Advanced Reading, Writing, and Grammar

reflective essay December 8, 2006

Reflective Essay

As I learned English at the first time, I thought parts – reading, listening, writing and speaking – were separated, because I studied it separately in the middle and high school. This idea was changed, however. As I learn in this country, I realize that all the parts are related to each other. When I study English with coordinating the sectors, My English is improved. Although all the segments contribute to develop my English, I can get more benefits from practicing writing. So, I would like to state how these parts are related and to focus on writing.  

When I wrote draft at the beginning of the term, I used limited vocabulary and made many grammatical errors. Also, the speed of reading was not fast and I was slow of comprehension. To solve these problems, I adapted APPLE skill which I learned in the class to reading text. To using it was a little hard at the start. But, as I practiced more and more, I found it useful to develop my reading and writing skills.

Firstly, to be used to APPLE, I needed to read texts as many as I could. In this process, I learned many vocabulary and useful expressions which could be used in writing. So, using what I learned, I write better than before. Secondly, the speed of reading and degree of comprehension were improved through read a lot of texts.

For these two reasons, I benefited from APPLE skill. In addition, my speaking was also improved at the same time. In my opinion, the reason of this is that I have to think in English when I write and this process is similar to speaking. So if writing skill is developed, speaking is improved at the same time. Therefore, it is obvious that all the parts as I mentioned before are related each other. So, when I learn English, I need to link the sectors to develop it more quickly and appropriately.   

 Ha Yun

December 8, 2006

            Usually it is difficult for someone to learn a new language, and more difficult to develop it after he have learned the basic. This did not happen to me. Although I am not good on learning theory and leaning new language with English it was not so hard. The beneficial thing is that I was lucky for being thought English by a great woman back in my country; this helped me to learn English. In general for developing my English there were many things that helped me.

Initially, I would like to say that one of the things that helped my to be a better writer and skillful English non-native speaker was APPLE. It helped me to understand that every essay has a purpose and an audience. These two develop my awareness of writing in English. For example, the first memo that we did we had to present the language of this community and write a high level memo. With out the APPLE I would not make it. Also it helped me to improve my writing in the part of giving evidence. After the analysis that we did in each text, I understood that giving different forms of evidence is more interesting and more persuasive.

            An other part of being good writer was improved by self/peer-assessment. Self-assessment helped me to identify my errors and try to fix them. It happened in almost every single assignment that we had to turn back. I was able to correct my mistakes and grade my self, based to reality. For example, “my self as a writer and the summary of the frontier thesis”.  These two were revised by me very effective thanks to my new ability to evaluate and correct my self. Also the peer-assessment helped me to understand what the others think about me and my writing. I helped in all the toefl essays, and thanks to that each time was improved.

            Furthermore, my writing helped me to learn English. This happened because I was able to express my self in the paper and I have learned new vocabulary words. Learning new vocabulary was extremely useful because I can express my self easily and more effectively. Some of the words that I have learned are: incisive, notions, initiative, treadmill, etc. In addition to these writing helped me to increase my ability to do research and fit in every topic and discussion.

            Lastly, I believe learning, thinking, writing and reading are related. If I improve one of them automatically all are improved. For example, when I read a passage my vocabulary is increasing. As a result my ability to think is better, I have learned new words and I can use these words in my writing. It is happening all the time, for instance, when I read newspaper or a book.

            In conclusion, APPLE, peer/self assessment, writing and the relation between learning, thinking, writing and reading have been helping me to increase my knowledge of English and become a better writer. Also this portfolio is not just pieces of writing; it is something that shows my progress and something that I will have to remind me that I can always become better.

John

Reflective essay December 8, 2006

                  Reflective essay 

  At first, when I enrolled MEI, I expected that it would not difficult for me to learn English because I have learned English 15 years, at least.  But I realized right after MEIPE writing test that I had not been taught about writing skills, not to mention about English.  I never heard about A.P.P.L.E,  and many other elements which are needed for writing.            So, writing in English was very strange for me because I didn’t know the ways.  I didn’t know the keys.  However, after 12 weeks classes, I feel little comfort when I have to write something. I can build the structures of a writing roughly when i confront some writing tasks, I can write easier than 3 months ago, which mean I’ve got a know-how a little bit. Through the classes, I also have learned that reading and writing is connected  very closely. So, I would like to say that  ” A good reader can be a good  writer”.  To write something well, we need something to write.  Without rich evidences,  any writings can’t be a good writing that can move readers mind.  Then, how can we get rich resources or knowledges.  The answer is very simple, reading. Through reading, we can learn what is good writing and what should we follow.  Also, we can get a huge amounts of indirect experiences from the books.  Therefore, reading is prerequisite to writing.  But this is not mean that reading is more important than writing. I think reading and writing are interacting coincidentally. Assessment as a post writing step, give us a chance to reflect the results and correct the errors. These pre-writing, writing, post writing steps are most core procedures that we should remember.

  During RWG classes, I have read many kinds of articles and I had to write various kinds of assignments. I can’t say that my writing abilities have improved remarkably, but there have been some changes.  The most effective way of learning is doing incessant practices. So, to improve reading and writing skills, I have to read and write more frequently.

      Yun                    

reflective essay, writing portfolio – yok December 8, 2006

Reflective Essay of Portfolio

            Since the very beginning of the MEI 004C class, I didn’t know how to write something effectively in English although all my life is always connected with writing. This is because I don’t familiar with English and also, I live in the country that English is a second language. However, 3 months later, I feel like I’m a new person who can use better English than the past. For a whole semester, I did many things in the class that helped me to improve my English skills. The very last homework that I had done for this course was a writing portfolio, which I had to collect almost all my works for a whole semester. From this homework, I can see many beneficial things to my life.

            First of all, I can see an improvement from my works since the past to the present. At the first time, when I heard that I had to write something about myself as a writer, or some topics that I’m not familiar with, I usually spent almost of my entire night to complete that work. Although I had many ideas in my head, it was really hard for me to write down in English. However, after tons of writing works I had written during class or even my homework, I felt better when teachers told me to write an essay because I was getting use to it. Also, the length of an essay is much longer than early works.

Second, I had learned how to improve my work by peer and self assessment. Every time after I had written an essay, I had to evaluate a score, and most of the time when I knew my score from self and peer assessment, I felt upset about it because it was so low. It was always lower than the score that I had expected. A few days after I started to know how assessment worked, I realized that what I always lack was an organization. I began to know what my weakness was. As a result, I tried to focus on my weakness for next works, and it worked. I made fewer mistakes in my late works. I think an assessment helps me to focus what my weakness is.

Lastly, I had learned about how to use A.P.P.L.E. in writing process. From my opinion, it is very useful for me because I can analyze and focus my work to audiences. This is very important because if you can catch the awareness of the audience, your work will not be boring. Before I can analyze this point, I had to practice lots of reading in order to know and understand the possibility of audiences. From this point, it shows that if you want to be a good writer, you have to be a good reader as well. I had learned that reading and writing, also thinking, are parallel. Moreover, it can tell me about many important things to concern for example, a type of Presentation, Language and Evidence used in an essay. With this strategy, I can make my writing work more interesting.

In sum, I think a writing portfolio is a great summary of a student because it contains writing history of that student. For a whole course, I had done lots of writings and I chose some of them to be parts of my portfolio. The reason that I chose those writings is, I want the teacher to see my improvement since the very first class to my very last class. I think I had improved a lot not only as a writer, but also as a student who doesn’t have English as a first language.

yok

The Ingrate November 10, 2006

In this story, Mr. Leckler tried to teach Josh, Who is slavery to protect hinself.

But, as a result, He could escape from South to North to find a freedom because he could write and read English.

Thid story gave me great information abuot the situations in mid 19th on America even this story is a fiction.

So it describes well the two point of view between Mr. Leckler, who represets White people and Josh, who represents African American, especially who are thirsty for the freedom. The freedom also stands for the language power.

The Tone of the writer is little satirical or ironical.

Sujang

The ingrate November 10, 2006

I think it is dramatic story. Because, when I read this text, Joshua, the barave man, seemed to be sincere to his “master”. But, he found his freedom and accomplished it successfully. In this scene, my feeling is similiar to Joshua’s and the author’s, although Mr. Leckler, Joshua’s master, felt unpleased in Joshua’s “betrayal”. The author did not express his own opinion directly, but I can catch his thought in some words used in this text. For example, pleasure, horizon, light of heaven, and so on. 

The author and I were sharing the emotion while I read this story. It was “Achievement”. The author drew Joshua as a hero of slaves. He escaped by himself, even his master taught him to write and read. So, this story is dramatic and succeedes in evoking someone’s sympathy.     

Ha Yun

the ingrate November 10, 2006

The backgorounds of this story are just few years before abolitionist movement has occured.  It is a story about a slave who was taught readings and writings from his master and ran away to get freedom.

Tone of the article is not serious. Rather, it has some humorous mood. Especially, a lot of dialogues between Lecklers’ gave me laughs.  The author treated this gloomy theme of slavery history with a little pleasant way.

 The author’s point of view is little warm to both of  masters and slave. He introduced a anecdote of a master who had tried help his slave, but later felt betraial from his slave.  The master’s saying ‘ the ingrate’ shows the irony of human life. 

Yun

November 10, 2006

This story was really interesting to read. It really helped me to understand slavery and how it effected the American society. What was really surprising was the difference between the north and the south, and that they had different aspects on the evolution of slavery. The good relationship between a master and a slave was really touching. The writer was trying to deliver the point of view of the two sides ( the slave and the master). The writer is a really inspiring person to me, because he became the first African-American writer and that passed all the obstacles with the help of his own master-which was not usual.        ALI

November 10, 2006

This story was really interesting to read. It really helped me to understand slavery and how it effected the American society. What was really surprising was the difference between the north and the south, and that they had different aspects on the evolution of slavery. The good relationship between a master and a slave was really touching. The writer was trying to deliver the point of view of the two sides ( the slave and the master). The writer is a really inspiring person to me, because he became the first African-American writer and that passed all the obstacles with the help of his own master-which was not usual.

The Ingrate November 10, 2006

The context if this essay is about the slave and the masters’ point of view. The writer tries to make audiences understand about the feeling of the salve. What’s the thought of slaves? He, the writer, mentions that the most important in their life, slaves, is freedom. The tone of the essay is emotional. He uses a conversation style to tell the story. Also, there are 2 points of view, slaves and master. Slaves need freedom, and master needs slave. This is the difference.

yok