I feel fairly confident in my writing skills. I
would, however, like to improve on a few aspects. In the past I have approached
essays and papers with a less than joyful attitude. Within recent years, I have
found it less of a burden because I have learned how to be a better writer. One
thing I am absolutely terrible at is pre-writing procedures. I have a hard time
planning out my essays. It greatly affects how my ideas are organized within my
writing. I oftentimes find random ideas scattered about my paper, thus reducing
the effectiveness of it. I also have trouble grammatically knowing the difference
between "effect" and "affect," "its" and
"it's," and many others even though it has been drilled into my head
many times.
I am excited about
English 101! Mainly this is because I am saving $270, and let me tell you, it
feels great. :) I am, however, frightened about the prospect of being overloaded
with papers to write because I am taking a lot of other hard classes this year.
I recently took my first real college class this summer on ag education and
leadership. It was hard for me to balance even with just one class, so I'm
hoping the prior experience will help me through this. Some things I am hoping
to learn is how to meet word count requirements without droning on and on about
the same things just to make my essay longer. I also have a problem with
redundant wordings, such as saying "prior experience," like I did in
the previous sentence. I'm going into this class with a positive attitude and I
hope I come out more knowledgeable and it was worth the $417 bill I got in the
mail yesterday just because I have to take psychology with this! :)
Pre-writing is tough. It's something that I've struggled with myself. However, I've found that it's an unbelievably important step in the writing process. Without practicing good pre-writing skills, my thesis from this summer would have fallen apart. This is also true with smaller pieces of writing, and it's something we will emphasize this year.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you're welcome for the savings! I had to shell out a bit of cash and blood, sweat, and tears on my thesis to pass the savings along. :-)
Don't worry about the college thing. It'll be tough, but it'll also be VERY worth it!