Personal Narrative: My First Year Writing

First year writing was by far the scariest class for me to attend in my first semester at college. As a typical Middle-Eastern Israeli student, a second language course is the last class they want to take. I came into college with a mathematical and scientific mindset, and when my academic advisor informed me that I had to take an English course I could have sworn my heart sank a little. Writing essay, letters, even emails has always been a tough obstacle for me, primarily because it has little to do with numbers. This all changed after a few weeks in class. First year writing was different than any English class that I have taken in highschool. Unlike my English class in highschool I was not criticized numerous times for my grammatical mistakes, rather I was encouraged …show more content…
Having activities such as discussions in class is extremely helpful for one to improve their writing. For example, after we wrote the three summaries on canvas, we did not act as if “that was it, let us go into a different subject.” Rather, we delved deeper, and listened to everything someone had to say about the matter. We told the student if something did not make sense, and that it should be improved in a respectful manner. By having these discussions my analytical skills improved as well. For instance, in “Living Like Weasels” I was able to understand what the author was trying to explain to us, only after discussing it with the entire class. I realized that the short story was not simply about a simple encounter with a weasel, but that it had a more meaningful message hiding within the text of the story. I then understood with the help of some students that the story was about freedom, and whether we humans have no freedom at all because of all the choices we have. By analyzing these stories, it made my experience in class