simple what did you learn?

What did you learn in English this semester?

 What was the process that you went through when writing a paper?

 How have you used this in your writing today?

These are the three questions that I have been contemplating these past few weeks. There are a lot of things that I could say that I have learned but narrowing it down to just a few main examples has been my biggest issue. One main thing I have learned is when writing your papers; you do not have to follow the 5 paragraph format. This was probably the hardest habit for me to break. Whenever you start writing papers in school, teachers have taught you that you are supposed to write with the 5 paragraph format. Coming into this class this was the exact mindset that I had. I wanted to write every paper in this format. When we wrote our literacy narratives for our first paper, I started using the format when I began my outline but once I realized that I was doing so, I tried a different strategy by separating my examples into different paragraphs. This helped my paper flow more smoothly. You were able to understand the story line much better and I was not confused whenever writing my paper. This semester I have progressed with not writing with the traditional format and on my cultural narrative, I used only 4 paragraphs of main ideas to get my point across. It still made sense and I believe not using that format improved my paper with the flow better than the format would have. 

Another main thing that I learned is that you always have to consider your audience and how your style of writing must “fit” with your audience. At first I was very confused with what this meant. Subconsciously you don’t realize that when you are writing papers for a professor, you are considering them as your audience and you will use a more formal tone in your paper, and you might even use big words that you may not understand the meaning of. When texting your best friend though, you realize that they will understand the sublanguage that you are using so you use a more non formal tone. When I blog to the world, I use a semi-formal tone. I want you guys to understand what I am talking about, but I don’t want you guys to be bored or confused so I won’t use “big” words.  

When we were given our literacy narrative assignments I had no idea what to do. I was lost on what I needed to put in the paper, or how I was going to write this paper. My writing process though went as follows:

-I began writing all of my childhood memories. It varied from school, to my babysitter's house

-I made an outline. 

-I wrote my first draft of the paper.

-I sent this paper to my older brother.

-We did peer review in class.

-I worked on revisions and turned in my second draft.

-We received our papers back and conferenced with Mrs. Camargo

-I went to the Writing Resources Center and worked with Rebecca.

-I turned in my third and final draft

In conclusion, this semester was one for me where I broke from my traditional format writing and I was able to recognize the different tones that I had used when writing different pieces. I was also able to see how I went through a process to writing my paper.  So my question to you is, how has your English class helped you this semester?