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Hannah King

Professor Brian R. Adler

STACC English 1A #32463

14 June 2017

The End of My STACC Journey

Looking back at my start of STACC English 1A it feels like it happened a century ago, yet

time feels like it slipped through the opening cracks of my hand like a liquid while I attempted to

hold on to every moment I was able to learn. Time has been such a paradox this semester that my

writing has been able to nurture from. This marathon towards the advancement of my education

was full of struggles and moments of improvement.

When I wrote my first in-class essay at the beginning of the semester I was extremely

nervous because that essay was the first essay I had written in months. The memory of how to

gather all of my thoughts and transfer them clearly onto paper had faded into something that

seemed too far away to grasp completely. During the preporation for that essay I found many

struggles because I was still trying to remember just how to use my brain properly in order to

compose an essay. When the time came to submit the first in-class essay of the semester I was

extremely nervous and had thought that I had written the worst essay in existence, but when I

had received the essay with a letter grade I had almost received an A grade. Astonished at the

work I had done, I started to become more confident in my ability to write and on came the next

essay I had to compose for the class.

During the creation of essay two I was ready for the challenge that was brought to me. I

had to bring connections between two novels. I had to connect Singing at the Gates by Jimmy

Santiago Baca to Writing to Change the World by Mary Phipher and in order to begin writing my

essay I had to compose my very own writing prompt. This was unlike any essay I had ever

completed throughout my schooling because I was given the task of creating my own essay
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topic. I did struggle at first with finding ideas about how I could connect the two pieces of

writing in a way that would make sense to the reader, and after countless of errors I had finally

developed a suitable prompt. When I got to work on the actual writing of the essay I realized

how much I had learned from my previous English 100 class because the writing process of an

essay would be extremely difficult and time consuming for me, but now I was able to compose

an essay with ease.

Essay three was by far the most difficult essay of the entire semester because it required an

extreme amount of research for me in order to even begin to writing this essay and this essay was

unlike anything that I had ever written before. I had to research the diction of anesthesiologists

within the American Board of Anesthesiologists. Analyzing the diction alone proved to be a

challenge to me because I could not find any relation to someone who would be in that specific

organization because I am not an anesthesiologist and I lack the knowledge that those group

members have, so I had to use any sort of assumptions I was able to conclude to by searching the

website of the organization and by watching any videos that were up on the site. As well as,

reading any sort of magazines or documents that this organization had uploaded. After digging

through every aspect of this website I was finally able to write my essay. I connected my

organization to the characteristics of John Swales theory of what is able to classify a community

as a discourse community. At first when I submitted my final draft of the essay I was relieved to

have turned in this essay that challenged me at many different levels, but I was also extremely

proud of myself because I had just completed an essay that I had never written before and it

brought me a lot of knowledge of the profession I am in college looking to become one day. Who

knows maybe Ill be able to be apart of this organization some day and that is what my goal is

and that is why I will always continue to write so I can hold on to this knowledge and forever

expand it.

During my preporation for the second in-class essay or essay four I was feeling very
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confident with my writing because I learned during this semester that it is okay to make many

different mistakes while writing an essay because it is impossible to compose the perfect essay

with the first draft that is written, so I embraced any errors that I made from that point on and I

learned how I could improve my various writing weaknesses. With another essay about

connecting articles that I read during this semester I prepared my sources yet again and when I

entered the class I felt more confident than I ever had writing an essay. When I got my results

and the letter grade for my final in-class essay I was extremely shocked because I had received

my first A for an in-class essay. Not giving up on writing really taught me to improve my own

writing skills.

Also writing in my free-writing journal really helped me through out the semester as well

because I was going through many family and self issues that were starting to affect my own

academic performance and by writing about these issues in my journal it really helped me to

bring a solution to the problems that were happening in my life and it allowed me to find some

sort of peace so I would be able to focus on my progress in school. Writing about my own issues

multiple times during the week also improved my writing in the process. Because I was not

censoring my mind I was able to unlock various possibilities that I was not able to before in

controlled writing, so I learned that pouring all of my ideas at once on to paper without holding

my own self back I was able to become a better writer and this helped me overcome the obstacles

that I faced while being in STACC English 1A.

All of the different articles and writing techniques that I learned this semester I will take

with me for the rest of my academic life. Now more than ever I feel more confident as a writer

and I try to encorporate writing into my everyday life. That to me is worth more than any letter

grade I could possibly receive.