing
process became more difficult than the interview in my opinion. Developing key characteristics
about Crystal, like her Turkish descent, the Misquamicut State Beaches, her time living in
Oregon, and traveling the world. Then I started writing the profile incorporating multiple details
to teach the reader that Crystal has lived out her young life already with many more adventures
to come. Being down to earth and now living in New York, Crystal is ready for her new life with
her husband, Andrew (3a).
After receiving feedback on my profile I became aware that every sentence begins with
Crystal. Meaning that the flow of the paper was not quite what I had wanted to achieve and
needed to be revised. Although some comments mentioned good descriptions and background
knowledge there were multiple fragment sentences within the paper. In addition to, I had minor
editing to do with adding commas to sentences and other grammatical errors (2a). After looking
over the multiple corrections I needed to resubmit the profile essay. The profile essay in my
opinion was the hardest paper to write mainly because the interview did not really suffice the
amount of information I need. However, my interviewee lives in New York so the
communication created a barrier in receiving more information for my paper. Therefore, I
realized that when conducting interviews I needed to ask questions that generate long,
meaningful responses instead of short answers. Beside the information factor the process was
exciting, finding someone you don't know too well and getting to know them, it's the perfect
assignment to make you more comfortable talking to strangers (3c).

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The next writing assignment, the investigative report, was a collaborative essay making it
fairly easier than the other papers. Being able to pick partners for the assignment allowed myself
to chose people who I work well with and people I can count on to complete the task.
Throughout the process my partners and I worked together to form a report that incorporated all
of our writing techniques and traits. The paper comprised of all the different writing styles
showed me how to incorporate everyone's views by also making the paper flow throughout. The
writing process became easier as time passed but in the beginning the paper was uncertain.
To begin with, the paper needed to have a theme that could easily be researched with the
tools provided to us. However, my group members and I wanted to find a topic that connected on
a personal level and involved our everyday life. We discussed numerous topics such as,
lunchroom health codes, senior lounge, cheating at public schools and many others involving the
education system. Then once topics were chosen by other groups it became clear that our topic
should be seniors (1a). During our senior year at Westerly High School we face many obstacles
including, standardised testing, senior project and paper, college application, and scholarships.
Yet for everything we do we are never truly rewarded for our hard work. The topic we choose
connected with all of us because we believe seniors should be rewarded for the obstacles they
have to overcome in their senior year (1b). Therefore, my group members and I decided to
research senior privileges. Senior privileges is a perfect topic to research, especially for myself
because I have always been curious to other school policies in relation to Westerly High School
(1c).
After we decided on a topic, we started looking for ways to find information. We started
by looking through old newspapers provided by the librarian and came across an article about a

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2008 walk-out hosted by seniors. The senior class of 2008 stood on the quad to protest the little
amounts of privileges they obtained (2b). The information we received from this article perspire
into an entire paragraph within our paper. In addition to, the newspaper articles we conducted
interviews with facility members and students from WHS and Stonington High School to gather
more information about senior privileges. The interviews provided with me with a new skill.
Being able to write formal and informal questions and be prepared for follow up questions based
on responses given. After meeting with Principal Todd Grimes, I really felt more comfortable
once he made the effort to answer the questions in a more laid back format. Interviewing
someone, especially someone with authority over my peers and I terrified me at first but once I
started to prepare I felt more confident with the interview (2c).
Once all the information we needed was collected and organized, my peers and I decided
to work on the report by splitting it up into sections. Assigning each person a topic within the
paper that interest us and a topic we had a sufficient amount of information on. I choose to write
about senior privileges in past generations at Westerly High School as well as privileges at
Stonington High School. When I began to write my section I found it easy to gather the facts and
the words but hard to avoid using the same words and phrasing throughout the entire paper. After
writing my section, I met with my other group members to correct the whole paper and get rid of
repetitiveness throughout the paper to make it flow better. For instance in my section of the
paper I wrote, Many Westerly seniors would believe that there is less freedom, when at
Stonington High School seniors are provided freedom while still maintaining good grades and
being respectful (Restelli). However in the next paragraph I mentioned the exact same topic by
just reworded the sentences causing repetitiveness within the paper. However, we worked as a

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group to fix any repetitiveness in the paper and then turned it into our instructor. Once we
handing in the paper our revisions were quite heavy but nothing we couldnt handle and our edits
were small grammatical changes (2a). However, when we read the paper over the flow seemed
disrupted by various ideas not flowing with one another. Therefore, we decided to make
corrections and then rearrange the paragraphs so that common ideas are flowing with one another
(3b). The investigative report was a huge process, trying to make three different writing styles
flow within one paper and gather information for a topic that is overall opinionated (3a). Overall,
the paper left me with a new sense of perspective, learning from my peers writing style and what
style of mine does no work when writing a report. The investigative report taught me the
importance of working as a collective group and incorporation everyone's ideas and writing
styles (3c).
The last writing assignment of the year, the literacy narrative, became an easy and
calming way to end the semester. Having a limited amount of time, our class did not have a lot of
preparation compared to other projects, which made me a little stressed. Although we were
fortunate enough to have a guest speaker come in, a professional writer, share his own story and
give us inside tips on writing a good paper. The guest speaker advised the class to write a mini
narrative in which I did but didn't use (1b). After that class I had a better understanding of the
project and applied the notes into my own paper. When starting the paper I found it difficult to
find a topic that sparked a meaningful connection and one that I could show and not tell (1a). As
a non-reader I did not really relate to novel or books that seemed to connect with other students. I
started writing about a previous experience with a librarian and reading books from the middle
school library. However, I found myself telling a story and showing the story through dialogue

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and imagery (3b). Therefore, I decided to change my topic. I kept thinking of topics to eite about
and then one day when I came home I saw my mother walk through the kitchen door and I
realized that I used to read a Turkish Dictionary (1c). This dictionary, buried on a black bookcase
in my living room. Immediately I knew that this would be the topic for my paper.
I started the writing process by coming up with some background knowledge on myself
and foreign languages. A little sinopsis that tells the reader how languages affected my life and
how I have always been interested in languages. The introduction consisted of my background
with languages haven taken spanish for 4 years and then being interested in other languages like
Turkish (3a). After I began writing the story which came easy at first but once I finished writing
the paper I realized I only had 800 words written, I needed to write another 200 words in order to
meet the word count requirement. I soon began to worry because I already explained everything I
needed to address to the reader. After re-reading the paper numerous times I still couldn't figure
out what to add and then it dawned on me. My mother learned Turkish from her mother and I
never mentioned that connection in my paper. My grandmother, Hatice, who did before I had a
chance to meet her, left me with two connections, my mother and the Turkish language. I added
this new addition to my paper and my word count increased to meet the requirement. I could feel
the stress decreasing. However, before I submitted the paper to my instructor I had a close friend
read it over to make sure the paper flowed and that no revisions need to be made (2b). Once I
revised some minor correction with word choices in sentences, I also edited many punctuations
that helped the paper flow (2a). I shared the paper with my mother before handing it in so she
could read it. The feedback I received from my mom warmed my heart and made me so happy.
In the paper I wrote, seni seviyordum (Restelli) meaning I love you in Turkish, my mother

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read it over a looked back at me with a smile on her face. Once I submitted my paper I waited for
the corrections by my instructor. When I received my paper back I just started at the paper, there
was not many corrections compared to my other papers. I flipped through each page and then
turned to see my grade. After all the writing assignments I finally received an A on the literacy
narrative, which made me ecstatic. The corrections were an easy fix and mainy were
grammatical errors like adding commas or capitalizing names. For the literacy narrative I applied
everything I learned from my other assignments to make this one count the most. Including
changing passive voice like was in my sentences so less corrections needed to be made
afterwards (2c). Ending the year with the literacy narrative allowed me to reflect on everything I
learned and apply the techniques to create beautiful paper with memories that put a smile on my
mother's face (3c).
The college writing course offered me a chance to become a better writer, developing
skills that will help me in my college courses. Throughout my first three years at Westerly High
School I took college prep english. While taking these courses I was never challenged, learning
just the basics and reading a limited amount of books. When enrolled for college writing and
heard about all the requirements I could feel my heart racing. I had never learned about passive
voice, never write freewrites and a warm up and never had so many writing assignment in one
academic semester. Having limited knowledge on basically everything I felt small and
uneducated unlike the rest of my class. Our first project, our college essay introduced me to the
new techniques and tricks in writing a good and meaningful paper. After feeling a little more
comfortable I could apply everything I learned into the assignment throughout the semester.
Feeling a sense of comfort more and more as time went on. My instructor constantly helped me

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through the process and taught me new information, including passive voice. By the end of the
semester I scored high grades on my papers showing my improvement in my writing. Overall
this course challenge me in many ways and even taught me new techniques I did not learn in
previous years. For college I will continue to use the skills I learned for future english classes
and always keep in mind that, If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word (Atwood).

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