ERNEST ADU YIRENKYI

PROFESSOR: DEBRA DAGHER

CLASS: UWRT 1102
Ernest Adu Yirenkyi is my name. I am a sophomore student of University of North Carolina
Charlotte (UNCC). I began the semester in spring 2015. When I first stepped into the English
class, my aspirations of making good grades and ultimately being a good writer were only
marginal. At least, coming from Ghana, where English language is second language and in my
peculiar situation, having weak foundations in the rudiments of English language, my fears were
intensified when grades from my first few class work showed quite low marks. Although I had
undergone fifteen years of formal instruction in English throughout my formal education in
Ghana, I still had major deficiencies in some aspects of the language. At the beginning of the
Semester, things were difficult for me because of the system and procedures used in teaching. I
found myself in so many situations. For example, it was hard for me to use a computer to search
online resources. I am now conversant with the procedures and the systems.
When I compare this class to my previous classes, there are a lot of differences regarding writing
research paper. Although I learnt many strategies as to how to approach research topic or paper
in my past courses, I still find vast differences in terms of this class. Let me set the record
straight, through this class, I have come to realize that research was not about choosing a topic
you know and making references to what some people have already written but its all about
discovery into something you are curious or interested to know more. Again, through this class, I
realized that to begin with a research, you should know your core value which is something
meaningful to you and a great place to start. I have also learnt that after you determine your core
value, you should come up with questions pertaining to the topic chosen and it will lead you to
write good research. All these and many others show clearly to me that this class has offered a lot
to me than the previous class.
Furthermore, every writer has something he or she likes best regarding writing and Im no
exception. For me as a writer, my greatest strength is communication skills. That is by using
available information around me to write a good research. Moreover, as a writer, my weakness
has to do with writing skills that is using right words, punctuations marks, sentence structures,

gathering information from sources and also using Modern Language Association format to
reference an author, book, etc. Additionally, I must confess, this class has really impacted a lot of
good ideas in my academic success. This course has equipped me in terms of researching into a
topic and I am ready to take up any challenge or course without fear. And by so doing, I will
apply all the ideas, methods, strategies and advice given to me by my Professor Debra Dagher to
take the other courses or classes. Notwithstanding that, there are a lot of steps I can take to
improve my performance. And its all about paying attention in class, reading and completing all
weekly assignments, participating in all the various activities, making use of the services at the
writing center, and also utilizing library resources to improve on my research and other academic
activities. Last but not least, I cannot specifically state one particular activity but in general, all
the activities have been helpful in improving my performance in class. Freewriting, proper
accessing of information in library using the catalogue system etc. Lastly, right now what I am a
little bit confused and probably wish you could throw more light on are final digital inquiry flow
chart and how to use other four sources to generate question for the research.
Overall, the course has been of great importance to me in my quest to a being a better writer.
I still hope to work on my shortfalls so as to become a good writer.