ENG 100C - College Writing

Students Who Have Taken the Course Share Their Thoughts

you need to include your own ideas, interpretations and connections in your paper, so that it isn't just a paper based on facts.  You also should have transition sentences to explain connections between your ideas and the parts of your paper.  You should be able to write at college level.

you need to not wait until the morning the homework is due to do it.  It always takes longer than you expected.  You also need to read each story twice; once to get the general idea and a second time to look at the details.

need to use Diana Hacker's A Writer's Reference religiously and don't wait until the last minute to do the discussion questions.  A well thought out discussion question can help you on your paper.  Also, read other students' discussion excerpts to better understand the essay question.  And communicate with your teachers...a great cure for writer's block.

pay attention in class, take notes, attend each class, pass each draft in on time -- don't procrastinate.  Also, in your papers try to interpret your ideas from the facts given and always try to make connections between things.

explore new ideas presented to you.  When you finally understand the new ideas, you need to expand, show evidence, and interpret these ideas.  Showing logic, cause and effect and connections through transition sentences will really help you in this course.  Also, to do really well, complexity and originality in your writing will help.  For example, raising new ideas not mentioned in class will help hold the teacher's attention creating originality.

be open-minded in the fact when we have class discussions you need to be willing to

understand the task that is at hand and write at a college level.  When you have to read something you should read it two or three times.

make connections between ideas and examples.  This course requires the use of details throughout your writing assignments.  You need to make your own interpretation on the material that you are writing about.  Most of all you should be ready to revise and edit your papers.

make sure when writing your papers to use lots of detail, and be able to back up any ideas you have.  Also, always proofread your paper after you are finished writing it.

be creative with your thoughts and ideas, and explore them with great detail.  You need to develop a good thought on how well you want to do in this course and think about the ways this is possible.  To add your own thoughts, ideas, and interpretations is key to do well in this class.

pay attention to details.  In every paper you write, the professor wants to see your ideas connected together with ideas from the reading.  The professor wants to see all of your ideas and connections written with great detail.

the difference in writing papers in college from papers written in high school.  Also, the idea of relating multiple pieces of writing together with our own words and ideas.

the APA format and taught it to me so I wouldn't have been so confused on how to set up my paper.

to take my time on discussion questions rather than wait until the last minute.  I realize now that my own and other students excerpts would have really helped me if I had taken the time to read them.

the importance of highlighting and marking in the book, so that when you go back to retrieve facts for a paper it is easy to distinguish between each idea.

it wasn't an ordinary English course.  I wish I was told this course was going to make you think of ideas that you have never heard of.  I also wish I was told this course would make you think one thing then change your mind when you're writing it.

to be be more open to new ideas.  I really didn't know what to expect.  I wish high school would have helped me with connections in my writing.

to be ready to revise and edit my papers.

the readings we were going to be writing papers on were very confusing and hard to understand.  It takes time and a lot of practice to write and understand the readings.

how to be successful. It is difficult not having any idea on what is expected of you as a student, and at times you feel lost. So, I wish someone would have told me to write with creativity and originality and explore the many thoughts I had running through my mind on a piece of paper.

about all the conventions of academic writing.  These conventions will help you write a great paper.

I push out left and right those stupid mixed constructions.  So once I came in here my grades on my papers would be better.