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Mariah Wood
Professor Corri Ditch
English 113B 8 AM
5 May 2015
My College Writing Experience
This semester in English 113B has proven to be quite challenging, but productive and beneficial
as well. Over the past few months there has been various assignments and essays, all of which
challenged me as a writer. The first essay I wrote was lacking in many areas- weak thesis, nonsupporting evidence, etc. I started off struggling with my essay, but by the time I had gotten assistance
from the LRC and turned in my next essay, I received not only a better grade than the last, but I saw
actual improvement in my writing skills. Though the writing assignments seemed tedious or frustrating
in the moment, they ultimately helped me asses the areas of writing I needed the most help on in the
long run. After completing the course in English 113B, I improved my writing skills organizationally,
mechanically, and argumentatively.
The first essay of the semester was called Project Space. In that essay, I was required to reflect
on my own (cultural)identity, and how my behavior changed in different cultural spaces. I found this
essay the most difficult, mainly because I did not fully understand the prompt at the time, and my essay
writing skills were a bit out of practice. After receiving my graded essay I realized that I had only
implied cultural space, instead of directly saying it. I mentioned my behavior fluctuating in different
environments, which hinted at cultural space, but anyone reading the paper wouldn't have known what
exactly my essay topic was about. I also faced many obstacles concerning transitions and citing books
and scholarly articles. I was guilty of using what the professor called hit-and-run quotes. I inserted
many quotes to my paper as evidence, but I didn't provide any explanation of how it supported my
argument, or why it was relevant to my paper. Not only that, but my paper was quite choppy and I

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excluded any sort of potential smooth transition. It was clear to me that my paper was flawed in many
ways, but the first essay was an important learning and growing experience for me as a writer. Writing
this paper helped me asses which areas in my writing required the most improvement. I was a bit
discouraged initially, but after getting the help I needed from my Supplemental Instruction leader and
the Learning Resource center, I was able to fix my mistakes and properly prepare for the next essay.
Subsequent to receiving my not so stellar grade on Project Space, I was determined to get a
better grade on the next essay. The next assignment on the list was Project Text, which was an
argumentative essay. This prompt required that I write an argument based on a possible theme of the
book The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and provide 2 scholarly sources, along with
another two outside sources to backup my point through concrete evidence. This really gave me the
opportunity to refine my research skills and practice citing articles and books, which was what I
previously struggled with in my first paper. Searching for scholarly articles relevant to my argument
was undoubtedly the most challenging part of the process, but once I gathered all my sources,
everything else flowed quite nicely. My last step was citations, so after a few clicks here and there on
Owl Purdue, I was reminded of how to properly cite articles and books. Once I completed Project text I
felt significantly more confident in myself, and I actually ended up getting an A on my paper. I felt
so proud of myself not just because I received a better grade, but the professor mentioned that I
provided some effective transitions, which was what I was struggling so much with in the beginning.
The last major assignment of the semester, Project Web, was where I improved the most
organizationally. For this project, each group was required to make a website about a cultural activist
and present it to the class. In the website, it was expected that we had information on the activists
argument based on their actions and beliefs, as well as our own argument based off of that. This task
was challenging because it required a superabundance of credible sources backing up both our
argument, and the cultural activist's argument as well. Organizing all of the evidence was difficult at

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first, but once my group and I completed the general layout of the website, everything else began to fall
into place. Though we didn't write an essay for this project, it further refined my research and
argumentative skills.
Though the task of improving my writing skills was mainly up to me, attending English 113B provided
me with many helpful resources that both alleviated my concerns and aided me with tools to further
improve my writing. It was required that I visit the Writing Center in the Learning Resource Center at
least 2 times to get my essays evaluated and receive feedback. Most all of my experiences at the
Learning Resource Center have been positive, and I never left without at least one new piece of
knowledge on how to write an effective paper. There were times where my thoughts were jumbled and
I would be completely stuck on a paragraph or two, and the writing tutor there would assist me in
getting my thoughts flowing. One thing that always helped me before writing a paper was to express
my ideas to someone verbally before writing it down. I found that having someone to talk to about my
ideas worked much better than keeping my thoughts to myself and . Yet another great source of help
would be the Supplemental Instruction Leader, Allie Turner. She was always patient and understanding
of her students, and always provided us with the help we needed. She also cleared up any sort of
confusion that I had in regards to an assignment. I never sought out a writing tutor prior to this class
mainly because there was not much help available at my high-school, so I felt that my progress as a
writer came to a hault. Yet, since Cal State Northridge has the Learning Resource Center, I was able to
receive assistance at any given time, which provided me with helpful tips and greatly enhanced my
confidence. Without these tools I would not have made nearly as much progress in my writing as I did
without the assistance of a tutor.
I can genuinely say that after the completion of this course, I have grown and improved as a
writer. Project Space, Text, and Web not only challenged me and pushed my mind to new limits, but it
also enhanced my confidence in my writing abilities as well. I feel proud to have made it through

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English 113A and B, as writing has always been a bit of a struggle for me. I do realize, though, that one
does not make progress overnight, and improving one's writing skills is a long process, which is why I
plan on continuing to practice as much as possible. My growth as a writer has been slow and steady
these past couple semester, but I am seeing a definite improvement with every essay I write. And I hope
that I will only continue to grow as I continue my journey as a writer.