When I entered basic skills English this summer, I wasnt to confident with my writing abilities, even though I had been told by my English teacher Mr. Cooksey, for three years, that I was a great writer. As I said in my self assessment half way through the course, it didnt take long to feel confident as a writer. It was close to the end of the term where I felt like this confidence I had built up, was beginning to fade away. After my final draft of essay four, which I really wasnt pleased with, and the preparations for essay 5, I felt less confidence, than I had at any other point during the class.
        I remember last Thursday in class, we began preparations for essay five, and I was really getting stressed out about everything we had to do to write a good essay five. We read an essay, written by a student in basic skills last year, and I remember saying to myself, "I cant write anything like that." Then we began to free write with our laptops, and I remember thinking, "I am never going to come up with a topic." The problem for essay five wasnt coming up with the topic, as it turned out, it was articulating my ideas.
        I remember liking the essay Two Kinds, and Dr. Jones enjoyed reading my reading response to it. His comments to my response were, "You do an interesting job of using the entire reading response to interpret one particular aspect of the story and you do it in a way that articulates the larger meaning of the story." So I figured I could take the idea that I articulated in my reading response, and make it as the main idea for my essay. It wasnt that easy, as just picking a topic, and it showed in my first two drafts of my essay five. My first two drafts didnt really have flow to them, but I knew I had picked a topic that sooner or later would work out. I didnt really have this feeling, that I could turn this essay around after my second draft. I went to the writing center, and my tutor helped point out all the sections in my paper that were repetitive, or needed to be changed, because they just didnt work. Then again in class, Dr. Jones, and Heena who read my paper, said that it was really repetitive, which made it very difficult to follow.
        I wanted to keep the same topic for my essay, but I also wanted to create a new way of structuring the idea. In The comments Dr. Jones sent me about my second draft, he wrote, YOU STILL LEAVE THE STORY BEHIND VERY QUICKLY. REMEMBER, YOU CANNOT ASSUME THAT YOUR AUDIENCE HAS READ "TWO KINDS." So I thought of a way in which I could stay with the story a little while longer, and still stay with the idea of the essay, which was two kinds of worlds for men and women. I picked the last paragraph from the essay which originally gave me the idea of two kinds. I think it was this decision that helped me transform my paper. I got into a flow with the essay, my paragraphs were connecting with each other, and I was able to completely eliminate the receptiveness that was in my second draft. Then last night, I proofread my essay a countless number of times, to find the grammar and sentence structure problems I always have. After about the tenth time proofreading my essay, I was positive that there were no other grammatical problems I was going to find, but that didnt mean they werent there. I went to the writing center this morning to review my essay, with someone. After reading the first page, she said, "Have u proofread this essay, Im not finding any problems." She did find two really small problems, but it made not only confident in my writing ability again, but for the first time in my writing career I felt confident with my use of grammar and sentence structure.
        The confidence I had built at the beginning of this course, and then disappeared, was back. I feel more confident in my writing ability now than I ever have before, and I think it is a good way to go out in preparation for freshman English 1201 in the fall. I remember my tutor telling me at the writing center today, "oh! Were going to enjoy 1201 English in the fall, someone knows how to write!" That made me very confident about my writing abilities.
                                                                                                                                                                          Joseph Brazina

        I am probably going to make the same points I made in the previous assessment essay. So here it goes. I have loved the reading assignments. I thought this whole class was going to be about writing so when the first response assignment was assigned I was so excited. I enjoy this new idea of reading for meaning. It actually helps me to retain more information. If I am in close tune with the reading then I am better understanding with what the author is trying to say in their piece. For example, in Nina Berman's essay, "Disappearing Acts", I was emotionally affected by the title of this essay. I couldn't believe how Berman referred to women with bulimia and anorexia as disappearing. I used to have this problem with reading where I would zone out of anything I was reading. Even if the topic were interesting I would still zone out. Now with this new way of reading for meaning I never seem to zone out anymore. It's amazing now that I have the ability to do this.
        I think I need to do my assignments in drafts. I never used drafts before. I always just handed in the first thing I wrote. I think by doing this I can see where my topic is going and make sure that it relates to the overall whole. With my first essay this took a little getting used to but I think it is like that with all new topics.
        I realize that I still have trouble with conclusions and I will never forget the notes we took in class about what a good conclusion does and how it does it. Especially when we used Naomi Wolf's essay (because I really like her writing) and described how she echoes the beginning of her essay. I never knew how exactly to "restate what I already said in the body of my essay"; like a high school teacher always said. Don't get me wrong I still need to practice this technique but at least now I have identified what the technique is.
        I think being able to go over each other's essays is a great thing to do in class. But I think it should be done anonymously. After certain classes where you put their work on the projector they were very embarrassed that their name was made known to the rest of the class. In my case, I didn't mind. I think it helps to relieve the tension in the classroom when everyone is trying to figure out whose paper is really on the board. Allowing each other to see what each other is writing helps to formulate ideas for your own papers.
        Metatexts really helped me a lot. I finished writing an essay and then I would begin to write the metatext and it was like I already new what had to be revised. I think it gave me a head a start on all of my essays especially essay 5. I really new what I wanted to do with this essay it was just a matter of being able to get my words down on paper with out sounding like a fool.
        All in all, I enjoyed the course immensely and look forward to a new start in 1201. I feel I will be able to use this knowledge I learned to benefit in my future writing career.
                                                                                                                                    Jena Rand