This semester has finally come to an end and now it's time to start to reflect upon the progress I've made throughout this semester and the first two and a half years in college.
Writing skills improvement
For this class specifically, in order to make my arguments more persuasive and less vague, I met with more than three ESL tutors to work on the papers i have written.
When I met and talked with ESL tutors, I found some aspects that I could do to write a better paper. I did have a lot of problems and difficulties, but I can proudly say that I have overcome all of them after interaction with the ESL tutors.
First off, I found that I tended to forget to mention the genres of the works I used in my papers, and I didn't even have a title for the first assignment.
When working with Will Russo on the last assignment, I learned how to appropriately include the genres. When talking about a TV show, we could say "the episode of the show entitled ... ". When it comes to other types of works such as books or documentaries, it is also necessary to inform the readers about the genres of the works. Therefore, not only did I corrected the format, but I also learned something after meeting with the ESL tutors. Feel free to take a look at the examples on the right. On the top is an example of the final version of Assignment 1, with Dr. Arnsperger's comment asking for the genre of the book. The middle is an example of the third paper before I talked to an ESL tutor. On the bottom is the revised correct version. Of course, this is just one simple example from the papers I wrote this semester. In fact, leaving out the genres of the works has been a problem since I wrote the first paper for this class. Now, however, I can proudly say that I have learned to incorporate genres and important details in my paper because they are necessary. Without these details, the readers would be very confused. |
|
Moreover, I found that I had a problem with transitions.
For example, on the right is my first paper.
In the paragraph following the introduction, I used "first and foremost". However, the use was incorrect because the phrase is usually used when we want to talk about something that is more important than everything else. In this paper, I could simply use "firstly". |
Therefore, I paid attention to transition words and worked on them every time I met with an ESL tutor. In the third assignment, I used the word "besides" incorrectly because it doesn't make much sense here. However, after talking to an ESL tutor, I changed the order of the sentences and made better transitions.
Apart from transitions, I had some difficulty with the use of tenses as well. For example, in the very first assignment of this class, when we wrote a paper about the Civil Rights Movement after we finished reading John Lewis' graphic novel March, I used past tense throughout the whole paper. However, after meeting with Alexandra and emailing with Heather, I learned that when talking about something that is mentioned in the book, we usually use present tense. This was a little confusing to me at first since verbs don't change with tenses in my first language Chinese.
Below are some of the examples from the papers I wrote in this class.
In the very beginning, when I just started to write the first draft of the first assignment, Dr. Arnsperger pointed out in the comments that I should have used present tense instead of past tense.
After discussing with ESL tutors, as you can see on the right, I revised my paper and corrected all the tenses I used, and I continued to use correct tenses in the following two papers.
In the very beginning, when I just started to write the first draft of the first assignment, Dr. Arnsperger pointed out in the comments that I should have used present tense instead of past tense.
After discussing with ESL tutors, as you can see on the right, I revised my paper and corrected all the tenses I used, and I continued to use correct tenses in the following two papers.
When reading the comments and talking to ESL tutors, I also found that some expressions I used in my papers are unclear sometimes.
For example, in Assignment 3, I mentioned "effect" and "issue", but they might have confused the readers because I failed to make them clear. What exactly is the "effect" that the background music is enhancing? And what exactly is the "issue" that the documentary Food, Inc. is discussing? Therefore, I paid close attention to make sure my paper is clear to my readers.
Last but not least, I believe that the most important thing I learned from ESL tutoring on how to write effective and persuasive papers is what to include in the introduction and conclusion parts and how to make them compelling and powerful. I was never taught how to start or end papers appropriately. Therefore, I always have very broad, general and vague introductions and conclusions. However, with the help from the ESL tutors, I now have a clearer idea and start to write better introduction and conclusion paragraphs.
For example, as you can see down below, I have a screenshot of the introduction of my first assignment. There isn't something that is really meaningful because there is no thesis at all. i just started the paper as i wanted to. However, when talking to Heather He Wang, an ESL tutor who helped me with my second paper, I learned that a thesis is essential because it gives the readers an idea of what your whole paper will be talking about.
ESL tutors are a great resource out there for me. They have offered me great help so I will definitely continue to work with them together whenever I need help in any of my assignments, but Dr. Arnsperger's comments are very helpful in a way that they provide me with focuses so that I can work on different aspects of my papers with the ESL tutors.
Other improvements
In addition to the writing skills that I have developed in my papers, looking back upon the last two years I spent at Emory, I have also improved my English in listening, speaking and reading, and have developed as a person.
I was a freshman liaison in Emory Salsa Club, responsible for the connection between the Club and Emory. I was also actively engaged in Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity, where I have met and made many warm-hearted friends by volunteering with them. I was also an Emory Student Ambassador. By talking to incoming students and visiting families, I improved my English a lot.
Classes are also a great way for me to make new friends. I like how professors divide us into different groups and let us get to know each other more. For example, by working with Andrea and Derek on our digital story, I got a chance to talk to two super nice persons whom I didn't talk much to during this semester. Even though this semester has come to an end, we all have each other's contact information and can hang out sometime in the following semesters.
By making these friends in college, not only did I improve my listening and speaking skills, but I also learned a large number of slangs etc. Now I've become way more confident than I was before I came to college. I'm becoming very very comfortable reading, talking and using English every day. For example, I use Merriam-Webster dictionary and Urban Dictionary to look up words instead of using English-Chinese dictionaries or Chinese-English dictionaries. Yes, I completely stopped using them because I think sometimes there just isn't a very good word in Chinese to fully explain the English well. When I watch Korean dramas, I no longer go to Chinese websites. Instead, I go to websites that are very popular in the United States and use English subtitles.
Besides, I've always loved watching YouTube videos. I became obssessed with all these funny and hilarious videos and makeup tutorials when I was just a high schooler. Although YouTube is blocked in China, I always found ways to bypass the Great Firewall. In these videos, I learned a great number of slangs and expressions and learned a lot about California because many famous YouTubers are from California.
I have to admit, however, that I became a little bit antisocial this semester because I live off campus and have been super busy. I find it harder and harder to balance between study and social life. I couldn't really have time to volunteer anymore because almost all the classes I'm taking are 300 level classes. They count toward my major and really consume me a huge amount of time. Besides the coursework, I'm currently looking for summer internships in the US. Although I really have much work to do, I always enjoy talking and hanging out with people from different culture backgrounds and learning from them!
I was a freshman liaison in Emory Salsa Club, responsible for the connection between the Club and Emory. I was also actively engaged in Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity, where I have met and made many warm-hearted friends by volunteering with them. I was also an Emory Student Ambassador. By talking to incoming students and visiting families, I improved my English a lot.
Classes are also a great way for me to make new friends. I like how professors divide us into different groups and let us get to know each other more. For example, by working with Andrea and Derek on our digital story, I got a chance to talk to two super nice persons whom I didn't talk much to during this semester. Even though this semester has come to an end, we all have each other's contact information and can hang out sometime in the following semesters.
By making these friends in college, not only did I improve my listening and speaking skills, but I also learned a large number of slangs etc. Now I've become way more confident than I was before I came to college. I'm becoming very very comfortable reading, talking and using English every day. For example, I use Merriam-Webster dictionary and Urban Dictionary to look up words instead of using English-Chinese dictionaries or Chinese-English dictionaries. Yes, I completely stopped using them because I think sometimes there just isn't a very good word in Chinese to fully explain the English well. When I watch Korean dramas, I no longer go to Chinese websites. Instead, I go to websites that are very popular in the United States and use English subtitles.
Besides, I've always loved watching YouTube videos. I became obssessed with all these funny and hilarious videos and makeup tutorials when I was just a high schooler. Although YouTube is blocked in China, I always found ways to bypass the Great Firewall. In these videos, I learned a great number of slangs and expressions and learned a lot about California because many famous YouTubers are from California.
I have to admit, however, that I became a little bit antisocial this semester because I live off campus and have been super busy. I find it harder and harder to balance between study and social life. I couldn't really have time to volunteer anymore because almost all the classes I'm taking are 300 level classes. They count toward my major and really consume me a huge amount of time. Besides the coursework, I'm currently looking for summer internships in the US. Although I really have much work to do, I always enjoy talking and hanging out with people from different culture backgrounds and learning from them!
To conclude, I have learned how to argue more persuasively over the course of this semester. Overall speaking, I'm very proud of what I have achieved in this course and all the hard work that I have done in my first two and a half years in college.