Robert Held

I have notice an improvement in my work since the beginning of the spring semester. I can definitely see growth as both a student and as a writer where my work has more organization with a consistent flow. What separates this semester from previous is the amount of time I find myself working on assignments. In prior courses, I would attempt to complete essays as quickly and painlessly as possible, only yielding satisfactory grades. English 102 seems to work with students in overcoming writers block and generating ideas. It's much easier to write papers when the writer is establishing a foundation with a clean flow of consciousness. Outside of English, this helps me with taking notes and writing papers for other classes where I find my work to have much more organization.
One particular struggle I come face to face with on every assignment is attempting not to use past-tense verbs. This has been a problem of my writing for as long as I can remember yet I have never made any attempt to correct it. When shying away from over-usage of past-tense verbs, my work is much easier to read and it presents itself in a better way. I definitely need to keep working with this aspect and learn when to, and when not to, use past-tense verbs. Other corrections that I need to work on is sentence structure and vocabulary. I'm somewhat satisfied with some of my work so far this semester but I feel that there is room for improvement. I can get my position across to the audience better if I work on sentence structure and take advantage of words that have a flow. Some specific things I need to do to achieve better writings are as follows:
1. Read more often; broaden vocabulary and overall sentence structure
2. Work more with fluent, instead of complicated, words
3. Ramble on and on before the first draft of an essay to establish train of thought
4. Keep on topic and 'to the point' with essays
5. Continue to avoid past-tense verbs/ learn when appropriate

sidra bortner

Since the start of this semester my personal life has got in the way of school just a little. I get stressed out so easily. I have recently found out that I am going on my second tour overseas to Afghanistan next November. I am not looking forward to that at all. I will have to once again put off on my schooling for over a year. My first semester I did not do well with English 101 at all. I had a hard time with the essays, even though they were not that complicated. I have improved maybe just a little on my writing skills this semester. I have never been really good with English, especially essays. I have a hard time coming up with ideas to start my essays. My introductions and thesis statements are usually weak. I need to expand my vocabulary. I find myself using the same words over again and it gets annoying. So im sure readers get annoyed too. Also, I have problems with finding enough information to get the number of minimum pages for writing. I find myself to starting to come up with things just to put in there that really don’t have too much to do with the topic just so I make the cutoff length. I am a procrastinator I always wait till last minute to do everything, even though this semester I have no excuse. That is something I really need to work on. It is a pet peeve of mine and I drive myself crazy because I am like this.
Since I have started English 102 I have found out about other types of writings. I liked writing the business letter so far in this class. Even though I could have written at least a few pages on my problem/topic that I discussed my concern on. It was hard to keep it all on one page. I can be a very blunt per son for most of the part. I am good with arguing my point, if its something that I am really concerned with. I had some trouble with the rhetoric writing that type of writing was new to me. I also found it important to write more than just one draft. Having to write a few drafts, i come up with more ideas and write a better final draft. I also need to ask for more feedback on my papers
Goals:
1. Do not procrastinate
2. Organize work load better, make some kind of schedule for throughout the week
3. Work on coming up with more ideas
4. Organize paper s better
5. Become a better writer

Mid-Semester Reflection

Coming into HACC Gettysburg this semester was unexpected and decided at the last minute. Financial encumbrances held me back from attending Lehigh University for another semester. Not knowing what to expect, I came in with an open mind. Signing up for several general education classes, I thought I could slide by while still doing well. That was not the case; with a full workload I have more on my hands than I thought. Specifically, my English class here is probably the area that I have developed in the most. Entering the first day, I thought that it would be the same run-of-the-mill English class with requirements and papers, along with boring class discussions and grammatical mumbo-jumbo. I was wrong. Different ideas and activities interested me, enabling me to learn because I could pay attention. From the first week, I knew that I would develop from this opportunity as a writer, reader, and a student. Rhetorical strategies were the first topic covered. Never before had I actually thought about the specific ways to get your point across as a writer, and to power written word actually has. Instead of saying this is what you are assigned, now do it, I was actually able to understand what was going on and how it worked. Music that I actually listen to was discussed, enabling me to grasp the concepts in a broader sense. Introductions, literary techniques, and citations are among the multitude of information that I have soaked up during these few short weeks. I am amazed at how much I have already learned and how much I have forgotten from the past. The way I have been learning here teaches me to broaden these concepts to hold onto forever. Personally, I still have a few goals as a writer and student. Procrastination is my biggest problem by far. Scheduling is something I will work on in the future. Repetitiveness is another element I need to reduce in my writing and incorporating more variety. More reading is another activity I will participate in the future. Expanding vocabulary will also allow me to become a more effective communicator. Bias viewpoints hinder our whole society, from the Left and Right. I will work on looking at both sides to get a more realistic view of the world. The worst thing someone can do is make an uneducated decision, this is why investigating the whole picture is the most important goal of them all for me.

Throughout this semester I have learned that there are many steps in reading and writing, it's not just one or two. Also, you cannot procrastinate when trying to write a good paper, it has to be done in a timely manner. As a reader, I feel as though I have taken more time to read a section or paper so that I can fully comprehend the piece to the best of my ability. I feel I read and give my opinions more now than I ever have. As a writer, I feel that I have made progress. I ask myself questions that I think the audience would ask and answer them in my paper so the confusion level is lower. Also, overall I have been able to express myself throughout my papers. Even though I have made progress, there were also some bumps in the road. I had some confusion at times as to what the teacher was actually looking for. I also had trouble with being able to tell the significant differences between ethos, pathos, and logos.

1. I want to have an A in this course.
2. Create a better schedule for myself to get things done in a timely and more efficient manner.
3. Get other students opinions on my paper and see what their point of view is on it and take it into consideration when correcting my paper.
4. Use of more descriptive words in my papers.
5. I want to rewrite my papers so that I can get a better grade.

Mid-semester reflection paper Mary Martin

I believe that I have come a far way through this semester, with less procrastination and better grades then my last English class in college. I realized that I need to be able to write about something that sparks my interest and that's what I really enjoy, writing about something that intrigues me. This semester one of my personal goals was to not procrastinate and work hard and get good grades through out every class and so far my goal is being reached. I realized a lot of preparation goes into a good paper and it can not be done as a last minute thing. I learned things such as rhetoric and certain aspects of grammar that I did not know/understand before. I am a pretty strong writer but sometimes I get off track and have made grammar errors, I have learned to look through my papers more carefully, with each new draft to make improvision’s to better my writing. I believed that this semester was going to be harder then the last because the higher the class the higher the difficulty; but I soon realized with effort and perseverance comes the reward of becoming a better writer and reader.
I learned how to analyze my papers and make sure how to target my audience and make my paper easy to read and enjoyable for other's to read. How to make a boring story come alive and how to put it all together to have a nice finished piece of work. I learned how to look at other's paper and give constructive critiquing, to help improve their paper without telling them that something was worthless. I learned how to listen to someone read something out loud and pick up mistakes and how to replace poor vocab with more suitable words. I learned how to listen to heading meaning 's in an author's paper and hidden innuendoes. How some things affect our culture and other's do not. I believe that I have grow in my intellect a little more and more with each passing assignment and I believe that I have grown a lot since the beginning of the semester.



My five goals for the remains of the semester
1) make a more reliable and useful schedule for myself
2) make sure to look at all angles of a paper to find mistakes
3) take more time in writing my paper
4) have some one help me review my work and see if I made ant mistakes
5) Try to make my writing stronger

Mid-Semester Reflection from Austin Chandler

I have learned that to be a better reader I have to examine all sides of the story that are presented in materials. As a writer, I have learned that I have to limit my use of be verbs and use stronger action verbs. Also, the amount of adverbs I use need to be limited to those that are necessary and important in my writing. As a student, I have learned how papers and general writing skills need to be used for papers in other classes. As to my growth as a human being, I have tried to help other students when I can when they need help. The concepts that I learned in this class were to recongnize the different rhetoric elements in writings and to use these rhetoric elements in my own writing. Some struggles I have had were to decide on what topics to choose for my writing assignments. With the first essay, it should have been made clear that any reference to imagery from the song needed to be quoted. For the second essay, the letter format should have been shown on day one, that way everyone would have had a better idea on how much room they would have to argue their point. The most difficult assignment so far has been the letter assignment, because I had a first draft that had to be gutted to become the essay I handed in. This learning process has complicated my anxiety about my skills because I sometimes do not know what I need to write for certain assignments. Also, it has complicated my anxiety about research because when I use the resources on HACC web databases, I get some of the most unrelated subject matter that has nothing to do with my topic. What has eased my anxiety about writing essays is that my writing and reading skills are improving, making my drafts and revisions better. The way I approach writing has changed because now I look at what my thesis will be and how to connect the rest of the essay around the thesis. The challenges that I have overcome are to be less wordy in my essays and to use better verbs. My experience in the course has differed from my expectations because in the description the class sounded like we were going to do more with literature based writing instead of more free flow writing.
Five Goals for the remainder of the course:
1. I will use being verbs less often and use stronger action verbs.
2. I will use less adverbs in my writing.
3. I will cut down on my wordiness in my essays.
4. I will stress out less when I have to do an assignment.
5. I will not use passive voice as much in my essays.

Revised Revised Schedule

HACC English 102
Revised Schedule: Weeks 8-14



WEEK 8
T-3/24- Essay #3 draft #1 due
R-3/26- Bring in an example of a critique on American culture.
-Read pages 1015-1025



WEEK 9
T-3/31- Essay #3 draft #2 due
R-4/2-


WEEK 10
T-4/7-
R-4/9- NO CLASS
-Essay #3 final draft due
-Annotated Bibliography due


WEEK 11
T-4/14- Assign Artistic Translation
R-4/16- Essay #4 draft #1 due: Workshop




WEEK 12
T-4/21-
R-4/23- Conferences

WEEK 13
T-4/28- Conferences
R-4/30- Essay #4 draft #2 due
-Revisions of Essays 1, 2, and 3 due

WEEK 14
T-5/5- Artistic Translation Presentations
R-5/7- Artistic Translation Presentations
-Essay #4 final draft due

Mid-Semester Reflection from Mark Lundh

Well, for this mid-semester reflection i have to state that this class hasn't happened the way I thought it was going to. I plannly thought this class was going to 80 % reading and 20% writing, which it totally wrong. This class is more or less a lot of writing and not a lot of reading. I think for me personally this class has gone fairly well, I'm mean there were times when I was bitting my nails on some of these essay's, especially the first essay. I had no clue about the song or how to write it, but I push on and was really glad to get that essay done. The second essay was by far the most enjoyable to write because it didn't take a lot of thought to come up with a subject to write and not to mention it was a local issue. It made me learn about the handicap situtation that is currently happening in the city of Gettysburg in a way that I would normal not give a care to learn, because I don't see it affecting me at all.
I think the ways I've grown in this class is the ability to push me past my discomfort levels and to reach into levels of my writing that I normally wouldn't reach on my own. Not only that but to deal with subject matters that I would brush off on my own, but with this class it has to be dealt with. Also I have grown as a person in my writing to few things in a different light and accept different views and to change my own personal ideas about things.
Five Goals for the Remainder of Class:
1) To keep on pushing my writing past that discomfort level I have
2) To have a better understanding of my writing and seeing where it's taking me in life
3) To further grown as a person trying to find a place in this world
4) To understand people views and to see where there coming from (regarding their ideas)
5) To further evolve my writing and finish all these essays on time

I have realized that there are a lot of steps in the writing and reading processes. its not just one step, but many combined to get to the end. i have learned that you can not procrastinate in college and you need to get your work done in a timely maner. i beleive that i can use this knowledge in my future in the carere ( is that how you spell that). this doesn't just apply to school it applies to everything that i will be doing in the future.
I have strugled with the fact that now i have all of these assignments due in a short period of time. Not just in this class but in my other classes as well. I believe now that i need to make a schedual for when i am going to complete all of this stuff. I have had problems writing my bibliographies, but do believe that i have improved from my past experiences. I know i had issues writing them in my last english class, but think they are getting better.
I think now with all of these assignments that are due in a short period of time not just in this class is kind of overwelming. The most dificult assignment that i have had would have to be the one that we are working on right now. It seems like it is all over the place, and i don't know where to start. The other ones were fine. I had them pretty well under control.
The learning process has complicated and eased my anxiety. It has complicated it due to the fact that there are so many steps in it, and im not quite sure where to start. It has eased it due to the fact that now i know there are steps to getting to the end. It's not just writing a paper in one step.

I will try not to procrastinate as much.
I will make a calender of when i want to complete things.
I will try not to stress as much as i do.
I will write my papers to the best of my ability.
I will try to use more discreptive word in my papers then just little words.

Annotated Bibliography Assignment

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ASSIGNMENT: 100 POINTS

BASIC ORGANIZATION FOR EACH ENTRY OF ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY (5 ENTRIES TOTAL, 20 POINTS EACH):

I. CITATION (MLA STYLE, AS WOULD APPEAR ON WORKS CITED PAGE)
II. SUMMARY/ANALYSIS OF ARGUMENT (PARAGRAPH)
III. RELEVANCE/VALUE OF SOURCE (PARAGRAPH)
IV. REPRESENTATIVE QUOTATION

Mid-Semester Reflection (In-class 3/24)

Mid-semester Reflection Writing Assignment: 25 points.


For this assignment, you will write a one-page, singe-spaced reflection on your growth throughout the first half of the semester. I want you to address the ways you've grown as a reader, writer, student, and human being. I'd also like you to discuss any struggles you've had so far and how you've gotten through them (or plan to). The reflection should end with a numbered list of five goals for the remainder of the course. These goals may address any aspect of being a better writer, reader, or student. Some examples might include: "I will decrease the number of adverbs in my writing, replacing them with stronger verbs." "I will look up all words I don't recognize while I'm reading to expand my vocabulary." "I will create a better schedule for myself so that I don't procrastinate."

Questions you might answer in this assignment: How have my writing and reading skills improved? What challenges have I overcome with my writing and reading? What concepts have I learned? How have I learned to apply these concepts to my reading and writing? What specific problems did I have with certain assignments? What has been the most difficult assignment? How has the learning process complicated and eased my anxiety about my skills? What has changed about the way I approach the writing process or a reading assignment? How have I changed/grown as a student? What new learning skills have I acquired? How has my approach to my work changed? How has my experience in the course differed from my expectations? How have my own skills differed from my expectations of them?