Process

Throughout this semester, I have improved my understanding of reading and writing. Before attending this course, I had no faith in my ability to read, write and speak. I hated to read aloud, write essays and speaking in front of everyone. Whenever I had to read something I had to go back to reread it. Just so I can have a better understanding of what was going on. And be able to tell my fellow classmates what I had learned. Furthermore, my ability to write was also a very low cause for me. In these fields, I made progress by using the textbook “They say / I say” by Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. It included many templates and types of formating. I was in doubt that a book can help you out. To my surprise reading the book help improve my skills by providing templates and explaining why we should do it.
For one of my essays, I made my friend peer review it at least ten times before submitting it. I was afraid that it wasn’t good enough, that my grammar and usage of vocabulary weren’t going to succeed in this course. Each time, I got my paper looked over, I was delighted to know someone caught something that shouldn’t be there. It was usually over some prominent mistakes. Which is why I check to make sure that doesn’t happen. With the help of the textbook and the peer reviews, I wouldn’t have been able to improve my ability as a writer.
As for reading aloud, I tend to stutter a lot. My efforts to try to read perfect gets me nervous and which is when the stuttering begins. My classmates told me that I just need to relax when I am reading. So, for the last few classes, I had been trying to do this. I have noticed a difference between my reading. Also, when reading a passage, I tend to wander off and forget what I was reading. I get very distracted when I read something that isn’t interesting to me. To keep me focused, I started to jot down bullet notes to keep me more aware of what was being read aloud. And when I couldn’t be able to pronounce a word, I would search it up to see how to say it correctly and to get a better knowledge of the words I didn’t understand.