Celibel Capellan

Prof. Ewan

FIQWS

05-15-2019

What A Ride

Dear, Professor Ewan

At the very start of this course I did not know what was going to occur throughout this writing course.When writing the papers assignments, I did not expect the type of emotions that I would feel and the writing improvement that I would see just by using what this course had taught me in a few months. This course taught me many things such as how to write in MLA format, how to use signal phrases, how to use the college library database, how to come up with strategies when trying to proofread, and many more.

Before entering this course, I used to write my papers in Chicago style instead of MLA format. The change of writing format brought me to learn that Chicago style is not the only type of writing format that is primarily used in college. I’ve been writing in Chicago style for almost a year until I entered this course, which caused me to point out a lot of differences between these two styles have on. For example, Chicago style has a title page that does not include the name of the professor while in MLA format, there is no title page and instead, is presented by a heading. This difference actually did not affect me negatively because that is something one can easily get used to. Another major thing that I noticed between MLA and Chicago style is that the source introduction and citation differs between the two formats. In Chicago style, one uses footnotes and endnotes as a way to cite a source, but in MLA format, one uses signal phrases, full source introduction, and in-text end-text citation as a way to cite and introduce sources. This difference is the prime reason that caused tress when writing my papers for this course. This difference was a big change since it was a shift from using something so easy as footnotes to something known as signal phrases that requires a lot of practice and understanding on how to use it when trying to cite.

As mentioned before signal phrases was one of the big differences that pushed me towards stress and discomfort. The main issue was that I had a lack of understanding about it and I did not know who to seek out to. Not understanding how they are used in my expository essay really brought a lot of stress and frustration because many mistakes were made due to this lack of understanding. These mistakes were also made in my conclusion where the major points of the essay were recapped by using signal phrases. This was something that I did not understand after turning in my argumentative paper.

Just like trying to use signal phrases, using the college library database also brought me frustration but at the same time, it brought me happiness. In the beginning of using the database, I met a lot of difficulties in trying to search what type of information I wanted. Before, I never used the database to search for sources so, when search for sources or information it was very difficult because of the way I was approaching the database. In class we learned that using Boolean terms in the database can really help broaden or narrow down your sources. When using these terms to search for information, I found it very hard in the beginning since I never used them before. However, the more I got used to using these terms in the database, the more I managed to figure out why I was having a hard time searching for the type of information I wanted. I would have difficulties with the database because of the way I would word my sentence when searching for information. So, in order to not make those same mistake again I shortened the amount of words I would use with the help of boolean terms (are and, or, and not). As mentioned before I did not knew how to use these terms until now, where I figured what I was doing wrong and that turned my feelings of stress to feeling happy. I managed to solve a problem that was causing me trouble when searching for information to where I’m not                stress about anymore.

When writing my papers for this course, there was something that I would usually take a lot of time doing, which is proofreading. In this course, my process for proofreading and editing my paper changed from how I started. For instance, in my expository paper I proofread my essay by checking for grammatical errors and for my argumentative essay I also checked for grammatical errors but also read each paragraph over and over again to see whether or not each sentence made sense. However, when I would receive those papers back I would notice that I would get a lot of point taken of due to proofreading issues, especially in syntaxes. This was something that came towards me a lot in this course no matter how many times I would change my proofreading process until I asked what I was doing wrong when my argumentative was handed back to me.

These were the things that I noticed and got accustomed to throughout this course, but there are more things that this course has taught me. For example, in my introductory letter I learned how to identify the type of audience I am going to write for and what was my purpose for writing this letter. Being taught this really helped me stay focus, appropriate, and professional throughout my letter because of identifying who was my audience, my professor, and what was my purpose, to introduce myself. Another thing that this course has taught me was how to introduce and evaluate my evidence or information. For instance, in my expository essay I was able to introduce my information through source introduction, which in a way helped me evaluate my information without being biased towards the topic of the essay. Introducing and evaluating my information this way was something new that this course has taught me in my        expository essay since, I was always writing argumentative papers before enrolling into this course. Lastly, this course taught me how to review my classmate papers and how to take in their suggestions when peer reviewing. In my literacy narrative draft, my partner suggested ways I could word my sentences, and things I could mention about my writing experience. They also suggested on things I did well on which made me feel happy. This course peer review’s helped me take in mind that these suggestions are there to help me and in the end of everything it’s my choice of whether or not I want to do what they suggest.

Overall, this writing course really has taught me many things in just a few months. I learned how to write in a different format by using signal phrases and full source introduction. I also learned how to identify my audience, evaluate my evidence, and my purpose for writing an essay. This course also helped me realize how I was doing things and what I can do to improve in order to not repeat the same mistakes. Those things that I noticed where my proofreading and search process. This course as well led me to feel a range of emotions such as stress and happiness at the same time, meaning that this whole course was a wild ride to be in depending on how one takes it as.

  Sincerely,        

Celibel Capellan