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Fabian Romero
Professor DerOhanessian
English 114B
8 May 2014
Achievement
For some reason writing was difficult for me throughout my education and I didnt
realize it. It was not until high school I realized that my teachers in elementary school and middle
school may have not put much effort into helping me with my writing. What they have done was
letting me pass my English classes with a good grade making me think that I was doing a good
job and I dont need to change the way I write. I didnt think writing was difficult till my high
school teachers said of how much work I needed to put into my essays. Once I became aware of
my writing, I knew I needed to improve and I found that 114B helped me make progress so that I
will be able to apply these skills for other courses and to continue make progress.
Looking over my portfolio, I realized that Ive learned many things throughout this
semester. Ive become familiar on how to write an argumentative essay without having to think
about so much about my thesis. I use to find it time consuming to get the argument that I want to
defend and being able to expand on it. Now that Ive practiced on how a thesis statement should
look like, I now know how to come up with a thesis with ease. Another part that Im most proud
of is the way I include sources in each of my essays. Im able to find the connections from each
source that complement the thesis that Im trying to explain. At first bringing in sources into my
essay was my favorite part, because the use of a source will take up more space in my essay that
I will no longer need to fill up in order to meet the word and page requirement. The use of
sources use to be a weak area for me, because whenever I included a source I would lack the
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analysis portion to explain why it would make a valid source to my topic. Another notable skill
that Ive learned was the proper way of using MLA format. The use of MLA format in high
school was almost nonexistent. Whenever one of my teachers asks to use MLA format they
usually dont enforce it even after a student didnt properly make their essay into the format. It
may have been brought up a couple times, but it wasnt taken seriously to look over.
The skills that Ive gained in 114B was beneficial in other courses that Ive taken this
semester and for the years to come. The best use of the skills from 114B is probably when I
applied them in my political science class by doing the research assignments that was required
from the class. The assignments dealt with our stand in certain topics and the use of outside
sources, which became good practice as I was also in 114B. The arguments that were brought up
in my political science class brought in skills to use sources and use them to get my point across.
Another course where these skills can be beneficial is through a speech class where you are
asked to make an argument, but not in an essay format. This was another course that I took this
semester and also found it good practice while taking 114B. The thesis and sources that are used
in the essays can be presented through a speech or discussion.
Im planning to keep on working with my writing and to keep expanding more on my
analysis. I would usually come up with ideas that come to me at the moment, but as time passes I
start to get more ideas. Im beginning to understand that writing is a process and that I should be
able to take my time and write down all the possible ideas that come to mind. That also leads to
me not being able to write more than five body paragraphs. I guess I was molded to only use five
bodied essays as I grew up, but it is something I definitely want to work on to bring a more
interesting paper.
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With this portfolio as a reflection of how far Ive come, I would like to think that I did a
good job and Im glad that Im becoming a more accomplished writer. Being able to explain and
describe my ideas couldnt be more gratifying in my education.