Reading and Writing Challenges and Improvements - Term Paper Example

My reading and Writing Challenges and Improvements As an international student, writing, reading and speaking in English has been quite a challenge for me. With the help of my classes though, I have improved a lot especially in my reading and writing skills. I could say that compared to my initial works, my writing now is far better because the contents of my work give more meaningful expressions and my ideas are well portrayed. In this paper, I will discuss even further the improvements that I have gained throughout the semester as reflected in my earlier papers compared to my writings now as well as the things I need to refine.

I will particularly discuss my developments in practicing critical reading skills, the demonstration of effective research processes as well as my need to further improve on certain areas such as employing syntax and usage appropriate to academic disciplines and the professional world. Critical reading is very important in writing papers. I have learned that when one reads, s/he should not simply read the obvious but should analyze the meanings of the words beyond what is explicitly expressed.

As I mentioned in one of my papers, reading is very helpful to non-native speakers because it does not only inform a person but it also helps in one’s way of writing. When one reads, s/he should not simply be informed but in order to improve in all aspects of one’s speech, the reader should also consider how the ideas are expressed, how the sentences are constructed, how the paragraphs are arranged as well as observe how the punctuation marks are used. Through my reading and writing, I have observed that I greatly improved in critically considering the information contained in my readings.

I do not just read and understand them but I also think about how they are applicable in my present learning and my future situations. For instance, I used to simply read and be satisfied with the information that I have gathered. However, now I could say that I spend more time reading because I spend some time for meditation and analysis for me to understand further what I have read. In addition, whenever I meet new words that are quite difficult, I have to look up the meaning so I can fully understand the thoughts and see the author’s point of view instead of just me understanding what I am reading through my own interpretations.

In addition to critical reading, I have improved a lot in my demonstration of research process, showing my ability in in-text citations and referencing using the MLA formatting style. As I was reviewing my earlier papers, I noticed that in one of my papers, I quoted from an author but I did not use in-text citations. However, I have learned to correctly quote and cite my references both in-text and using a reference page. In addition, I also learned to see what references are reliable and what are not.

The use of the internet is very helpful because it is accessible to most students. However, one should be very observant and well-informed about the unreliable sources such as Wikipedia which could not be used for professional papers such as research. With the works that I did and the lessons we learned in class, I have seen how much I still need to improve in my employment of syntax and usage appropriate to academic disciplines and the professional world. Going through my works, I can see how I constructed some of my papers incorrectly.

There are some sentences whose words are jumbled and therefore, do not make any sense. There are also some words which I incorrectly used in order to express my thoughts. Instead of using an adjective, I sometimes use nouns. I know I really need to work even further with my grammar because I oftentimes give a different message because of this issue. Moreover, my subject-verb agreements and tenses need a lot of improvements. I also have to work harder with my vocabulary in order to use the right words.

I have learned a lot about reading and writing. I have shown my abilities in critical thinking and I believe I have largely improved in this competence. In addition, I have improved a lot in my research skills. I learned how to do in-text citations and make the reference page correctly. I may not be able to say that I have completely perfected the aforementioned skills but I improved a lot on the matters I mentioned above. Furthermore, I acknowledge that I have to improve in my grammar, vocabulary as well sentence constructions.

I know that more reading and writing exercises will help me further on this.