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For September 8, please post a comment in response to the following questions:
1. What training in academic writing have you had before this course?
2. In your previous experience, what were some of the most valuable skills that you learned or most relevant tools you acquired?
3. What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of the writing process?
4. Which types of coursework do you find most helpful to learn new concepts (specific writing assignments, group work, class discussion, oral presentation, lecture, etc.)? Why?
5. Which types of coursework do you find least helpful? Why?
6. Please briefly describe a memorable writing assignment you have previously completed. What made it memorable?
7. What do you hope to learn in this course? Which skills or tools would you like to take with you at the end of the course?
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14 comments:
1. The only training I’ve had in Academic Writing before this course was during my regular English classes in High School
2. In my previous experience the most valuable skill I’ve learned was how to right a strong thesis statement for a reflection or persuasive essay.
3. The most challenging aspect of the writing process for me is to end with a strong conclusion.
4. I find a class discussion to be the most helpful coursework to learn a new concept because you can open your head to new ideas instead of just one point of view.
5. Specific Writing Assignments is the type of coursework that I find least helpful because I can go on writing forever, but I wouldn’t know if I am on the right track.
6. The most memorable writing assignment I’ve completed would be the application essay for USC. It’s the most memorable to me because I felt like it was one of the best essays I’ve ever written and because I got a lot of good feedback from my peers.
7. Throughout this course I hope to improve all my writing abilities to become a strong writer. I would like to be able to finish a paper with a strong conclusion instead of a weak sentence or two.
1. What training in academic writing have you had before this course?
I have taken a Creative Writing class in my senior year along with the 4 years of English classes.
2. My creative writing teacher taught me a lot of new words. He also taught me how to write a script and poems he helped me like reading and writing stories.
3. The conclusion for some reason that I can’t even I don’t understand, I get stuck and go brain dead.
4. Which types of coursework do you find most helpful to learn new concepts (specific writing assignments, group work, class discussion, oral presentation, lecture, etc.)? Why? I like the Free Writing exercise because personally it gets a lot of my thoughts out. Group work is good I don’t mind and class discussions. I hate presentations, but I have to get used to it.
5. I don’t like oral presentations because usually the way they are presented can be boring, not that the topic is boring.
6. I seriously don’t remember any assignment that I enjoyed.
7. I hope to learn how to expanding essays that don’t really need to be that long but the teachers still make you do it to make u suffer. I want to be able to make my points clear and right to the point. Hopefully I get better grammar and brainstorming.
1)I have only had academic writing training in my English class back in High School.
2)In my previous experience, I say that my prewritting, persuasion, and spelling/grammar skills have increased.
3)The hardest part of the writing process for me is simply coming up with ideas of what to write about to begin with.
4)I believe oral presentation might be the most helpful. The reason is that I feel that you should be able to communicate your ideas both verbally and on paper.
5)Lectures may be the least helpful for me. It doesn't make me feel very involved.
6)I had an assignment to adapt a scene of Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, in a way that has a different setting, characters, or dialog to make it "your own". I remember receiving comments on how well I was able to do this assignment, and it boosted my confidence that I am a capable writer.
7)In this course, I hope to be refreshed of some of the skills and tools learned in high school, as well as receive elaboration on some of them. I generally want to improve my writing skills. I want to be able to be persuasive and strong as far as writing is concerned.
1. What training in academic writing have you had before this course?
- I’ve had four years of Honors English in high school. I also had three quarters of academic writing at UCSD.
2. In your previous experience, what were some of the most valuable skills that you learned or most relevant tools you acquired?
- Writing a strong thesis statement and citing in MLA format were some of the most valuable skills that I learned.
3. What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of the writing process?
- I usually have a hard time getting started, I know what I want to say but I have a hard time getting it down on paper.
4. Which types of coursework do you find most helpful to learn new concepts (specific writing assignments, group work, class discussion, oral presentation, lecture, etc.)? Why?
- Group work usually helps me the most, because I feel like hearing other people’s ideas helps me sort my ideas. Also, once I get my ideas out, I feel like it is easier to incorporate them in to my essay.
5. Which types of coursework do you find least helpful? Why?
- From previous experience, oral presentations are least helpful to me.
6. Please briefly describe a memorable writing assignment you have previously completed. What made it memorable?
- Writing my UC application personal statements was the most memorable writing assignment I’ve completed. I spent a lot of time writing each statement and put great effort in it because most of my admission depended on it.
7. What do you hope to learn in this course? Which skills or tools would you like to take with you at the end of the course?
- Since I have a hard time getting started, I want to learn effective ways of brainstorming. I also want to improve my writing in general.
1. All of the training in writing I have had was in my high school english classes The most helpful one was probably in my senior year.
2. Some of the most valuable skills I've learned were organization, good rough draft, strong thesis as well as connecting the rest of the essay to it, use of multiple examples and grammar.
3. Connecting everything to the thesis statement and sticking to the main idea has been a challenge for me. I often go off the path in my body paragraphs. And also writing the conclusion.
4. Class discussion is helpful to me because of the new idea i haven't though of and that gives me a new perspective. Group work as well because it helps me develop my ideas more and get other's opinions on my ideas (if they are strong or I should consider something else).
5. I'm not good with specific writing assignments, I get lost in my own writing and start to babble. Presentations aren't very helpful since I like to discuss more.
6. All my writing assignments were about books and none of them were opinion essays. The teacher would always discuss a book and we had to write our essays on his opinions basically and if we didn't the he would grade us down. This is why I'm having a tough time now writing opinion essays because I haven't had practice writing them.
7. I would definitely like to improve my organizing skills and my vocabulary. I would like to stick to the main idea and get off track with ideas. And also work on my thesis and conclusion paragraphs.
1. What training in academic writing have you had before this course?
I have had 4 years of English courses, two of which were AP english. On both AP exams i got a 3.
2. In your previous experience, what were some of the most valuable skills that you learned or most relevant tools you acquired?
The ability to create a convincing thesis.
3. What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of the writing process?
Time is the most restrictive aspect of the writing process.
4. Which types of coursework do you find most helpful to learn new concepts (specific writing assignments, group work, class discussion, oral presentation, lecture, etc.)? Why?
Handouts and assigned papers, things that are tangible and can be held in hand. Because it is easier to get an idea across if it is an actual concept on paper.
5. Which types of coursework do you find least helpful? Why?
Lectures. Because our American English is so inefficient when it comes to expressing ideas and when an idea has to be repeated over and over the class "checks out" and fails to learn anything.
6. Please briefly describe a memorable writing assignment you have previously completed. What made it memorable?
A writing assignment that was memorable for me was a paper i wrote about 9/11 and i was able to express how i felt about our current government.
7. What do you hope to learn in this course? Which skills or tools would you like to take with you at the end of the course?
The ability to express to an architectural client a precise and impressive concept or idea of a structure.
1. I have not had any official training in academic writing, save for the previous English classes I have taken.
2. An important skill I have been taught (though have trouble utilizing) is to make references to outside sources when writing a paper.
3. The most difficult part of writing a paper for me is to plan a paper in advance; usually, I try to knock a paper out in one or two days by sitting at my computer and writing what comes to me (though I do revise afterward, of course).
4. I think that reading the guidelines for an assignment and being provided with good examples helps me learn new concepts. I have always been an extremely visual learner.
5. I strongly dislike group assignments. I have trouble socializing, and I get frustrated with people who shirk their share of the work or don't try very hard.
6. The most memorable writing assignment that springs to mind was my Junior year final essay on The Canterbury Tales for British Literature. It was the biggest paper I've ever written and required a good amount of research.
7. I hope to learn, from this class and future writing classes, how to better tell an original story. Such skill would no doubt help me as I plan to go into Animation.
1. What training in academic writing have you had before this course?
All four years of high school. It was required.
2. In your previous experience, what were some of the most valuable skills that you learned or most relevant tools you acquired?
Structure and grammar.
3. What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of the writing process?
Revising
4. Which types of coursework do you find most helpful to learn new concepts (specific writing assignments, group work, class discussion, oral presentation, lecture, etc.)? Why?
Specific assignments focus on one thing that can be corrected
5. Which types of coursework do you find least helpful? Why?
Class discussion because I feel since that we are all in the same class some of our experiences are the same i wouldnt have much to contribute.
6. Please briefly describe a memorable writing assignment you have previously completed. What made it memorable?
My graduation letter to my parents because it was very informal and i knew who my audience was which made it very meaningful to me.
7. What do you hope to learn in this course? Which skills or tools would you like to take with you at the end of the course?
According to my essay evaluation everything on the weakness scale is what i hope to learn and take from this course.
1. I completed 3 years of study at linguistic university in Russia.
2.In my previous experience the most valuable skill I've learned was organization and use of multiple examples.
3. The most challenging aspect of the writing process for me is correct word usage and sentence building.
4. I find class discussion to be the most helpful coursework because you can hear other's people ideas.
5. I think lecture is the least helpful for me because it gives you facts but not practice.
7. I want to learn how to improve my writing skills.
1. I have academic training in researching, annotated bibliography, group papers, etc.
2.In previous experience that I learned was, turning in essays on time works out best for good grades, using the full word instead of using a short cut ( like Don’t, Do not). Research work properly.
3. The most challenging is actually getting started in the 1st paragraph. And finding a topic sentence.
4. The most helpful work is probably getting started in the essay, maybe group work, and class discussions.
5. I really don’t like lectures but I guess it depends.
6. I recent memorable writing assignment that I had fun with was an essay that we had to do with experience with an audience or how people would talk in a blog or a college student would respond to a certain topic.
7. I hope that I can become a better writer and have my thoughts written correctly rather then scattered.
1. What training in academic writing have you had before this course?
I took English CP during my first two years of high school and IB English during my junior and senior year.
2. In your previous experience, what were some of the most valuable skills that you learned or most relevant tools you acquired?
How to build a strong thesis and the structure of an essay.
3. What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of the writing process?
Being able to get everything that you have in mind onto paper. Sometimes thoughts and ideas just get lost in the process.
4. Which types of coursework do you find most helpful to learn new concepts (specific writing assignments, group work, class discussion, oral presentation, lecture, etc.)? Why?
Class discussions or group work for the most part because we can easily learn from each other and can communicate are thoughts better than if we worked on our own.
5. Which types of coursework do you find least helpful? Why?
Definitely lectures. I mean it can be difficult to focus on learning something for a long period of time without exchanging ideas and making learning more enjoyable.
6. Please briefly describe a memorable writing assignment you have previously completed. What made it memorable?
A memorable writing assignment that I previously completed would have to be the extended essay I had written for the IB Program because it was very long yet I enjoyed learning and writing on a topic that knew but never really explored, the Chicano Movement with Cesar Chavez.
7. What do you hope to learn in this course? Which skills or tools would you like to take with you at the end of the course?
I wish to learn how to focus my ideas and present them clearly when writing.
1.The training that I have had in academic writing before this is just the quick sessions that I would have in my English classes where the teachers would explain to us what was expected out of us when turning in the essay or assignment handed out to us.
2.The most valuable skills that I learned previous to this class was to organize my ideas into three or more specific topics and use each of those as the basic topic of my paragraphs than to further explain my topic though each paragraph
3.The most challenging part of the writing process is choosing my topics that I want to talk about in my paper and also just trying to clearly explain my ideas.
4. So far in this class the prewriting exercise we did during class really helped me come up with ideas for our first assignment. Before I would really struggle to come up with any ideas when given a specific prompt but after using these new methods I think coming up with ideas will be easier.
5. In my opinion group work is the least helpful for me in writing except when I comes to proofreading because it feels as if I get distracted from the main purpose of the group work and do not really getting anything done.
6. A memorable writing assignment that I had was given to me in one of my English classes where we had to be somewhat of a folklorist and ask people to tell us an urban legend. After being told the stories we had to write them down with the same accent the people had.
7. In this course I hope to learn how to write a better essay. At the end of this course I would like to take with me the better methods of coming up with ideas and revising my essay.
1. The training that I have had in academic writing would have to be my junior and senior year of high school. I believe in those two years I was shown how to write more academically then in the past.
2. I learned that the more thought you put into your writing the better the ideas and creativity can be shown.
3. The most challenging part of the writing process would have to be starting the assignment because of lack of ideas. And also ending the assignment because you have so many ideas you just don’t know where to stop.
4. I have always found that class discussions tend to help me the most because I get to hear how other people are thinking. Hearing what they think about something helps me to further develop my idea or go in another direction.
5. Oral presentations don’t really help me all that much because they are one sided. What I mean by that is that you only hear what the spokesperson has to say instead of all sides of an issue or topic in a group discussion.
6. I really enjoyed the nature in L.A. assignment because it challenged the way we normally think and opened our minds to the idea of nature being in everything around us.
7. I would like to be more open minded about the way I think so I can look at all aspects of something instead of the obvious.
1. My senior year of High school I was in an AP Literature class.
2. One of the most valuable tools I learned was to take my time and throughly read my assignment carefully to make sure it meets the standards.
3. I find the most challenging aspect of writing is carefully planning my paragraphs.
4. I enjoy class discussions the most because I feel that it helps everyone to get invlolved. I also pay more attention when the teacher and other students are speaking directly to me.
5. I find long writing or reading assignments to be the most difficult.
6. The most memorable writing assignment I ever had to complete was for the AP Literature final. I felt so proud that I was able to do it myself and get throught the test.
7. I hope to learn better grammer and be a stronger writer. I love to learn so I want to succeed and do well in this class. To me, being able to write and speak well, are essential to gaining confidence.
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