"English writing improvement"

I’ve been taking English classes since my second year of university, starting with my two basic English classes, both really nice to grow in different aspects. The first class was with Professor Awilda Rivera; this was a simple kind of English. For the second class I had the honor of knowing the professor Nikita Nankov who taught me how to give oral presentations in English, since every single day I had to talk in front of the class about the readings of the week.

Last year I decided to take two English courses to complete certain requirements for admission to the Medical Sciences Precinct in Rio Piedras. On this occasion I decided to take a course with Professor Noble, in this course I learned what it was to write formal papers with a specific topic, not only writing but also explaining it in front of the class. This same year I took the course INSI3101 with professor Pittmann, in which we learned to work in teams, how to make oral presentations, improvisation, writing and creative writings. After finishing the INSI course with a great grade I found out that I not rendered a valid course where I was requesting the transfer. So at the last minute I meet with professor Pittmann, and she helped me and to enroll in the course of INGL3112 which is valid for the transfer.

            

         I never thought being in an advanced English course, as I understood the expectations for this course were greater than my English skills, and I did not comply with enough knowledge to be part of an advanced English course. But I took the risk; I didn’t had many options. At the beginning of semester I felt inferior to the other students in the class, because my classmates had an excellent command over English and pronunciation. Today I can say that I accept my pronunciation as a Latino who learned English in Puerto Rico. On the other hand the use of journals and classroom activities, this being my second course with Professor Pittmann woke my creativity and judgment when posting my writings.

Before taking these two courses, I couldn’t write so fluently, I was usually lockout and I had no thought because of this my writing wasn’t as fast as now. I'm sure one of the reasons why I write so fast now without blocking myself, is because of the use of journal, which awakens one side of your brain where you don’t care if your writing is wrong and helps you get the job done faster. The development of the ideas in mind is an important factor, because when writing we should have lots of ideas to start and when you're sure you have a great main idea to stick with that stream, the next step is let your hand move. This was one of the main reasons of the use of the journal and we put it into practice with the activities of the journal.

In this course we did not just made a journal to help us improve our writing, but we also did activities that I had never done before like writing a poem and compete for a prize using this poem we wrote in class. This activity awakened emotions that were hidden in me, and one of the things that make writings more efficient and complete was the use of the emotions and feelings at the time of writing.  Sometimes we write things without feeling and come out pretty nice but when we compare it with a writing with lots of emotions, we can see the big difference and impact it haves into the reader.

My favorite writing activity in class was the poem activity because of the emotion I just mentioned before. For my least favorite I can say is the group projects, it’s not because of working in groups is because always we have a group activity we have to do some oral presentation in front of the class and that’s the part I don’t like. For my hardest part in my writing I have to say is the words that use double t, p, or s, because I’m never sure when I have to use two of the same letters in one word. A Big struggle I had last semester, but I’m sure I worked on it, was the separation of the paragraphs, since for me in English is quite hard to know when I can finish or break a paragraph.

Finally I can say having to take five English classes in my five years at the university, I could say they’ve been worth it. In each one I’ve learned different things, the three last classes: Pittman’s classes two classes and Nobles class helped me in my writings skills, because of the use of the journals, the formal papers, and the groups activities. From now on I have to keep practicing what I’ve just learned, and reinforce what I’m still struggling.