Effective WRitten communication
Semester 1: September 11th Writing Assessment
Reflection: Before beginning this writing assignment, our class learned about the tragic events of 9/11 and the impact it had on our nation and society. Furthermore, we were required to understand how 9/11 compared to other catastrophic events that had struck the U.S. throughout history, leading to a paper concerning 9/11's importance. By working on this assignment, I was able to come up with many forms of convincing support for my thesis explaining that 9/11 was the most significant event of the last 20 years. I also wrote well-worded paragraphs to overall support my thesis statement. In each of my paragraphs, I included a well-developed vocabulary and effective usage of the English language. I was able to create convincing and well-supported evidence that helped convince my readers of my beliefs and overall made the paper sound refined and professional. By writing this paper I was able to clearly write my ideas out on paper, which were then effectively communicated to the readers. Despite the effective use of some skills that were shown by completing this paper, there are still some areas that could use some improvement. I would like to improve upon my grammar usage and consistently ensuring I am using the correct punctuation. Also, I would like to further develop my usage of pronouns to make my paper sound as convincing as possible and not opinionated or biased. In order to improve this skill, I will re-read through my paper multiple times to ensure I do not sound too opinionated without having facts to back myself up and to catch any mistakes in my wording, spelling, or the overall makeup of the paper.
Artifact 1: September 11th Writing Assessment
Semester 2: English 1 Honors To Kill a Mockingbird Essay
Reflection: Please note that this assignment was one of four from another class, not Global Studies. This particular assignment was from an English 1 Honors course. After completing reading the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, I was required to write an essay regarding one of four potential topics revolving around themes of the book. I decided to write my essay about social influences, or, more specifically, the social influences of family, friends, religion, government, and society and how they impacted the main character, Scout's, life. Through writing this essay, I was able to use the skill of effective written communication by using strong, well-worded language to get my point across, proper grammar and punctuation to make my paper professional and easier to read, and peer-editing from many different sources to get others' input on my paper and help me perfect it. I was able to develop my thoughts through a convincing thesis statement and academically proper verbiage throughout the body of my paper. I was also somewhat successful in properly integrating and blending quotes into the paragraphs to support my ideas. By working on this paper, I was able to clearly and properly convey my thoughts through words while maintaining proper grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and staying on topic with each paragraph. When I was unsure of what to write next in my paper, I used my outside sources to get feedback and ascertain that my paragraphs were to the point and got my message across efficiently, while still maintaining proper use of the English language. As I write more papers, whether in English or any other class, I would like to improve upon my self-editing skills, because currently, they are quite poor. I'm also a very verbose person, and, in the future, I'd like to be able to write a paper that sticks to a topic without going off on many different tangents, and effectively conveys my thoughts with support and less "fluff". In order to obtain this goal, I must learn to view my papers from an outside perception to see how others may feel about my ideas, as well as understanding that if words are descriptive and powerful, they can convey my message much easier than a surplus of merely ordinary words.
Artifact 2: English 1 Honors To Kill a Mockingbird Essay