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    Class Reflection

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    api-331173410
    The student enrolled in an English writing class worried it would be too easy, but discovered their writing relied heavily on guessing and lacked understanding of academic writing rules. They learned useful rules and techniques, including how to use COCA to check word collocations, different hedging techniques, and proper paraphrasing through combining ideas and changing grammar rather than just synonyms. The class challenged the student and improved their academic writing skills, such as applying correct collocations and variety in hedges while minding paraphrasing and general rules. They are thankful for learning to produce academic texts in two languages and improving their English writing abilities.

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    Class Reflection

    Uploaded by

    api-331173410
    565 views3 pages
    The student enrolled in an English writing class worried it would be too easy, but discovered their writing relied heavily on guessing and lacked understanding of academic writing rules. They learned useful rules and techniques, including how to use COCA to check word collocations, different hedging techniques, and proper paraphrasing through combining ideas and changing grammar rather than just synonyms. The class challenged the student and improved their academic writing skills, such as applying correct collocations and variety in hedges while minding paraphrasing and general rules. They are thankful for learning to produce academic texts in two languages and improving their English writing abilities.

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    The student enrolled in an English writing class worried it would be too easy, but discovered their writing relied heavily on guessing and lacked understanding of academic writing rules. They learned useful rules and techniques, including how to use COCA to check word collocations, different hedging techniques, and proper paraphrasing through combining ideas and changing grammar rather than just synonyms. The class challenged the student and improved their academic writing skills, such as applying correct collocations and variety in hedges while minding paraphrasing and general rules. They are thankful for learning to produce academic texts in two languages and improving their English writing abilities.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    565 views3 pages

    Class Reflection

    Uploaded by

    api-331173410
    The student enrolled in an English writing class worried it would be too easy, but discovered their writing relied heavily on guessing and lacked understanding of academic writing rules. They learned useful rules and techniques, including how to use COCA to check word collocations, different hedging techniques, and proper paraphrasing through combining ideas and changing grammar rather than just synonyms. The class challenged the student and improved their academic writing skills, such as applying correct collocations and variety in hedges while minding paraphrasing and general rules. They are thankful for learning to produce academic texts in two languages and improving their English writing abilities.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    At a glance
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    The author realized they needed to learn the formal rules of English academic writing in order to improve and avoid mistakes. They learned about tools like COCA and techniques like hedging, paraphrasing, and avoiding plagiarism.

    The author relied heavily on guessing and intuition for their English writing. They mixed up English and Dutch vocabulary and struggled with word choice in essays. They wanted to learn the formal rules to strengthen their skills.

    The author learned to use multiple techniques when paraphrasing like combining ideas from several sentences, changing sentence grammar, and realizing paraphrases don't always need to be shorter. They became more aware of shared/unique language.

    Reflection

    When I enrolled in this class, I was worried that the level of the class would be too easy for
    me. I thought I already had a pretty good understanding of English grammar and vocabulary,
    and I thought my biggest struggle at UC Berkeley would be knowing what was expected of
    me when writing an essay. During this class, I discovered that much of my English writing
    was based on guessing. My vocabulary and grammar knowledge was mostly determined by
    what I would read and hear around me. In most cases, my guesses were correct. But I realized
    that, in order to prevent mistakes, I would have to learn the rules behind English academic
    writing. In this class, I learned many useful rules and techniques that have helped me improve
    my writing in English, and will continue to help me.
    One of the first things that I found very helpful, was to learn about how to use the
    Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). Most of the mistakes that I made in my
    essays were related to word choice. This was not surprising to me, because I tend to mix
    English and Dutch up. Some words are used together in Dutch, that cannot be used together in
    English. For me, it has been very useful to look up collocations on COCA when I was unsure
    of my word choice.
    Furthermore, it has helped me significantly to learn about the different kinds of
    hedging techniques. I realized that I did not vary a lot in my use of hedges I mostly used the
    modal verbs (i.e. can, could, may, might, should, etc.). Now that I know various ways of
    hedging, I can add more variety in my writing and better express what I want to say. For
    example, I practiced using probability adjectives, probability adverbs, hedging verbs, and
    frequency adverbs.
    Also, I found it very helpful to learn about the paraphrasing rules. I think I always
    paraphrased intuitively, and most of the time I got it right. But it is good to be aware of what
    is considered to be good paraphrasing in academic writing. Clearly, it is very important to

    avoid plagiarism, and this includes avoiding (accidently) copying exactly what the original
    author said and pretending the words you wrote are your own. I tend to be lazy with my
    paraphrasing and use synonyms only to make the passage seem like a paraphrase. Now I
    know that it is best if I use multiple techniques when paraphrasing. For example, combining
    ideas from several sentences and making chances in the sentence grammar. I also used to
    think that paraphrases always had to be shorter than the original text now I know this is not
    the case. Related to this, I found it useful to be aware of shared and unique language, and their
    implication for paraphrasing.
    Lastly, I have become more aware of the general rules for academic writing, namely:
    (1) avoid contractions, (2) avoid common words, (3) avoid phrasal verbs, (4) avoid I and you,
    and (5) avoid colloquial expressions. I had never heard of some of these before. Others I
    already knew of, but I was good nonetheless to be reminded of them.
    In this e-portfolio I present two assignments that I have completed for this class. I
    chose these assignments, because I think these are the parts of the class where I learned most
    by actually practicing and putting my academic writing skills to work. Most of the skills I
    have described here, I have applied in these assignments.
    This class has thought me to be more aware of the rules behind academic writing.
    Now, instead of guessing, I know what rules to be mindful of and what recourses I have
    available to me. In contrast to my initial expectations, this class did end up challenging me,
    and I think I improved in my academic writing skills as the course progressed. I will continue
    to work on using correct collocations and using a variety of hedges, while also keeping in
    mind the rules about paraphrasing and academic writing in general. Hopefully, I will keep
    improving during the remainder of my studies, and while I am working on my bachelor thesis
    (in English!) in the Netherlands during the next semester. I am very thankful that I had the
    opportunity to attend this class, because I realize the value of being able to produce academic

    texts in two languages, in addition to being fluent in these two languages.

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