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Javier Martinez
Professor Corri Ditch
English 113B
8 May 2015
Javier vs. English
Writing has never been my strongest skill, but I was always welling to learn and give it a
try. Coming into my second semester of English I was scared I would not be able to keep up. I
knew the work will be more difficult and challenging, but I also knew I had Professor Corri
Ditch and Allie Turner to help me. I have to say, Professor Ditch and Allie are great teachers that
encouraged my classmate and me to give it our all. Coming from high school to college I can say
I have improved as a writer thanks to both my awesome teachers. I have improve on my essay
structure, analyzing the text, and grammar. Even though I have improve on some areas I still
have room to improve.
An essay structure is important because the structure of an essay is like the road to your
destination. I learn that a writer can be writing a road to Santa Monica but the read may think he
or she is going to San Diego. The structure of an essay is what makes it all stick together and
create a smooth flow. In my passed essays, I did not pay much attention to my structure because
I would just focus on trying to answer the prompts. I would just jump into the essay without any
clue or thinking of what to write. Professor Ditch taught us how to us an outline and how it can
help us organize our essays more efficient. I knew what an outline was and I have used them
before, but I did not see how it would help my writing until Professor Ditch explain it. An outline
is a great way to plan before you jump into an essay. I learn it is best to do an outline, in order to

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great a good structure to your essay. I saw the outline like a summary of your essay that helps
you see if you are going in the right track. For example, on my first essay, project space, I did an
outline that turned out to be going in the wrong direction. The prompt was to reflect on how
culture is shaped by space and how it reflects your identity. Thanks to my outline I saw how I
was not answering the prompt.
I was never confident or good at analyzing text because I thought you had to be good at
English. However, I learned that analyzing text is all about thinking outside the box but still
finding a way to connect your ideas with the text. The thing that help me out the most was that
Professor Ditch created a safe environment for everyone to speak freely. This gave me the
strength to speak in class and analyze text. Being able to analyze text gave me the chance to
improve on my writing because it gave my essay good evidence to support my claim. On my
second essay, project text, my classmates and I had to read a novel called The Guernsey Literary
and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, to analyze the text in
order to write our essay. For example, I used a quote that showed Juliet, a character form the
novel, being masculine and going against traditional gender norms to support my claim. But I
analyzed it to help me even more, I said By not conforming to traditional gender norms, Juliet
had moved from just caring about her appearances, like Isola, but has developed masculine traits
and became more confident with herself. By analyzing this text I made a stronger connection to
my overall argument.
Grammar has always been my villain since I can remember. English is not my first
language, which made it harder for me to learn. Similar to other aspects of English, I was not
confident on my grammar and even scared to let others know. I knew the basics of grammar and
some more advance but never really knew why these rules matter. On this second semester I

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really got interesting in finding how grammar works. I learn more on how to use semi-colon,
colon, subject verb agreement, and not to do a comma splice. I did know about grammar but I
did not knew the full extent of it. Grammar is another piece of the puzzle that helps me build a
better picture to the reader. I learn a semi-colon is used with two similar related independent
clauses. A colon is used with two independent clauses but want to emphasize the second clause.
Subject verb agreement is when the subject of a sentence has to agree with the verb. Finally a
comma splice is similar to a run on sentence but is when two independent clause is join
incorrectly by a comma. I used to overlook grammar because I did not know much about it and I
plan to keep practicing it. Know I know I have sites like Purdue Owl to help me if I ever forget
or need to practice some more.
I am sad this semester is coming to an end, but I am glad that I got to take something out
of it. I never thought I would start to like English or even miss this class. I have learn a lot both
semester and I plan to use this new and improve skill on my next chapter in school. I have tried
my best to improve and I will continue to learn more. . I would like to take this time and say
thank you Professor Ditch for believing in us and helping us improve as a writer and as a person.
I am thankful to be a part of your class and know that I will be practicing Kaizen.