Week4
Last year, I came here to study my English class. I took four classes. Including the writing class. Before I start my writing class, I don't know how to writing a long essay. Because I don't know the format and writing skills. In my first writing class, the professor asked us to write a essay that can be anything. I just wrote a short one. I don't have any outlines or any ideas. And then the professor gave us the essay that I wrote last class. She gave me the feedback is that it is too general. You can add more specific details to support your main idea. In that class, the professor taught some others writing skills, such as the format of the essay, the outlining, the hook, the thesis statement. After several practice, I can write a long essay with thesis statement and more supporting details. The writing class taught me a lot of writing skills. I think that is useful for me. However, I still have some problem with my writing. For example, I like to write simple sentences instead of the complex sentences. The professor always reminds me that I should use some complex sentences as a high level ESL students. I wish I can write more multiple sentences in the future. I learned a lot from LSC. I should say thanks to our college and professors. Thank you!
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ReplyDeleteI agree with you about that. By the first time I wrote the essay. I did not have the outline or any papers that have some ideas. I just read the topic and wrote it ahead. I just wrote anything that I had remembered that time, so when you read my essay I could be do not understand because it was very messy. So after the first one, I had learn how to arrangement my essay and it is better now.
ReplyDeleteI have never done the outline when I wrote before I came to the US. The English teacher in my country never teach us how to do the outline or brainstorm, so I was really strange for me when I first studied in here. Like you I can not write the complicate sentences. My sentences are very simple because I don't have much vocabulary. That makes me really disappoint about myself.
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DeleteIn vietnam, Teachers never asked us to write outlines or brainstorms because they often gave us the main ideas for every writing especially poems and readings. for example, after we learned a poem or a reading, teachers and us discussed and analysed about the main ideas and minor ideas. Teachers also required us to write those ideas in the notebooks. After that, we used the same ideas to write about a poem, but using our own word and structures. Therefore, writing about a poem is different from writing an essay. While we write about a poem based on the main ideas we learnt and memorized, we use our ideas to convince the readers.
DeleteDo you prefer to use an outline before you write? Do you organize your thoughts before you put the pencil on the paper? It's good to plan before you go. It's like taking a road trip. You have to get gas, get a map, think about where you will eat and plan the way. You can't just jump in your car and go! That would be crazy. It's just the same for writing an essay. You have a to plan a little before you "go". =)
DeleteThis remind me my first problems when I came to the US, and started to write in English. They told me that my grammar was decent, but my writing was deficient. My thoughts were:”How was that possible? Aren’t those related?” During the writing II class I learned that my mistakes were run-ons (big one), and that I always used a comma instead of a period (that’s the way we do in Spanish). I never thought before that the structure could be so different…
ReplyDeleteNope. Not the same. You can have perfect grammar and write a 5 page essay that says nothing. No ideas, no details, just lots and lots of repeated ideas. That is why grammar and content/organization are two different areas we grade in an essay.
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ReplyDeleteI had the same experience. In my country,we do not have any specific organization of an essay.On the other hand in English you have to follow specific rules when you write an essay. We must use hook, background information, and thesis statement.Also, in concluding paragraph we have to restate thesis statement.In Russian we do conclusion differently.
ReplyDeleteViktoriya, now I want to know how you do it differently in Russia! How do you do a conclusion there?
DeleteI had the same experience. When I had taken the writing class, i don't know how to write the essay. I had no ideas and outline, i just write what i think.then the professor gave me some feedback about the structure and taught me how to write correctly form.now my writing is better but not much.
ReplyDeleteI had the same experience. When I had taken the writing class, i don't know how to write the essay. I had no ideas and outline, i just write what i think.then the professor gave me some feedback about the structure and taught me how to write correctly form.now my writing is better but not much.
ReplyDeleteWhen I took my first writing class I did know anything about an essay. I never took a class in my country that explain me how to develop an essay. It was so hard for me to understand how to start to write an essay. I didn't know anything , my teacher gave me some feedback but I still didn't know anything. Writing for me is very difficult until now.
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