Eng Comp ITask 1 PDF

Preview

Summary

Eng Task 1...

Description

English Composition I- C455 Robert Pena ID: 001422222 DIT1 Task 1

I’m not a writer. I don’t claim to be one, by any means. In my own opinion, I believe my writing skills are nonexistent. Now don’t get me wrong, I can obviously take words and form

sentences. But the extreme lack of confidence in my own literacy has led me to shy away from past English courses. And by “shy away,” I mean withdrawing from the course entirely. With that being said, I am 41 years old, and just the idea of having to write this paper has the anxiety setting in heavily. Only this time around, there is no withdrawing. I need to break through this wall of negativity like the Kool-Aid Man broke through walls in the 1980s. The first task of this English Composition I course is not just one of but is the most important moment in my literacy development because it will build my confidence moving forward in this course and others to come, I can’t “shy away” from this one, and maybe I discover the writer that’s been hiding inside me all along. Confidence. According to Google, confidence is "a feeling of self-assurance arising from one's appreciation of one's own abilities or qualities.” That definition really hit home for me. I don’t think I truly know what my writing abilities are. I can’t have an appreciation for something I don’t believe is there. Thinking about past experiences, as far back as high school, I was more caught up in not liking English the subject, rather than setting my feelings aside and putting forth the proper effort. Because of this I believe I disrupted my own educational advancement in writing, hindering my confidence greatly. Coming to this self-realization through this writing has already given me some confidence to see what I can accomplish, and that’s something I can definitely build upon. Ride that momentum, sort of speak. But back in “the day,” that lack of confidence led to an unfortunate, cowardly way out. Withdrawing, or “shying away” as I called it earlier. What is the easiest and quickest way to avoid something that you don’t want to deal with? You run from it, and that’s exactly what I did. Post-high school, if the first assignment of an English course rubbed me the wrong way which it always did, I was gone. If the course instructor started discussing the assignment with the words “write a journal,” I was out of there before he/she was finished. Straight to the registrar, and I would drop the course. Right now, I feel more confident overall as a student. Maybe that feeling comes with age, being much older now and knowing what an English course is expecting from a student. But what is different this time around is that I know what’s waiting for me at the finish line, and I want it. There is no more “shying away” or running from but running towards and through the academic obstacles that lay before me. This paper included. That brings me to this: what qualities constitute a good writer? I would say having an amazing attention to detail, having a strong vocabulary and excellent grammar probably helps a little bit, and being opened to change and able to accept criticism, just to name a few. Do I possess any of these qualities? I most certainly do, and that gives me the confidence that I can succeed. But is that newfound confidence enough to lead to the discovery of my “inner-writer?” Ehh, I don’t think so. But it’s definitely a step in the right direction. I mean, I ‘ve almost finished this paper. If I think about it, this is the farthest I’ve gone in an English course. Absolutely not impressive by any means, but progress is progress and if that progress is in a forward direction, I’m golden.

This first task in English Composition I has gotten me to really open up in a way that I never thought a school assignment could. Being able to really look at my educational path up to this point has undoubtedly opened my eyes to what I need to do to succeed in the future. As far as my writing abilities, am I more confident? Absolutely. I am not shying away from this one. Do I have an “inner-writer” inside me? Ehh, that remains to be seen. Like I said before, I’m not a writer. I don’t claim to be one, by any means.

SOURCES

Google. (2020, January 2.) Definition of Confidence. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/search? q=confidence&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS842US842&oq=confid&aqs=chrome.0.69i59l2j69i57j0i433l2j0 i131i433.2423j0j4&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8...