What Did I Learn In English Class: Knowledge I Received

My first semester has come to an end. It just seems like yesterday I was a freshman here. Over this semester, I have learned many things such as: how to write an essay and improve on essays that I have already written, how to locate and composite better research through the use of numerous resources found at the campus library and online, and how to cite research, summary of book, and quotations properly in my research paper according to MLA standards.

And what I learned in English class?

It's not like I am good at expressing my thoughts and ideas in writing but taking this course, has made me more comfortable with it. English has always been the subject that I struggle with the most. Maybe it's because English is not my first language nor is it my second language. Whenever I am asked to write something my mind goes blank, my heart starts to race like it’s taking part in Olympics, and my whole body gets stiff like a corpse.

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Maybe it's because I feel like I am the black sheep in the group when it comes to writing but during this course, I found out that I am not only the one who has trouble with writing. As Anne Lamott writes in her essay Shitty First Drafts that “People tend to look at successful writers who are getting their books published … and think that they sit down at their desks every morning … typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter.

But this is just the fantasy of the uninitiated” (Lamott 21). I like how Lamott gives us a good example, describing the great writers at their desk finishing a perfect draft on their first try, and how this never happens. According to Lamott, anyone with enough effort can write well, and now knowing that even great writers go through the same pain as I go through in writing, makes me more comfortable. Nowadays, every time I write, I note down everything on a piece of paper knowing it will be shitty and that I can fix it up later.

During this semester I have learned how to utilize college resources like the libraries and the online database for any type of research paper. One of the requirements of this class for the professor was to teach us how to use the college database which help us not only in this course but in all the research papers we had to do throughout the semester. This skill has made me efficient in writing papers on any topic whether I have previous knowledge of it or not. In addition to gaining information on the topic, the use of outside sources like quotes, surveys, etc. has helped me to establish my point and make my paper more credible. As Peter Elbow says in Sharing and Responding that “The Reader is always right; the writer is always right” (Elbow). If we don’t use different sources to prove our point in the writing then that essay is not considered to be a credible one because the main objective of writing is to make the reader see the things the way you see them and to do so we have to give concrete proof to convince the reader.

Citations play an important role in an essay. If you forget to give the credit to the person from whom you got the idea or the phase then your whole essay is considered to be plagiarized and in writing plagiarism is considered to be the biggest sin, which cannot be forgiven. During this course, I have learned not only how to cite common sources like books, journals, or websites but also other sources like posters, youtube videos, interviews, etc. That's what I learned In English class.

So at the end of this course, the thing that I learned like improving my writing, using different sources, and citing them properly has to help me a lot not only in my English class but also in other courses. And this skill that I learned in this class shall be used even in the future to find a job or write an official letter to colleagues or publish a paper of my own.