Metacognitive post for entire quarter
Remember our course discussion on metacognitive activity and its connection with self-regulated learning? Remember me discussing my emphasis on rhetoric and composition as a means for inquiry and learning (either about one's self or about the world)? This all ties to our final reflective letter. To get a start on it, and to see how your peers view writing and learning, I ask you to post and discuss how your goals for this course have unfolded . On the first day of class, for the writing diagnostic, I asked you in part to write about your goals. You might have maintained the same goals throughout the summer or perhaps they have changed. What goals have you achieved and how are these goals related to your long-term goals--either for your academic career or beyond ?
posted by DrEmmerling at 12:29 PM
17 Comments:
At the beginning of class I wanted to feel more confident with my writing. It seemed that every time I had to do a paper I dreaded it from the beginning. Although I still dislike writing essays etc. I do feel more prepared to write various kinds of papers. This will help me in my academic career and hopefully I will be more prepared for essay writing and not put off writing papers until the last minute. Another one of my goals involved me wanting to become a better writer overall. I think that this will be a constant goal throughout my academic career. I will continue to write at some level in my career and I will probably continue to want to become a better writer. Now, I have a new goal of feeling more comfortable with using the different types of formats. Although, I feel better about using them, I would want to get to a point where I did not have to look up something at each stage of writing. I think this goal will become easier with each year in college.
When I first entered Writing 2 I was terrified. Not only was this my very first real college class, but it was also a subject that I had spent my entire acadmemic career desperatly avoiding: writing. After the first week, I realized the reasons I had detested writing was because of my procrastination. When Dr. Emmerling made us do the essay in steps, it helped me break down the writing method, and not be forced to deal with stress of writing an entire paper the night before. I liked the peer sessions also because it helped me gain perspective on what others thought of my writing.
Overall I feel I have learned alot. The first and second order thinking method was especially important, because I can tell when I am writing in the various forms. I am a biochemistry major, so I originally wanted to learn all about the sciences paper and etc, but learning the different formats like APA, MLA, and CSE were exteremely helpful for my classes to come at UCSB. Overall the class helped me write more efficiently, effectively, and I feel I learned quite a bit about myself and the writing method.
In the beginning of class my goals were to become a better writer. I wanted to write stronger papers, with good thesis, and good arguments. I feel that i still have the same goals, and that I have began to improve in becoming a better writer.
My goals have remaind the same and I feel that I have started to develop better writing skills by breaking up my papers into steps and viewing the writing process as different step rahter than one huge task. My goal to become a better writer will help me in the future for my academic career because I will have to write many papers.
When I first started this class, I had no clue there were different formats to write papers in. The only writing I did in my high school career was done in the MLA format, so that particular format was very familiar to me, but as for the other formats, I didn’t even know they existed. If I had to write in other classes, the teacher didn’t specify any particular format.
One of the major problems I was worried about coming into the class was the level of writing that I would experience in a college classroom. Thankfully, the level of writing was roughly the same as my high school except for the extra emphasis on finding and citing sources correctly. This class has definitely taken some of the initial anxiety about the level of writing that was expected.
One of the goals I had at the beginning of the class was to develop my writing style into one that would be a medium to express my thoughts. I think the blogs have helped me express what I was thinking without complicating it with external factors. Writing papers in different formats definitely forced me to use different styles of writing to express myself.
Another goal I had was to manage my time well and write research papers that were on topic. Writing papers in a week helped me learn about time management and learning the read through many sources rapidly. It also allowed me to get familiar with the library and the various search engines that are available for me to use. I also learned about what sources are great to use in a research paper and other ones that aren’t exactly accepted. As for keeping my paper on topic, breaking the paper down into parts helped immensely. Although my papers still tend to be way too general, I think with more practice it will get better.
In general, I think the goals, with which I started the class with, are goals that I will have throughout my lifetime, with any writing that I do.
My main goal was/ is to strengthen my skills as a writer to prepare myself for the writing i will be faced with in college. Writing has never been easy or something i consider myself to be good at. I decided to take the class early in my college career because i knew it would help in every other class i take. The class definately kick started my writing progression in college and i will continue to get better at it. I learned that another important part of being a good writer was knowing how to format everything correctly so your paper looks professional. I enjoyed learning about the different formats and it will definately help me later on in college to have experiance with the different formats. Also, another skill i got better at is revising my papers, which is very important in becoming a good writer.
My main goal at the beginning of this quarter was to become more comfortable with writing – to have a method for approaching writing a paper that would allow me to see it to completion without panicking or running out of material. I think that learning about systematic reading and outlining has helped me do so. This is quite important, as most every class I'll be taking for the remainder of my college career will require writing, and I will most likely have to continue to do so in the outside world.
On the first day of the quarter I was a little bit worried about facing all my faults in writing. I was also hoping that I would learn about new styles and techniques so that I could improve. Through learning these three differerent styles of writing through the writing standards (MLA, CSE, APA), I feel that I have combated these fears and problems. I believe that this content in this course is irreplaceable to my writing. I am now much more comfortable with the writing process, and have incorporated some of these techniques in how we do reviews.
I truly hope that the next writing classes will share similar benefits to this course.
On the first day of class, I remember writing about my goals that I wanted to achieve throughout the summer. My first goal was being confident in writing and being able to develop my ideas and thesis to the well organized paper. My weakness of writing academic papers was that I was not able to generate my thoughts in order. As well, I was too afraid of making grammatical errors to write long sentences; worrying too much about grammar made it difficult for me to focus on developing actual thoughts. Fortunately, I learned that writing thesis and outline before ahead help to organize papers effectively. I also learned various different kinds of writing formats and applying them into actually academic papers.
When I first stepped into the classroom, I was expecting a class that would make me have to re-learn everything I thought I knew. In a way, I did, I thought there was a standard way to write an essay and that was all there was to it.
Although I still feel that writing an essay is hard, taking this class made it so much easier to know how to write an essay depending on what type of course it is for.
I feel that I have accomplished the goal I set out to conquer at the beginning of this course. I now know the correct way to write essays for the humanities, sciences, and social sciences.
I feel that I have learned a lot from this course. I hoped to take away things that I could use throughout my college career, and I feel that I accomplished this goal.
My goals at the beginning of class was to write faster like American students. Before taking this class, it took so much time for me to write one paper and I hated writing. However, in this class, I started enjoying writing on this website and reading my peers response was very helpful for me. It took only one day to write the third paper, while it took more than three days to write the first paper. I believe that the more I write, the better my writing will become. My long-term goal is to write the lyrics for my songs in English. I think making lyrics are harder than writing essays since they have to be rhymed or they have to fit the rhythms of the songs or they have to be more vague to draw people's attention etc. For this goal I am planning to continue writing on this website and actually I started writing on this website with my another username about three days ago. I hope it will help my writing.
Writing does not come easy to me, but I realize now that it involves a process. I remember in high school I would often write a paper the night before it was due. Sure I was able to complete the task, but it wasn’t really my best work. Writing the essay in steps was helpful as I spent more time on each part instead of rushing through. I would have to say that writing an outline was beneficial as it helped me organize my thoughts from start to finish without having to run out of ideas.
Early on my goal for this class was to become a better writer by looking at material much deeper rather than on the surface. I wanted express myself better because I have had problems in the past as I was too broad when trying to make an argument. I realize that by critically analyzing sources I am able to strengthen my writing. During this course I was able to practice this through blogging as we discussed the course readings. This will all be beneficial for my future college courses because I already have a better idea of what is expected in an academic paper whether it be in humanities, science, or social sciences. In the long run my writing skills will be necessary in the outside world.
One of my main goals that I accomplished during this course was to learn how to write in the different fields, specifically science. Hopefully, being an engineer, this will help me to achieve some of my long-term goals. Now that I know how to write in the sciences I will be able to write papers for my engineering class.
Another one of my goals was to learn how to avoid using summary while writing papers. I think that during this course I have definitely improved on this. From the first paper that we wrote to this final paper in the social sciencess, I can see that I have improved significantly.
At the beginning of the course, one of my main goals was to strengthen the arguments in my writing. I feel that for the most part, I have achieved this goal, as well as some other advantages I did not forsee at the beginning of class. What has helped me the most in my writing is the peer revision process: specifically reading my paper out loud. In high school, we would always have days to review papers, but people would just read them silently and write what they thought about the essay as a whole. This was usually very vague commentary. However, by reading my paper out loud and getting feedback from other people while correcting my own mistakes, my final products have improved tremendously.
Another advantage of this class that I did not forsee at the beginning was learning about the different styles and formats for the distinct units. Previously, I had only written in MLA, and I wasn't even that comfortable in it at that. Now I find myself capable of writing in MLA, APA, or CSE confidentally. In addition, I never used to take essays step by step. I always sat down on my computer and wrote a final draft. I feel that by taking the writing process and dividing it up into distinct portions, I have achieved my goal and improved my arguments by thoughtfully presenting evidence and synthesizing sources.
When I first came to class I wanted to learn how to write with ease and confidence. I still am very apprehensive about writing papers but this class did help in understanding the formats of different papers. My goals haven't changed much, they still involve having confidence in my writing. I still don't have a complete ease in my writing but I feel more comfortable when starting a paper. I have learned alot in this class, I have never learned the MLA, CSE, or APA formats accurately, and now I will have no problem starting a paper. This class has also helped me with writing science papers, being a history major I naver had to write them before therefor never learning the CSE format. This class has helped so much and it will continue to due so in the future.
On the first day of class, I wrote that I wanted to gain the ability to write in my career field. This goal was achieved. Not only did I learn how to write in my career field (humanities), but also learned of different writing styles that other careers use as well. We learned of the MLA, APA, and CSE formats and why they are used for different fields. As the course went on, I realized that not only did I need to learn how to write in my career field, but also learn how to do it well to become a great writer. This goal was also achieved. During the first week, we learned of first and second order thinking, which allowed me to understand how to thoughtfully write a paper. We also learned many Do’s and Don’ts of writing such as biased writing, clichés, and cluttered language. Throughout this session, the goals that I put out were definitely achieve as I sharpened my writing skills more to help me in the future.
the goals that i have achieved are tremendous. I have been able to improve my writing techniques hugely, using variations in style and diction to add spice to my papers. Usually I am just a simple, straight to the point writer, but throughout this course i was able to take things that we learned in class as well as advice from peers blogs to make my writing a million times better. I also am able to use first order thinking way easier and effectively than before because of the many first order thinking activites that we went through. My long term goals are really to just be a sucessful writer, and as long as my papers thesis is answered effectively and intellectually then this course definately helps me to come closer to maintaining my hopes of writing effective arguementative papers. Being a science major, the CSE format i know will come in handy to me in the near future and i appreciate us learning a whole unit in the sciences in CSE format. It definately gives me a head start!
When I first began this class I wanted to become a more well-rounded writer in general, but I did not know specifically what I wanted to improve in. Since I have been in class I believe I have achieved this goal, but I have also learned a lot of specific ways to improve my writing. For example, before taking this class the only format I was familiar with was the MLA format, but know I also know the CSE and the APA formats. I also learned how to use unsexist language, and I learned a lot about time management. Another area that I improved upon was revising my papers before I turn them in. By having my peers go over my papers my writing is strengthened, and this was not something I practiced before enrolling in the class. My goals changed, as the course progressed, from wanted to be a more well rounded writer to specifically wanting to "show" what I was expressing in the writing rather than "tell" my readers. I believe that if I master this skill my quality of writing will be greatly improved. These goals will help me in the long run because now I now how to write for the humanities, sciences, and social sciences, giving me more options when I choose a specific major. Also, whatever path I take I am going to have to do some writing, and becoming a well rounded writer will help me any direction I choose to go.
Post a Comment
<< Home