Alec Aguinaldo

Professor Couch

English 160

December 12th, 2022

 

From Slacker to Planner

Throughout my academic career, I never had the best English teacher throughout my time in high school. When the pandemic hit, I didn’t do as much writing because everything was so sudden. All of these events have given me the reasonable thought that I must be behind most students my age. I always felt that despite how high my grades were on essays, I wasn’t giving my all. For the past three years, I was used to writing subpar essays. I came into this English course expecting to get high grades and to easily move on to the next, but after my first major assignment, I had a lot to learn.

In the years prior I never properly planned out my essays. I wouldn’t start bulleting ideas or organizing information into sections, I usually would wait until the very last minute to rush a mediocre writing piece. After receiving the grade of my second essay, I knew I had to change how I handled my assignments. I gradually started planning out the information and ideas I wanted to express in my writing. I came to the realization that being prepared for how I wanted to write made my assignments flow a lot more efficiently.  The power points my instructor presented also helped me along the way of my drafting progress on correcting MLA format and creating a piece that would be considered ‘college worthy’. Recently I was given the opportunity to revise one of the essays I was assigned and I utilized the information I learned throughout the course to fix my grammar and citations. 

Throughout the course, I felt that I not only strengthened my writing skills in the past months but also learned some skills along the way. In all of the writing pieces I composed this semester I noticed that my strong suit was the process of researching. I am very confident in my ability to gather the necessary material for any future assignments. I always enjoyed reading about history and learning the events of the past so finding the right information felt like second nature to me. Organization has gotten better for me throughout the semester in terms of writing papers and my dorm room as well. I have never been the best-organized person before, I usually did everything until the very last minute. Now that I realized the importance of it, I started a routine in my daily life and it has reflected in my writing as well. 

With the development and strengthened ability in organizing and researching, I still have a lot to learn in terms of writing and myself. I struggle with giving my essays a sense of emotion, to help the reader grasp what I am telling. I have never been the best at expressing myself and this flaw has been noticeable in my writing. In my first essay I wrote, “Art in some shape or form can be living”, an attempt to have the reader imagine the compassion I was failing to portray on the topic (Aguinaldo 2, Essay 1). I have yet to broaden my vocabulary as well in my writing but I believe that I am slowly strengthening this skill with the reading comprehensions I am assigned. I find myself reusing words in my written assignments, for instance, “The unpopular Russian invasion has older citizens in Russia uncertain of their situation”, I used the word ‘unpopular’ multiple times in my third essay (Aguinaldo 3, Essay 3).  

At home I always saw my sister, DeAnna, working on her art portfolio with all her artwork and a bibliography listed, I never expected I would ever do a similar task. I was very relieved to know that I wouldn’t have to code a website myself which is what my sister had to do. Learning the basics of Hawksites was a bit of a learning curve but I soon got the hang of it. I enjoyed the simple mechanics of changing the background color and customizing the background photo. The trickiest part was signing all the pledges but it was smooth sailing once I uploaded them. The thought of having my writing pieces analyzed is a little nerve-wracking but it gives me a professional feel to it. Creating my Hawksites allowed me to experience building up a portfolio I can look back on when I create future resumes.

The experiences I gained this semester gave me an insight of what my future courses may look like. Next semester I will be taking English 170 which is an important class for my major. I feel that I am ready to move on and get ready for the next course of my academic career. I spent this semester in English 160 building up my writing and planning skills. There were times when my essay grades weren’t up to my satisfaction but I learned from what I missed and put in the effort in my next writing assignments. I may not be perfect, but I plan on doing my best the next semester.

The future in front of me holds many opportunities that will determine who I will become as a person. The skills I learned in this course will further broaden my horizon in any career path I take. Writing was at first a nuisance to me, but over time I recognized its importance in the world around me. My writing skills will continue to improve during my time in New Paltz and my occupation as a teacher if I continue on that path. These skills will forever be a part of me, I plan on utilizing every step I learned in English 160 and soon in English 170 to help me on my path to success.