Boiadjian !

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Sarkis Boiadjian
Professor Corri Ditch
English 113B
8 May 2015
My Enriching Journey
Writing essays are not always simple when it comes to me. As I was starting my journey
on to my first year at California State University of Northridge as a freshman, I was still in a
struggling situation when it came to writing essays. I was trying to learn how to write a descent
essay. My first semester essays were not the best by my standards, and I knew that I wanted and
needed to improve. The first essay I had written earned me a C minus. I was determined to
improve my writing skills because these grades were not satisfying to me. My professor,
Professor Corri Ditch introduced new methods and techniques in order to enrich my writing. I
worked hard and improved enough to receive a letter grade high for each major assignment in
English 113A. Throughout the year, I began putting my newly acquired skills into use,knowing
that I was capable of improvement. I started off great with the project space essay and progressed
even further with the project text essay. As a writer, I have improved my writing in significant
ways because of the new ideas I have gathered in this semester which would include proper word
choice, strategic sentence structure, and my use for grammar and mechanics.
Ever since the first semester of English 113B until now, I have been constantly working to
improve the word choices that I've been using in my essays. My efforts have been successful in
such a short amount of time. An example of improvement would be from my project space essay
called Between Two Cultures, I wrote, "Growing up as an Armenian child in the North American

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society has set different views and traditions that have left me wondering which path leads to the
person I really am. Both of my cultures have unique social norms that I am expected to follow as
a member of both groups. The quality and word choice in this statement is higher than those in
my works in the past because I am using a stronger formal tone to describe my position. In my
project text essay The Powerful Bond of Friendship, I state, Although poverty is a major issue
in Guernsey island, people find ways to adapt to the shortages of resources to make the best of
their life during the war with a powerful bond that keeps the islanders close and friendly in order
to get through the war. In my argument, I chose my words carefully and I tried to be descriptive
in order to not leave the reader confused. In the past, my argumentative statements have been
broad and they have left readers confused. Throughout this class, improvement has been my
main goal and I believe that I am achieving to my fullest extent.
Before I started this class, my sentences were sometimes short and choppy. Just like this
one. I had difficulties formulating relevant ideas to include in my essays. Once I figured out what
I should include, implementing the idea or what I wanted to say was the challenge for me. Over
the semester, I excelled in this area of my writing. For instance, in Between Two Cultures, I wrote
Greetings can be the most simple forms of communication, but it can lead to an embarrassing
outcome if one does not know how to greet the person they are meeting. Looking back at
sentences such as these, I realized that I've come a long way in improving sentence structure and
flow. Another example from The Powerful Bond of Friendship, I wrote, Poverty affects many
people when it comes to resources, but it can be overcome with help from friends and allies.
The differences in these examples make it evident that my writing has improved and changes
have occurred in my level of writing.

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Mechanics are an important factor of an essay. I believe that I've come a long way
through the path of improvement. My grammar and punctuation has become more accurate,
making my writing easier to understand and given my writing a more smoother flow. Before I
used to overuse and at times underuse commas, but throughout this semester, my writing has
gotten better. I've come to realize that when I re-read my essay, it becomes more easy for me to
catch my mistakes. Even though my writing has improved, I still have more room to improve my
writing style. In writing there is always more room to improve, especially when climbing up the
levels in courses.
Writing essays is an art. Improving art is difficult but in the case of essay writing, there is
always room for improvement and this is a place where mistakes can one day become
masterpieces. I wouldn't consider myself the Van Gogh of writing, but maybe along the lines of
beginner that is slowly transitioning to becoming a better writer, one step at a time. I have a lot to
learn but after this semester, I feel that now there I am ready to take on higher level writing
classes. I would still be that beginner without the help of the wonderful Professor Ditch, who I
consider as my essay writing role model.