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Experience as a writer at ELI100
Since it was my first time to study academic writing in English, and it was also
my first semester to study abroad, I think this class was very hard for me. On the other hands, I
learned a lot of things from this class and each of them was very important and useful for my
future study.
Impressive subjects I learned from this class
Although almost all subjects that I learned were very beneficial to me, I would like to
pick up some that I was most impressed at.
First, I became familiar with academic writing conventions, for example, summary,
paraphrase, and quotation. I also learned some formats to use for documenting sources in my
paper, APA and MLA. Frankly speaking, at first, I did not understand why these kinds of formats
were needed in my paper. Moreover I was reluctant to use these. However, when I started to
explore for my research project, I realized the importance of these formats because I could find
out some resources very easily by following the references of books I checked out. Of course,
now I think that these formats are very useful and necessary for academic writing.
Next, I learned a method to process for writing step-by- step. It breaks it down into four
stages; prewriting, drafting, revising, and proofreading. This process seems to be taken it for
granted and many people do it unconsciously. However, when I came to a deadlock in my paper,
I could make sure what stage I was standing at and go back to previous stage if it was necessary.
Through this method, I could avoid losing my way. I think that making thesis statement and
outline were particularly useful for me among this process. By these activities, I was able to get a
sort of “map” of my paper. It made me feel easy when I was writing a long paper, such as a
research paper.
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Lastly, I learned how to conduct researching. Needless to say, research project is not easy
to accomplish. At first, I thought that it was almost impossible for me to do some research and
write ten pages paper. Since I did not have any experience about researching in English, I did not
know the first thing about it. However, some in-class activities showed me some useful databases
for my research paper. I mainly used two research databases, EBSCO and ABI/INFROM Global.
In addition, librarians helped me a lot. When I told them about my research projects, they were
always ready to help me and gave some useful tips for my researching. I was surprised at their
knowledge and skill for researching. When I had some troubles about getting some books which
I wanted, they recommended some alternative books.
My favorite projects in this class
My favorite projects in this class were freewriting and research project.
As to free writing, I really enjoyed it. At first, my pen could not work well because I did
not get used to express my idea in English. As I reviewed my freewriting papers, some of those
written in the beginning of the class were uneasy and it often took a lot of time to explain my
idea. However, I finally enjoyed it, especially, student-led freewriting. In these activities, I knew
what topics my peers were interested in, and how they responded my writing. When my turn of
the assigned leader came around, I knew each of them had a different opinion and at the same
time, I felt I could communicate with them closely.
Regarding to research paper project, it was the most interesting project as well as the
most challenging one in this class. I had a lot of experience as a writer through this project. In
particular, researching project was very impressive for me. Since my topic, “glass ceiling”, is
very controversial issue and there are a lot of resources related to this issue, it was very hard for
me to narrow down the point of argument and find out relevant resources. However, I also
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enjoyed exploring in vast amount of resources. I was absorbed in satisfying my curiosity during
my researching. Through this activity, I realized that it was very critical for successful research
paper to get start as soon as possible because it took a lot of time. In addition, I think that the
more we take time to explore, the better paper we can write. Someday, I would like to retry to
research this issue by different perspective.
A plan to next step as a writer
Although, I have learned various tips to improve my writing in English and now I can
organize sentences and express my opinion more effectively than before I took this class, I have
a lot of disadvantages. Particularly, I still need to improve the skill of grammar. I always
committed faults of grammar in my papers. Some were simply cause of my careless proofreading.
However, some were hard for me to find out. I think it was very helpful for me to use a writing
workshop. Also, I think it is important to write as much as possible so that I will gradually be
able to reduce my grammar error.
Besides, when I read a book, I try to make a note to summarize and respond it on daily
basis as much as possible for my future paper. I have already been doing this activity when I
study because it helps for me to understand contents as well as to improve my writing skill.
Writing is very profound activity and it is impossible to improve my skill rapidly.
However, I am always very satisfied when I can express my idea well. To obtain this feeling, I
will try to do my best in the future.