portfolio Introductory Reflective Essay

Zeng

Jiawen Zeng

Chenxia Zhu

English 3001-01

5/29/2017

Reflective Essay

Becoming a good writer is a challenging and continuous process that need to constantly improving your writing skills in different area as same as constructive reflection for identification of both progress and directions for further development. My writing competence has improved significantly during the ten weeks of English 3001 Writing Proficiency course in such areas as grammar, use of verb tenses, and content quality.

The most serious problems I faced in writing process previously were grammar issues and poor content of the essays. To be more precise, I used to lack empirical competence in proper use of verb tenses. My confusions of tense forms destroyed all the sense of the essay, and often improper sentence structure made the result of the writing process insufficient to meet the University Writing Skills Requirements. Initially, when I tried to improve my skills in the given area, I only paid attention to the highlighted mistakes and comments of the tutor. Nonetheless, I realized it was not enough. Therefore, I changed this strategy to a more constructive one. To be more precise, I started reading more books in English and wrote essays diverse topics apart from the course tasks. It was an effective type of training since in several weeks my essays revealed particular progress which I took into consideration and continued.

I realize that it does not suffice to finally meet the University Writing Skills Requirements since this is only a fraction of real competence in writing. The next step of self-improvement the given sphere is editing that also has numerous issues and challenges to be dealt with. It means that there are two domains within the notion of writing competence, and both of them have no limits and require constant self-improvement. Therefore, my goal to meet academic requirements is only one more step in the course of acquisition of linguistic competence and capacity to master English in terms of writing essays and academic papers.

Moreover, I know that currently I need to focus more on content issues, persuasive capacity and proper use of diverse materials employed to support evidence which are crucial elements of writing papers per University requirements. On the other hand, I see that all the core problems with linguistic competence which I have faced earlier, are solved, which means that I need to focus on further self-improvement and keep constructive work in order to achieve my next targets in the field of concern. Furthermore, I have considerable progress in such important dimensions of academic paper construction as thesis development, use of testimony and personal observations, and alignment of different ideas into a coherent, justified and credible academic entity. Now I do not permit run-ons, excessive use of articles or comma splices to emerge in my works. It means that flaws of basic and medium level are dealt with, and further self-development is required.

Finally, my progress encompasses capacity to edit own work. To be more decided, I re-read a written paper after a completion, and improve it in all domains. It takes time to understand that editing means not only improvements of poor grammar or irrelevant use of word form, but also elimination of sources which lack credibility and academic significance or are out-of-date. Along with such, I adhere to recommendation of Alber to delete unnecessary and add relevant details.

Thus, self-improvement in academic sphere is an ongoing, challenging and at the same time worthwhile process. I strive to master English which means that the current progress is another stage of competence enhancement. I intend to continue process of improvements in writing further taking time to analyze the achievements and identify further targets.

Work Cited

Alber, Rebecca. “4 Strategies for Teaching Students How to Revise.” Edutopia, 2016, https://www.edutopia.org/blog/4-strategies-teaching-kids-how-revise-rebecca-alber. Accessed 29 May 2017.