Blog5# Guoshiyu

Although it is hard to believe, my English writing ability indeed is enhanced through the ESL 106 course in a short time. I am definitely considered as a top student in China because the teachers cling to see long sentences with exaggerated words and rhetorical devices which I can easily handle. While coming to English writing, the situation is totally changed, especially when I am assigned to write a summary or a reflection paper. Although I can do well in the field of story writings, I do not have an excellent control over the skills and vocabularies in writing summaries and reflection papers yet. Fortunately, materials learned in the ESL class have enhanced the volume of my word bank. Moreover, after completing so many paraphrasing exercises, I am more familiar with the paraphrasing styles and I am able to use them correctly. The coca search helps a lot in paraphrasing and editing. It does not only search proper usage of vocabularies, but also list out many synonyms of the same word. After edited for a third time, the final essay usually consists of the least grammar mistakes. Last but not least, I learned how to avoid plagiarism and academic misconduct, which are very rampant in college. Through watching videos and reading related articles, I realize the bad impacts of plagiarism and academic misconduct. I will beware of the rules and avoid breaking them.

As soon as I got the topics of the digital story, I knew I will choose to write my parents’ life. The research process is easily accessible because the main characters are my parents; I am aquatinted with their characteristics. In the meanwhile, looking for examples of the daily life and photos are not hard for me as the same reason. I would describe the writing process as easy and smooth. I compare and contrast my parents’ extreme personalities at the beginning of the stories to clarify my topic. Then, I suggest some representative examples to illustrate my views. In order to make my story more attractive, I also use some funny narrative to amuse the readers. During the writing process, I pay attention to my grammar to avoid making mistakes. I am satisfied with my story now but if I can vary my sentence structure and words more, I think my story will be better-written and more persuasive.