Ramirez, Yolanda
Professor Dinsmore
English 114B
May 16, 2012
First Year As A College Student
First year of college has officially
come to an end. I have experienced many things that I thought I would not have
to go through at this age. College is definitely very different from high
school. Professors expected me to learn
things by myself and did not take the time to get to know me as a person. They
expected so much from me but gave me a little to work with. I had to learn to
search things by myself and not get help from anyone. Not only did I struggle
to get a better grade but I also had to compete all the other students in
class. College is not what others say it would be.
This year I
had to take English 114 A and 114 B because my writing skills were not college
level yet. I had to take this class for two semesters (1 year). I like the fact
that we got to spend more time to get to know the professor because, usually,
you do not get an opportunity like this in college. This class focuses on the
writing style of each individual and how they could work with it. We went over
many factors that can affect writing.
The first thing we learned in this
class was to put out ideas in a paper. We brainstormed our ideas and then tried
putting them in order that would make sense to the audience. When writing an
essay, we had to keep in mind the type of essay we were writing and the
audience that we were presenting it to. We also used many factors that
influenced the audience response. Ethos, Pathos, and Logos were some of the
important factors that we had to use in our essays. Each one of these factors
gave the audience a bit more of understanding on what the essay was about
This is what we focused the most
during the first semester of the class. On the second semester of class we
discussed many topics. Some of the main topics we discussed during the second
semester were identity, gender roles, Nature vs. Nurture. These topics were
related to each other in some ways and it was easier to connect with them. Some
of the books that helped me understand these topics more were “The Surrogates”,
“Persepolis” and “As Nature Made Him”. These books dealt which each of the
topics we discussed this semester.
The first topic we talked about
during the second semester was about gender roles and how society views it. The
book we read for this topic was “The Surrogates” which talked about how gender
identity affects society and the way it thinks. Society has standards for each
gender and there are rules that have to be followed in order to “belong” and be
accepted. This topic was also related to identity and how they are both defined
by society.
The second and last essay we
addressed in class was the topic of Nature vs. Nurture and how this is a very
controversial topic in today’s society. The main point on this essay is the
fact that people do not understand that both nature and nurture affect a
person’s identity. Yes, nature identifies the person you are since you are born
but nurture shapes the person someone grows up to be. Both of these topics are
very confusing and can be misunderstood by society. The book we had to read for
this topic was “As Nature Made Him” which is based on the life of an identical
twin boy who, by mistake, had to change his gender into a girl due to an
operation that burned his genitals. The book talks about whether if nature or
nurture play a role on this case and how it affected the life of this poor boy.
At the end of the essay I just stated my view on the topic and what I learned
from it.
Taking this class has helped me
improve my writing skills and how to put my thoughts and ideas into paper. It
is easier for me to come up with topics to talk about and how to expand one
little idea and write a whole paragraph on it. I know I still need to improve
my writing a lot more, but this class has definitely improved my writing way
more than I had expected. I now know that I have to keep many factors in mind
when writing an essay. I definitely learned about my writing, how I can
identify with it and how I can improve it.