Week 1:Where am I?

Hi everyone, this is my first blog which I will be reflecting on how I did in the 1st week in the writing class.

I am Jiasheng(Leo) Zhu, a freshman who majored in math. English is my second language and I am looking forward to improving it to the next level in this class. To know more about me, check out this presentation.

The last class I took about English is Academic English 20C. It focused on how to write academically, including using the correct format, choosing the right structure, etc.. Among all of the knowledge I learned, there are two of them which I think it's the most important and useful ones: finding resources using online library and using paraphrase to include author's idea.

As far as right now, winter 2021, I still has to a lot to improve as a writer or a communicator. The biggest problem for me is that I always had a hard time explaining the quotes and connect it with my main points. I am not familiar enough with ethos, pathos and logos that I can easily use them to express my thoughts. Although my skills don't allow me to make the details of my writing better, I tend to make a good overall structure. I knows how to arrange each key points based on their purposes to best explain the topic of the writing. This helps me make each key points connected with each other to make my writing look logical.

I did a Language and Grammar Diagnostic quiz this week and the result is about what I expect in the beginning. I got 10 questions wrong out of 50, and 8 of them is about punctuations, something I never really get any practice about and often ignored during writing. For the rest, there is a mistake on the grammar of a sentence which I believe is a careless mistake. The other one is about making sentences more concise, I choose the wrong answer because I ignored the "CANNOT" in the prompt. :( Overall, I need to improve my use or knowledge about punctuations.

This course, Writing 39A, has many core elements from syllabus, course objectives and grade contract. The syllabus covers general information about this class, including how to contact the professor, required textbook and tools, office hours, various policies. It also talks about things we will do in this class and provides some tips. One important thing is that grade with C- or lower is not passing the class. For course objectives, it relates with coursework in the syllabus to set goals for us to achieve during this class. The objective covers reading, writing and learning(listening) from peers. Lastly, the grade contract is an interesting document showing how we will be graded. To make it short, it asks us to show up to class, be interactive and respectful, and complete work on time to receive a 86, which is a B. And if any of these is missing or not done well enough, grade will drop. If one or more of these are done better than expectations or extra credit is earned, grade will be added.