Blog Response #6 - Essay 1 Executive Summary - Prof. Fulton's English 101 -The Rhetoric ofPopular Culuter

Blog Response #6 - Essay 1 Executive Summary

9/27/2013

The executive summary is a self-analysis tool that is often used in writing courses to help the writer assess his or her writing process.

Include the following discussion points in your response. Feel free to discuss other experiences and aspects of the assignment as well. Your responses should be of a length comparable to the Blog Responses from the SOL readings.

By the way, the "executive" in "executive summary refers to YOU, the writer. You are the executive in charge of your process.

·         What did you find most challenging about this essay? What strategies did you employ to overcome these challenges?

·         What have you learned about yourself as a writer while working on essay 1? What skills do you think need further development? What did you do especially well?

·         What do you plan to do differently during the Essay 2 process? What strengths will you continue to bring to the writing? What new skills will you be trying to develop?

Nina Keen link

9/27/2013 03:26:58 pm

What I found most challenging about Essay #1 was narrowing down my thesis. The prompt, “Is consumerism good or bad for American society?” was general and so my main idea had so many places it could go. Finally choosing the path I wanted to go down was the toughest part of writing the essay. To overcome this challenge, I thought about which avenue I really could explore and for which I could provide adequate examples. I did not want to trail off on tangents in order to fill up space, but at the same time I did not want to stuff too many ideas into one four-page essay. I chose the path that I thought would best match up with both of these ideals.
I learned that I have a lot of ideas, but it is hard for me to narrow them down – and resist the temptation of going off on tangents I think are interesting! I definitely need to further develop narrowing down my thesis and main points and sticking to them. Also, I could do with better, smoother transitions. I think I used good examples and demonstrated intelligence and a grasp on English grammar well.
During Essay 2, as one can see by looking above at my disappointments from Essay 1, I will try to work on narrowing my thesis and ideas and keeping things simple. I will continue to write the way I like to write – in a clear and, I think, intelligent manner. As for new skills, I will try to develop better ease with transitions and simplifying my ideas on paper.

Stefanie Jadidi

9/28/2013 04:05:31 am

Although I do have great organizational skills in life, when it comes to essays I tend to fall out of line. It really helped to exchange essays with another classmate. I enjoyed proofreading each others essay in class and sharing ideas with one another. It really opened my eyes to the common mistakes we both made. I need to not be so hard on myself. I think sometimes I write to try to impress the professor and it usually blows up in my face. My professors usually give me better feedback on the things I write from my heart. I concentrate too hard and don’t give my essay a chance. I need to have my paragraphs flow a bit better. My intro paragraph and conclusion is always a mess. The thesis seems like the easiest part of an essay, but in fact it is not in my case. I can’t just get to the point. I try to describe everything in the first paragraph. I try to cram information into one sentence. I am good at repeating my ideas in different ways. But I think I do have valid points, I just have to work on narrowing it down and constructing my points into a more organizational fashion. I am definitely going to try to be more thorough with my ideas without overdoing it or being repetitive. I want to work on my intro and conclusion paragraphs and make sure I do not repeat myself. Did I just repeat myself there? ha! I want my paragraphs to flow and be consistent. I pretty much want to always strive for an A and not tell myself right away that it won't happen. I also want to work to the best of my ability and not give up. Hey, who came up with the phrase “A for effort” anyway? Effort is spelled with an E! Don’t worry, I won’t quit my day job and become a comedian.

Rhea Lopez

9/29/2013 03:36:27 pm

Essay 1 was hard to start, wondering where and how to start an argumentative essay and thinking the instructor’s expectation towards the essay. The first quarter of the semester was pretty hectic as though I was still coping up from summer break and getting to know the schedules of my other classes as well. One concern that I had encounter on doing essay 1 was time management. Also, having too many homework and other activities from this class and other classes were the challenges that added up to start my essay 1 Weebly page was a concern too, for the fact that I wasn’t familiar to the page. Along with these challenges, I had to find some kind of solution to start and get through this essay. I made my research, divided my time for this essay and other activities for other classes; I spent at least 2 hours per day of studying or doing research, reading books, and brainstorming for each of my classes. As a computer rookie, I didn’t have any idea what Weebly was, not a clue and never visited the site before. We had set up our own pages, reply to blog responses, put our projects and essay outline on this site. Honestly, it was hard and annoying but I had to familiarize myself and know more about the site and how to do things such as posting essay outline on my own page, blog responding, and posting our projects so I gave myself 3 hours to explore and learn this site. I might not be that good yet but I know my way around.

Approaching essay 1 was a challenge and as I was writing it, I realized that it wouldn’t be easy and would need more research. As a writer, I’ve learned that I wasn’t reading enough sources and taking down notes or important information that would help me make my essay more effective. Since time was my worst enemy on doing this essay, I was pressured and thought that I wouldn’t finish such a good essay. I’ve also learned that I excelled in brainstorming that I used to start my essay. I’ve never brainstormed before and why did I use brainstorming for this essay? I honestly don’t know but what I know is it was a good way to start and guide to my essay. On my next essay, I know that researching will be my best friend. I have to work harder on researching. Reading and taking notes are also the skills that I need to improve. Going to the library and reading more books especially the books that are related to the essay topic. Taking down notes while reading will also help me identify important concepts or subtopics.

For me to have a better essay, not just for essay 2 but for future essays also, I know I have to do more than just writing. I know I have to research more, asking questions and answering them. I will have to generate as much idea as I could. Reading and reading and more reading… I started to love brainstorming and I think it’s a really good idea to start doing this before writing an essay. Brainstorming will help you generate high amount of ideas and improve the ideas to be written on the essay. I will use brainstorming on all my future essays. I would love to really start working on the skills of reading and researching, and implement them on my essay 2. As a writer, I know that I will make my essays better and more effective.

Larissa Figueroa

9/30/2013 12:09:57 pm

Does anyone know how to check the professor's dropbox? thanks!

Michael Ferreras

9/30/2013 03:08:18 pm

First of all, essay one was quite a challenge mainly because I was not sure what I was leaning towards. I needed to conduct further research to be able to make a solid decision. I guess I should be a little more knowledgeable about the subject before tackling the actual assignment. There were some difficulties in organization of content within the paper itself. Organization during the outlining process would have made the actual writing process easier than what I did.
During essay one I have learned a lot about my writing abilities. For the most part I found it somewhat difficult for ideas to flow in my mind. When I did come up with ideas for the essay, incorporating those ideas to fit the thesis and main ideas was confusing in a way. Because I did not turn in an essay for grading, I do not know exactly what I did well and what areas I need improvement on. I do believe that in my writing I was able to develop my ideas the best way I can while still sounding sane. Even with constant rewriting on some points I feel there will still be times that ideas will not flow fluently on paper but will improve each time it is written.
In essay two I plan on taking more time with the drafting process. The outline I believe helps the most because that is a way to develop the main ideas and supporting details for the overall body of the paper. Fully comprehending the content is beneficial rather than skimming through most of the material which does not help develop any ideas for the paper. I hope to better improve my content development skills for the second essay. I did experiences the difficulties of this problem in essay one and with an improvement, the overall essay will be more effective in giving off my main point.

Evelyn Perez link

9/30/2013 05:35:49 pm

The most challenging part of this essay was coming up with strong arguments to support my ideas. I tried to read the articles that were assigned to figure out what argument I wanted to support. I also had trouble developing my essay, it was very broad and my assertions were bad. I think I still need to practice and continue to read writing hand books.
I learned that I have to focus on making strong assertive points to support my arguments and to become a better writer. When I outlined my ideas it made it easier to write my essay and eliminate the unnecessary ideas. I need to go over run- on sentences and fragments because I had plenty of grammar errors in my essay. I need to work on grammar and format, my essay’s need to be organized better. I think I did well in incorporating quotes to support my points. I cited and explain my quotes fairly well because I did the readings and used the best quotes. I had some good points in my essay, some bodies were better developed than others; in the future I will focus on body development to make the essay easier to read.
I plan to organize my thoughts and use the method in the video to bloc the negativity while writing. Outlining really helped me in the first essay so I will make several outlines to narrow down my points. I will also seek for help from the writing center after the first draft. I will continue to use and seek good quotes to make my essay interesting and to support my points. I will try to develop better language and make my ideas into assertive points. I will revise and spend lots of time on my essay to make it the best I can. I will also use the writing handbook to eliminate the grammar issues. In order to change my writing methods I needed to be inform of what my flaws as a writer are and now that I know I will seek for help from a tutor to fix the flaws.

Rosario Vazquez

10/1/2013 03:50:52 am

The most challenging part about the essay was trying to stay on track, as to referring back to the thesis and not repeating main points.
What I’ve learned about myself as a writer is that I still need improvement especially in grammar as well as understanding the context/ prompt of the assignment.
For essay 2, I’ll try to be more aware of grammar errors, get it revise or get feedback of other students. Ill also organize my thoughts staying on track without jumping to other points.

Nina Keen link

10/1/2013 02:10:36 pm

Larissa Figueroa

10/1/2013 04:16:12 pm

While writing this first essay, there were many challenges. For examples trying to keep up with all the information from the class since this is our first month. We had a lot of other small assignments to be doing. One of the most difficult things is learning how to cite the information by using footnotes or EndNote because I don't really use them, so I can say that this is very new to me. It is something new that I must learn and become comfortable with. The very most challenging aspect of getting this essay done was time finding the time and the disciplined to sit and do it was actually something that I found myself struggling with. I wrote and outline in order to help myself finish this essay. I wrote out the thesis statement and the first sentences of every paragraph that way I wouldn't forget my main points. I also read the essay a couple of times to check if I liked it, or if there was something that I wanted to change. Then brainstorming also helped me to write my thoughts. In my opinion this is one of the best strategies just start writing non-stop. I strongly think that I need to be more disciplined when it comes to managing the little time that I have for my homework this is definitely key if I want to write better assignments and finish them on time. I need to get very good at citing my sources as well as using more of them.

arturo rios link

10/2/2013 12:40:47 pm

For the next following essay I think it is important to add how important is technology for modern day because of it society has become more ignorant to the governments business controlling people like puppets using technology and websites such as facebook one of the most used WebPages. Technology also has replaced the human companionship which nowadays has been missing for several years. We live in a world full of technology and electronic dimension in which fantasy turns to be our reality through video games, another main factor that maintains people isolated along with cell phones which fill out the need of companion and human interaction. There’s no need to travel to visit someone when we can do it through the internet or via text messaging and calls which modernly have been replaced by texting. Texting is also another major factor that contributes to deteriorate our society because of it people lacks of mutual communication, attaching people to their electronic device which proportionate distraction but not affection which is more needed in order to live. I think that also is important mention ho bad has society changed in these last years which is a totally different from Plato’s time because back then people were not that ignorant or fooled by the government which today is easily to do by the use of technologic media such as flu from past years. Which supposedly could people and end up being a lie, and also not forget to mention the way that technology affects our feelings and psychologically the human behavior because technology tends to make people feel superior.

Steven Diermissen

10/2/2013 01:45:06 pm

I had a very difficult time writing the entire essay. It has been over a year since I have written an essay for any class. The main strategies I had used to write this essay were planning with an outline and getting critical insight from others on what I had written before the final product.
From writing the first essay of the class I have learned that I need to improve my writing significantly in order to pass the class. The many skills I need to improve on are having the ability to write a proper introduction paragraph, being able to use the sources, and writing a concluding paragraph. I am not sure if I had any part of the essay I had written especially well.
I am not sure what I will do anything differently from what I have done. The new skills I will try to develop include being able to write proper introductory and concluding paragraphs and integrating the sources given or used to back up my arguments.

Tye Peoples

10/2/2013 01:51:42 pm

The hardest part about essay #1 for me was understanding the reading in order to have solid body paragraphs containing fact. I found that after writing a paper which I thought was very good but not in a critical thinking manner. My first draft was very opinionated and not enough about facts.
The strategies is used was simply rereading the text, and constantly writing down ideas, that were easy for me to elaborate with factual evidence.
I learned that I have the potential to be a good writer, but I must further develop my critical thinking skills And grammatical skills. After completely rewriting essay 1 final draft, I found that I have good ideas I just have a problem with developing and explaining my ideas.
In Essay 2, I am trying to prepare myself more with the text. As far as reading the book and understanding the concept. I will continue to bring my strong ideas and essay structure skills to writing.
I would like to develop my writing skills on all aspects.

Vahan Khachatryan

10/3/2013 10:23:24 am

The most challenging part of every essay is to determine the thesis statement and to answer properly the question that thesis statement arises. Although the thesis statement was implied in one or another way in Essay 1, the accurate determination of the points that should have been discussed in the essay was challenging. To overcome that barrier, I categorized the several aspects that I was going to develop in my essay. The instructor was very helpful in terms of categorizing various aspects of the essay 1 question.
To write an essay about any subject, it is necessary to read a lot about that particular subject. It is not sufficient to rely only on personal backgrounds. The readings that were assigned to us for essay 1 helped me to understand the question more deeply and thus developed my ideas more efficiently. However, there are several things that need to be improved. I need to consider where and when to use transitions in order to differentiate ideas more clearly. Moreover, the expression of complete ideas in short sentences needs further improvement. MLA formatting needs to be reviewed more deeply by paying attention carefully to every single detail. The exact formulation of the thesis statement is another issue.
During the Essay 2 process, I will carefully read every material that has to do with the subject. Secondly, I will definitely write my introduction and thesis statement after developing the body paragraphs. It enables me to rephrase the main points developed in the body paragraphs in introduction and thus make the introduction more comprehensive.

Johnny Ramirez

10/4/2013 05:14:26 am

The most challenging about this essay was my introduction, finding a way to introduces the essay and thesis. A few strategies i thought of was coming up with a small story that relates to the essay topic.
As writer while working on this essay made me realized about run on sentences. Skills I need to further development is how to organize my thoughts, ideas better. Making sure when someone reads them, they will understand the message. One skill I did very well on, was finding the statics, and information about the essay. I got my evidence very well.
What I plan to do on my next essay, Essay #2, is make sure I turn it on time and continue to make sure my thesis makes sense and statements. The strengths I will bring to the writing is finding good statements to prove my point.

Kelly Hidalgo

10/5/2013 06:47:40 am

What I found most challenging about essay 1 was that I had not written an essay in many years. The entire process from the beginning to end was difficult. Beside the feedback I received in our class work groups, I also employed online resources to help me in the formatting of my thesis statement, the building of my body paragraphs and the conclusion. It was also very helpful during the work groups to read others essays and take tips from their writing styles.

What I leaned about my writing abilities is that I need to work hard to improve on the foundation that I have. I have very clear and concise ideas and I need to work on getting those ideas clearly written on paper. Also, I need to work on supporting my ideas with outside readings. I do feel that I have the ability to stay on topic without going into left field. I can keep my ideas fixed on the subject and pull further ideas that support my topic and make an even stronger argument.

When working on essay 2 I plan to work closely with my outline as I develop my paper. When I wrote essay 1, I didn't refer to my outline enough. I will continue to use my ability to support my main topic with a strong argument. As well, I am trying to complete essay 2 with a stronger point of view.

Kristina Valerio link

10/5/2013 11:12:21 am

Writing has never been my forte. As a writer, it was difficult for me to articulate ideas in a cohesive manner without going off topic. This stumbling block was caused by having limited ideas and not researching more on the topic to elaborate points necessary to make the essay persuasive. Another reason is that as a writer, I do not have an extensive vocabulary. I keep on repeating words in the same paragraph, making the reader either annoyed or confused.

I have read several readings related to the text needed for me to create a persuasive argumentative essay. As a student, I did some research on LACC’s database to gather some strong points and learn more about what the experts have to say about a certain topic. I studied their writing styles and learned from the vocabulary they used. And every time that I am tempted to use the same words again, I keep a thesaurus near me and replace words with similar meanings.

On this second essay, I am going to give myself an ample time to study the material and not be tempted to jump into writing about a topic I have no reference with. I am going to read more reference materials to strengthen my ideas about the topic and hoping to persuade the reader about my view. With regards to the writing process itself, I am going to write an outline more seriously, and let the flow of ideas come naturally. I am going to generate multiple drafts and let others read my work before submitting my final paper. Through this, I can gain more feedback in different points of view and add it to my ideas to generate a more powerful essay.

My plan of attack for this essay is that I will not revolve the observations and points about me. I am going to use stated facts and expert opinions rather than personal statements to create an article with more impact. I will use language that will include the general crowd - in this case, the reader - so that they will be involved in my arguments as well.

Erika Cayabyab

10/5/2013 05:11:47 pm

Personally, the hardest part of writing this essay, or any essay I may add, is the thesis statement. It’s hard for me to bring all my ideas into just one paragraph and also intimidates me because it’s the opening paragraph. I tend to put supporting details in my opening paragraph when I know it’s wrong but I just don’t know what else to put. What helped me overcome these challenges is really studying the way other people in the class write their blog responses. The reference handouts that were also provided were of great help. The things I definitely need assisting with are: putting enough detail and supporting facts with my reasons, putting my citations in alphabetical order, and keeping the paper formal (ex. you, your, we, I).

I believe that I need to improve the way I present my opinions. I feel the way I transition from paragraph to paragraph is executed well but after receiving my essay back with the corrections, I saw that it was my main problem. With the next essay, I plan on really studying transitioning techniques because I think it’ll really help me raise my grade. But, I believe my quote integrations and proper punctuation are my strongest features so these are the things I will be continuing to bring onto essay 2.

Gladys

10/7/2013 01:50:12 am

On this essay what I found challenging was that we need to have already a first draft with four pages by the first week and it was hard to have it ready by that time. The strategies that I overcome for this challenges is that I need to work hard and try to accomplish on working more on the rough draft.

While working on essay 1 what I learned about myself is that I can work on essay that don't evolve reading a book with a bunch of chapters its easy to work on an essay that involves research and a little bit of reading from the text. The skills I used was to take notes during class and pay attention on how the essay should be formatted and written. I concentratred well on writting the essay and was very thoughful on how I was writting my essay.

On essay 2 what I need to do is stay on the topic and read the book also read the other text that involve to write this essay. I will stay focused more on the read of the book and text because I get distracted when it comes to read a book. The skills that I will bring is to focus and comprehend on the reading.

kristine khachatryan link

10/7/2013 03:12:23 am

In essay one I was not as prepared as I thought I was. I did not understand the material as well as I should have when I was writing out my outline. The reason I was confused was that I did not know how to exactly write an “argumentative” essay. I would constantly go back and erase the materials that I had written out only because I did not know if it was a good enough essay. I believe that towards the end of the essay I did reach the requirements. Also another item I did not know about was when I double spaced the paragraph. The space between paragraphs would be 2.5 spacing. This was also done in my draft paper and if I was told in the draft feedback it would have benefited my grade.
As a writer I believe that my essay was well written. This was my first essay in the past two years and I believe that I did a well written essay. If I continue to write essays and open my mind to the world of writing then I will be able to write much smoother. The blog responses helped me write a little better because it got me typing on the keyboard at least two times a week.
For essay 2 I believe that I will do a better job because I already got use to the essay writing styles. In this essay I have already started finding essential quoted that would be helpful in my essay. Jotting notes down is very important for me because when I write an essay I change it around a lot. I am ready to do this essay because I believe that I have made a very interesting outline that I can use to my advantage. This outline is not like the last. This outline is a keeper. Since now I did the outline correct and I know where my staring point is, I believe that this essay will be a flowing calm stream that I will easily cross over.

Astrid Garcia

10/7/2013 08:18:04 am

Writing my first essay was no easy task. Having forgotten the proper way to write an essay and form a proper outline, the experience proved to be more challenging than I anticipated. Although consumerism is a part of all our daily lives, it wasn’t my field of expertise and I lacked confidence in writing an argumentative essay on the matter when my opinion wasn’t fully developed. To overcome this lack of confidence my best tool was to educate myself as much as possible on the current status of the American consumer culture. Along with SOL, I read other material like statistical websites, blogs and news articles. This would explain the shift from my initial thesis. Naturally the more I learned, the more that my opinion developed. After writing the first essay, I realized the importance of writing many drafts and I also understood how crucial it is to allow ones’ self time to plan ahead. I strongly feel that I have a lot of improvement to make. My biggest issue is being able to elaborate on an idea after having already mentioned the key points about it. Often I will find myself having writers block with little success of finding my rhythm again. Other times I will find it extremely difficult to write anything at all. My solution to this problem was to write one rough draft, and to come back and make revisions throughout several different days. Having tried this with my Shopping Anthropology project I was able to further elaborate after coming back to the draft with a fresh mind. I applied this technique to my second essay and saw a significant change in my writing. Perhaps this is not a new writing tool to others, but it helped my writer’s block greatly. I plan to continue familiarizing myself deeply with the reading material and working on my other challenges. One of those challenges being the ability to stick to the instructions while I write. I first noticed this issue during the first essay. Whenever I would revise my paragraphs, as I would notice a constant deviation from the topic. I plan to resolve this by keeping my instruction sheet close while I write my drafts, turning to it periodically for guidance.

Despite the mentioned changes to my writing process, I feel very confident in the progress that I have been making. The reference handouts are a tremendous help as are the discussions in class.

Ashli Lilly

10/7/2013 04:44:36 pm

BLOG RESPONSE #6

While writing my first essay in English 101 I found it most challenging to write about an argument in which I did not agree with. For example, in order to challenge myself I chose to write about the “positives” of consumption as opposed to the negative affect in which I believe consumption has on the American society. By doing this, it proved to be challenging when searching for supporting evidence for my paper. In order to try overcoming the difficulty in writing this paper, I used strategies such as study/idea secessions with other class-mates outside of the classroom as well as outlining and brainstorming ideas in an organized way before starting to write my essay.

While working on essay number one I learned that I definitely have a writing style that is very elaborative and because of that it is easy for me to overly elaborate in a way that may make me seem as if I am rambling or off topic. I think I may need to work on the skill of being able to condense my thoughts better. I do believe that I articulate well and therefore am able to convey my thoughts in an intellectual and organized way despite it being lengthy.

During the essay number two project I think I will write about a point of view that I actually believe in this time. I will also continue to articulate well throughout my essay as well as bring intellectual stimulation to the paper. During the writing process of essay number two I will attempt to develop the skill that it takes in order to be less elaborative while still being able to maintain the necessary details of description.

Jeobana Gutierrez

10/9/2013 03:48:41 pm

I think that the most challenging part about writing essay #1 was to keep focus on the body paragraphs. It seemed like I had lots of ideas but at the end I ended up mixing ideas. My paragraphs sometimes wondered of a little but. Keeping focused was challenging for me. I tried rewriting my essay making a couple of drafts to try to fix it, but it seemed that every time I rewrote my essay I changed the structure of my paragraphs. Maybe if I had given my essay to someone else to corrected for me would had helped me improve.
· I learned that I can get many ideas to write my essay and writing outlines help me keep track about what to write in my body paragraphs. I enjoy writing but I learned that I can get off track easily with all the ideas I get. I think that my grammar needs more improvement. Or perhaps I need to pay more attention on my sentences to see that I don't make frequent mistakes. Also, keeping focused on my body paragraphs and not mix ideas. I think I did well developing my essay. I just need to be more organized on my structure. I have good ideas, but I need to learn how to be more consistent on my paragraphs. Also I found it difficult deciding what to put in body paragraph number one. Since it was mentioned that the most important information should be on that paragraph. I found it hard what to write first and from there keep on going.
· I think that for essay#2 I will pay more close attention to my grammar and the structure of my sentences. Also I am planning on giving my essay to someone to proofread it for me and get some feed back. Also, I am planning on following more my outline, that way I can keep track of the structure of my body paragraphs and I don't lose focus. I will do more drafts to improve my writing and catch mistakes. I am trying to be a better writer by going over my grammar and body paragraphs structure. I will also try not to change and change my essay many times. I will try to stick to my more core ideas and from there develop more supporting details to support my argument and balance my essay. Spending more time on writing my essay can help me achieve a better grade next time.

Tatevik Khachatryan link

10/11/2013 02:37:55 pm

The most challenging part about essay number one was the thesis because to me, argumentative thesis is nearly the most challenging. When I was writing the outline it kind of helped me to be more organized and so then I was able to write an okay thesis. After I changed it a little bit but my outline is what guided me. In essay one I learned that I am not that bad of creating a really good thesis if I out my mind to it. I need more skills on making a perfect outline that would guide me through my essay. I kind of didn’t do well on the first essay but I want to try my best on the second one. During the second essay I want to make a very clear outline and put my all so I can create a good essay. I want to continue bringing the outline skill because once I get the hang of that I will be good to go. I need to become a very good essay outline so than I can do a very good job on my essay because starting the essay is usually the hardest part.

Edith Perez

10/13/2013 12:34:19 pm

What I found challenging during the process of essay 1 is that I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted my argument to be whether if I was for it or against it. A second challenged I faced was that I would at times run out of ideas to back up my argument. The strategies I used to over come were to have several main points that I would like to cover. Then later decide what main points would be easier to back up and will just facilitate in explaining them and my thoughts will just flow. I also need to go out of my way and research points to backup my main points.
What I have learned as a writer is that I need to have a better understanding of what I want my essay to consist of. I must work on how to put my ideas on to paper. I also need to work on supporting my ideas I notice I didn’t do very well in that area. Some of my sentences on my paragraphs were vague. I think I did well in staying with the topic and not going out of topic.
What I plan to do differently during essay 2 process is to not have vague sentences in my paragraphs. I will also do better in backing up my arguments and main ideas. I also will need to do better in brainstorming so my ideas will just flow and fall in place. Brainstorming will help me in having a better structure of my essay. The new skills I will try to develop is to be able to write my ideas on to paper since at times my ideas are clear in my mind but not when I write it down.

Jose Gomez

10/16/2013 04:03:42 pm

Before I start analyzing, my witting skills. Last time I took an English class, was about 4 years ago. The process of writing a good essay, is in how well one can explain their views and reasons. Also how fluid the ideas are, when the reader is reading the essay. I have always had difficulties writing, in general, especially because english is my second language. To that I add the fact, that my vocabulary is not lengthy. Also it takes me a long time to develop my ideas, what I mean by that, is that it takes me a long time to write an essay. I have notice that at times, when I read a book, I do learn new words, but the problem is that I do not use them very often and almost forget them.
Writing the first essay, was really hard for me, because like I mentioned before, I had not written anything in such a long time. I as well, totally forgot how to create an outline, to help with writing of the essay be easier. I know I have ideas, my problem is expressing myself better. My ideas are on paper, but I have noticed after reading my own writing. How they are not fluid, and it goes from one point to the next very quick, that being my main problem. I always, blame it, on the fact that I did not finish learning my primary language, when I started learning a second one (english). I believe, because of that, my writing mechanics, are off.
Writing the second essay, was not as complicated. Not because I wrote it, but rather because I had some practice from the first one. I created an outline, that helped me write the second essay. Coming up with ideas for the outline, was also difficult, because I found it hard, comparing the novel to the articles. Also comparing the similarities with our current society, making it even more challenging. I, also notice some of the same problems, from the first one. My ideas are there, but explaining them and making the essay fluid is still challenging. I am aware of my grammar issues, and I know I need to work harder to improve that part. But I did notice, that after writing essay one, my grammar did improve just a tinny bit. That was due to the practice of writing, that I should do more of to improve more. A way I am trying to improve my writing skills, is through texting, as funny as it sounds and it takes longer to say something. I have done this in the past, when I took my last english class, and just like now, it does improve my grammar. When, I take the time to spell the whole word, and not abbreviate anything. Responding to the blogs, also helps since is a very good practice of writing. That helps organize ideas and thoughts, and just in general with writing. Lastly, proof reading and reading out loud, does help me catch a lot of mistakes I make. I plan to keep using this techniques, and I really hope, my second essay is much better than my first one.

Aaron Yim

10/20/2013 02:38:29 pm

My first essay was not easy because I have not been practicing writing. I intend to write vague which can be confusing. I have been struggling with writing essays. I have overcome these challenges by thinking more into the question and try to go back to the articles back to back to find good quotes. I have learned about myself that essay is a not that bad as I have thought about the prompt. My plan for my essay two is being clear with a strong thesis. I did especially well with my main points. My strength in continue writing is main points. My new skills to develop is being clear to the main point to help the reader understand my writing.

Albert Virgen

10/20/2013 07:49:49 pm

What I found most challenging about essay number one was the uncertainty of the assignment, and also the lack of practice that I had with writing in the past year. I thought I had a good grasp of what writing an essay should be like, but under the circumstances I was unable to complete the task in a manner which matched my standards. As far as the writing was concerned, there wasn't enough effort placed on the revision of the essay, and there seemed to be an overabundance of simple grammatical errors that could have been easily avoided.

One of the main problems with my writing that I found shocking was the lack of depth and insight on the main points of the essay. It was very vague information that was aiming towards convincing the reader of my point of view but not necessarily following through. Almost as if I was using a sling shot to hit a target and I pulled back, but never released.

I don't necessarily have any positive outlooks on my essay at the moment, but I am hoping the revision will satisfy the changes asked of me.

When writing Essay 2 I will make sure to make the appropriate revisions for the essay, and also incorporate my ideas in my essay so they flow smoothly throughout the paper while delivering my point of view thoroughly.

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Blog Response #6 - Essay 1 Executive Summary

Prof. David Fulton

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