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Jose Chavez

Katia Monterrey

ENGL 5-74

18 July 2021

Theory Of Writing Draft

I have learned a few things and have practiced a lot of my writing during this summer

course. The course started out rough for me especially with having to write the literacy

autobiography almost that first week we were introduced into the class. I also had trouble with

research essay, but just like every other essay I have done, I managed and wrote it and learned a

few things afterwards. All of these things or skills I have learned, have really made it easier to

write essays, review them, revise them, but overall just improved my literacy academics. In the

beginning of the course, we were shown the main goals of the course and what we expected out

of it. I feel that throughout the course I have completed some of those goals and that my progress

has shown throughout the essays I have written.

We started the course with writing our diagnostic essay which asked us what were our

thoughts on the theory of writing and our process in writing. After reviewing the feedback I was

given on it, it was very clear that I did not read the instructions correctly and did not perform up

to expectations. What I mean by that is that I did not structure the essay correctly, had no main

idea or thesis, and had no revision done on it. It was clear that in order to write an acceptable

essay, I had to do all of these things before submitting the essay. I then put that knowledge into

the literacy essay we did by creating a structure in the essay. I wrote paragraphs that were

coherent and made sense. I then had to revise my work and I did that by creating a strategy of
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reviewing the work by not viewing the work as mine, so I can get a sense of what the reader was

going to read. In this essay we were also given peers to review each other's essay and what I got

from my peer review was that the essay was good but it needed work on wording, that it needed

better vocabulary and I plan to keep on using that suggestion. Overall, I would say there was a

big improvement between the difference of those two essays by improving the length and

structure of the essay and also the feedback I was given which helped and it is helping me.

After doing those two essay’s, we were instructed to write a research paper based on an

issue in our communities. We were given a rubric so we had a word count and page requirement

we had to reach, so length was not an issue in this essay. I went off the structure of putting my

main idea in the intro paragraph which in previous essay’s, I did not clearly state. When

presented about this mistake, I really wanted to make sure that my main point was obvious, and

in the beginning of the essay I tried to do exactly that. Before typing the research paper, we had

to create a citation paper in which we stated what our website sources were and did that in a

specific format. When doing this, I learned the placement of each piece of information that

would go into the citation and also learned where that citation page would go in an essay. After

completing the research essay, I realized that previous feedback I was given was crucial in

improving my essay. I went back and analyzed my writing, looking for words I could improve,

made sure my thesis was clear, and that my structure made sense and that it was comprehensive.

I would say that my improvement in writing was not the only thing that got better over time, but

also my lifestyle which then reflects on my writing.

On day two of the class, we got presented with a syllabus of the class which had all the

information you needed to know about the class. The most important part was the goals that this
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course was trying to reach and teach. Goal one has to do with how the community shaped the

way we read, write and also view things; we did this by writing the literacy essay, and in that

essay we had to describe how our literacy has improved which was through school, home and

community. Goal two is about demonstrating how a writer’s language depicts their identity or

personality. Sometimes it is easy to depict a writer’s personality based on how much detail they

would describe about themselves but other times it would take a reader a while to evaluate what

personality the writer may have by seeing a pattern in the author's writing over time. Throughout

the English course, we have written three essays in which you could see a pattern in my

vocabulary and the way I would word sentences and with seeing that, there can be an assumption

of my identity. For example, I use a lot of simple phrases like “ a while” or “ we were” and that

displays the effort I am putting into the writing which is not a lot and can lead someone to think I

am lazy in my work. I do take note of this and that is why I use synonyms for words and phrases

so they can sound knowledge in what I write. Goal three is about revising your own work along

with taking note of what your writing process is, and if it is effective in making your writing

better. We have done this multiple times during the course by doing a self assessment on our

literacy autobiography. We had to revise our own first draft and figure out what we could

improve on; and I did that by improving the vocabulary, rewriting sentences and just making it

make the most sense. Another example would be providing feedback to others on their essay’s.

When I did this, I compared some of the grammar that was used and it made me realize that even

after a self assessment, there was still room for improvement and I went back and did just that.

Goal four is about writing persuasive text in all forms and also showing an understanding of your

work. Persuasive text would be shown by using specific vocabulary to express what you are
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trying to say and showing an understanding of your work would be shown by proving that you

understand what was assigned by showing it in your writing. The only persuasive text I have

written would be this assignment and so far I would say that throughout the course, there have

been changes in vocabulary and it all has been for the better. After reviewing all four goals, I can

confidently say that from the start of the summer course to now, there has been improvement in

my writing.

After reviewing all four goals, I can say that the goals that have been presented, have also

been completed and this can be seen throughout the improvements of my essay’s. These

improvements span from the beginning of the essay in which the thesis and main idea should

generally be, all the way to the end of an essay where the thesis should be restated and at times

where the cited sources should be. There can always be room for improvement in every aspect of

life, but improving my literacy not only affects my life right now, it also affects how well I

would be in my career choice and also future assignments.