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Karina Orozco
Professor Makarosyan
English 114B
4 May 2015

Dear readers:
Starting the semester off as an English 114B student has really refreshed and improved
my writing in so many different ways. Not only have I improved on my writing but I was able to
improve in many different areas within the English language. Attending California State
University, Northridge straight out of high school being a first time generation college student, it
was a bit scary transitioning to a much higher writing level than what I was used to. I had trouble
expressing myself throughout writing do to being a bilingual student throughout many of my
grade school years, but my professor did an amazing job by improving my writing skills and
helped me improved my understanding of different writing techniques. Now I have extensive
knowledge on how to write a great paper. Not only did English 114B impacted me positively,
now I can read and write at the university level.
At the beginning of the semester, my class had a lot of reading assigned. I personally
dont like to read books much but my professor introduced me to a new technique that helped me
engage to the book. Reading Anzaldua, "Borderlands" and "My Hips Mis Caderas" from the
Contemporary Reader really caught my attention to read due to the very similar assimilations I
was able to tie with my culture. A lot of the reading at the begging of the semester felt very

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personal to me in the way that I was able to feel a part of the story due to how similar many of
the cultures around the world have between each other. Discussing the reading in class was a
great way to help me better understand what I was reading and hearing all the different points of
views many of my class mates had reading the same story was very fascinating to hear. Reading
and sharing what I read in class was also a great way to interact not only with the class but with
the author of the book as well. Getting a better understanding of what the author has to say really
improved my knowledge in knowing exactly what the purpose of the story was. Having done
discussion about the reading as a class improved my weaknesses that I have when I read.
Sometimes I have a hard time finding the purpose of the story and by discussion it in class taught
me how there are so many different ways to approach a reading to better understand the meaning
behind what the author has to say. Personally I believe I would have become a better reader if I
had participated a lot more in the class discussions and annotated the reading in more detail.
Annotating as I read truly helped a lot and I will definitely do it a lot more because it truly does
help.
A few months ago as a graduating high school senior and an English 114A student, my
writing was developing at a pace where I felt comfortable. Nothing really improved as I would
only write in my comfort zone. Starting off in English 144B in the other hand was a big obstacle
I had to overcome. As I was introduced to prompts I was not comfortable writing about, I was
truly challenged to write out of my comfort zone. I remember one of the very first prompt I
received as an English 114B student was an open prompt. There was no outline to follow nor any
topic to start me off. I found myself staring at my computer for a very long time wondering how
I was possibly going to start my essay. My professor was excellent in tutoring me in my
weaknesses as I was able to finally write an essay that was university level feeling very proud of

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myself for accomplishing my obstacle. As the other two essays approached, I was very confident
in myself knowing I had improved a lot in so little time. I really enjoyed visiting the LRC for
essay revisions and student to student peer reviews helped tremendously. All these new
techniques helped me go from basic writing skills to proficient and I cannot wait to advance my
English learning for the years to come. As a writer my strength and weaknesses very between
topics. Throughout the three essays, I felt a lot more confident writing the last essay I was
assigned due to being able to write about a social issue I truly take part in. in the third essay I
wrote about gender inequality and the reason why I enjoyed writing this essay the most was due
to how I was able to connect my personal feelings and reflect that in my writing. By the time
third essay was assigned I had a much better understanding of what was expected and what
needed to be done to create a strong paper. I had enough practice with how to properly cite my
sources as I continue to improve and just the overall experience of writing a formal paper has
truly made me gain a lot of knowledge. I will definitely use all my resources for my future
writing assignment to keep improving and use the LRC as they were such a great help.
Everyone is capable of becoming a proficient writer. My advice to students taking
English 114B is to not let the intimidation get to you. I came from a Spanish speaking house hold
having many obstacles writing a good enough paper to get a good grade but now I feel very
grateful to have such amazing peers and a hardworking, dedicated professor who walked me
thought the proses making me feel welcomed and never left out. Enjoy every bit of what this
class has to offer from the reading to the fun presentations and the essays. It truly helps improve
writing skills and introduces you to new ideas and ways to write university level essays. Not only
does it benefit you academically but also prepares students for when life opportunities presents
itself with a job interview or any professional paper you have to write.

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Overall my experience in 114B has been one to remember.

Best wishes,
Karina Orozco