Evaluation of Writing Skills - Essay Example

Evaluation As an international writing in English, a language which it not my native language, writing college papers has often presented a challenge, as my command is not up to the level of my fellow native-born students. For that reason, writing papers for classes has been a struggle, but not just in the actual writing. The difficulties I have include the act of putting actual thoughts down to paper, of course, but I have also discovered the difficulty of forming ideas. One of the most biggest challenges I have come to face is is discovering how hard it is to attempt to write down thoughts in one language that form in the mind in another language.

One alternative toward overcoming this disadvantage would be to form and write first in my own language and then translate to English, but I think that would not be productive. In fact, I believe it has been a valuable experience for me to learn to both think and write in English. I believe this experience, frustrating as it is, will make me not just a better writer, but a better student. One of the greatest lessons I have learned is the almost magical process of revision. Sometimes when I read, I cannot help but believe that writers just put down on paper what is inside their head, and these first thoughts is what winds up on the paper.

I think maybe a lot of students who are not really good writers think this, and I believe it may be why so many find writing a challenge. I think if more students and children knew that what they are reading was maybe the fifth or tenth or hundredth revision, they would not be so afraid of writing themselves. Revising has taught me the power of making the thoughts in my head turn into what ends up on the paper. Helping me with the revision process has the been the writing center here at school.

Everyone working there has been a great help. They are very knowledgeable and able to share their knowledge. They taught me how to improve what I first put down, as well as helping with simple grammar and spelling. I don't believe I could have turned in on time some of the papers if I had not had the writing center to go to the day and night before assignments. The homework assignments were also very much helpful. They helped me to focus on specific problems that I might have worried about too much without them.

I think the homework really helped me to improve from writing the pepper eating kid to the cafeteria paper. I learned many shortcuts that cut down on the time needed to write papers between those two assignments. I also know that I must thank friends and other students for helping to make me a better writer. I have gone to other students for help after class for help in revising the writing. These students have been writing papers for a lot longer and know what to do. The revised papers that I got from getting help with students was what I turned in and I think that feedback from the instructor would not have been as helpful if it would have meant correcting and commenting on all my original mistakes.

It is a really big help to turn in papers that have improved from the assistance of the writing center and the input from more experienced students. For one thing, it allows me to turn in something that doesn't require a lot of basic editing, but for another knowing that I turned in something better than I originally wrote gives me more confidence. And I think that getting confidence is important in learning writing. Like I said, most people who don't know how to write well lose confidence by comparing their writing to professional writing.

When you know that what you are reading wasn't the first draft, but the result of constant revising, it helps to give you confidence.