Reflective Essay - Writing - Personal Statement Example

Reflective Essay Writing is an act of stringing words to convey meaning. However, a needs to be cautious in the art of weaving words since his main goal is to transmit meaning in a manner that is understandable and clear to the readers. Hence, clarity of expression through proper use of words and transitions; unity of ideas through appropriate choice of details; and cohesiveness of ideas through proper organization of details and right choice of transitional devices are indeed significant for the writer to effectively put the message across in a way that readers can readily decipher his intended meaning. Acquiring the writing skills takes a long process. Of the four macro skills, writing is the most challenging to develop since it requires not only the mastery of grammar, spelling, and mechanics but also the exercise of logic in the presentation and organization of ideas. Having taken English courses such as English IA, English IB and English 96S, I can say that I have learned much and substantially acquired some skills in writing. My writing may not be perfect because I still commit errors but I have seen my improvement as a writer. Based on my mentors’ comments in my English courses, I have practically mastered the skill of synthesizing ideas from multiple sources and incorporating substantial ideas and concepts on the given theme. I have also developed my research skills in the selection of information on which to filter and on which to include as I write my essay. However, based on my professor’s comments on my writing assignments, I still need to do much to improve my writing skills. Some areas which I have to focus my attention on are pretty much obvious in my writings. These weaknesses, that I am much aware of because I often commit these errors in most of my essays, are on mechanics such as spelling, punctuations and capitalization; errors in grammar like subject-verb agreement, use of tenses, articles and prepositions and the presence of run-ons. As I wrote my previous essays, I failed to observe consistency in the use of tenses as shown in this example, “The narrators of this video were all internees of Manzanar as they describe experiences of camp life.” The verb describe should be in the past tense, since I am recounting the past event and to observe consistency too since the first verb used in the first clause is were on which the subject is referring to the narrators. Run-ons are also present in my written works. At times, I have fused two to three sentences without using punctations as shown in this sentence, “The narrators of this video were all internees of Manzanar as they describe experiences of camp life the time period is between December 1941 and the camp closed in November 1945, even though the war ended in August 1945.” I should have put it this way, “The narrators of this video were all internees of Manzanar as they describe experiences of camp life; the time period is between December 1941 and the camp closed in November 1945, even though the war ended in August 1945.” There is a need to use semi-colon between two independent clauses as shown above. Another mistake which I noticed in my own writing is the use of wrong punctuations like apostrophe. Notice in this sentence, “CAIR was the organizer of this trip. In the documentary the different narrator’s compared September 11 to the Japanese internment camps,” Narrators should not have apostrophe before s since it doesn’t show any possession. Errors in content such as lack of focus, lack of coherence and organization as evidenced by the absence of and/or improper use of transitions. I find it quite difficult to choose which transitions are suited to connect one idea to the other. There may be gaps in meaning which I may not have been successful as a writer to fix for easy comprehension by the readers. Also in content, I tend to summarize story plot, without giving my personal reactions and feelings about what happened to the story. In other words, my response to text is just shallow, looking into its story line, forgetting the most profound analysis of story events and my reactions and feelings towards it. It could have been better if I would have my personal reactions considering how relevant is the event to the present time or to my personal experiences. I should have left some kind of emotional impact on my analysis to make my writing more effective. As Rosenblatt (1982) says reading falls into a continuum which starts from efferent reading or getting the gist of a text to aesthetic reading or reflecting on the emotional experience reflected in a reading text. She further states that readers become involved in aesthetic transactions when they not only focus upon “the abstract concepts that the words [symbols/images] point to, but also what those objects or referents stir up of personal feelings, ideas and attitudes” (p. 269).  To compare my progress in writing from English IA down to English 96s, in English IA, I have acquired skills in writing essays like being able to express my ideas effectively, perform essential steps in writing such as pre-writing, organizing, composing, revising, and editing, write essays with little grammatical errors on syntax and mechanics, write correct citation of sources, and demonstrate the ability to write for different audiences. In English IB, on the other hand, I have refined a bit my writing skills by being able to synthesize ideas in multiple readings, select efficient and effective approaches for accessing information using appropriate investigative method or information retrieval system, and construct effective arguments by incorporating principles of design and communication. In this course (Eng 96S), I have noticed some kind of progress in my writing ability. Though, I still committed some errors in grammar such as syntax, mechanics and diction, I could still say that my writing ability has progressed. Using my instructor’s and peers’ feedback, I was able to revise and improve my writing, and I was able too to develop fully an essay based from my readings of multiple texts. My ability to synthesize my readings has been refined in this course. However, my analysis of texts still require a great improvement to include not just the logical interpretation of issues but more so on the relevance of the issues to life’s experiences, focusing on my personal feelings and reaction towards the issues at hand. To improve further my writing, I have to study Grammar books and focus on my weaknesses such as mechanics which include correct use of punctuations and capitalization as well as grammar and structure of writing texts. I believe that if I constantly read grammar rules, I can master them easily and apply correct grammar in writing. Remember, glaring grammatical errors affect the transmission of meaning in any written work. I must have an eye for style too in which I need to read good writers so that I can imitate their writing style at first and then later on develop mine. Reading good books will help me in terms of sentence structure and organization of my essay too. Since my weakness is on transition, I should focus on how good writers weave words into sentences and from sentences to a paragraph and eventually to a longer discourse like an essay. I should look into the writer’s use of conjunctions and other transitional devices for me to master such a skill to make my ideas well organized and cohesively linked for readers’ easy understanding. Furthermore, I also have to read a lot for reading will enrich my discussion of whatever topic I will choose for my essay. What will make my writing of a good essay are effective choice of details which may be derived from varied reading materials available both in print and electronic sources and good organization of ideas. Finally, in order for me to become an effective writer, I need incredible amounts of time writing, rewriting and polishing my work, because even geniuses like Virginia Woolf and Ernest Hemingway did spend inconceivable amounts of time too in writing. (Chamberlain, Russell, 1999). References: Rosenblatt, Louise 1982. The Transactional Theory of Literary Expereince. In Broad, Kelvin A Transactional Model of Art Education Curriculum. Retrieved April 24, 2010 from jan.ucc.nau.edu/~kgb8/halifaxrosenblatt.htm Russell, Chamberlain, 1999. Developing Good Writing Skills. Retrieved April 24, 2010 from http://www.academictips.org/acad/literautre/developing goodwritingskills.html Read More