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Professor Marie Webb

LING 12 T/TH 9AM

14 March 2019

Language Self-study Reflection

Learning a new language has never been easy for me, especially when it comes to the

grammar part. I struggled constantly to ensure I used grammar correctly in my essays, lab

reports, emails, messages, or even daily conversations. In order to relieve my struggles on using

grammar and improve my language skills, I did four language tutorials throughout this quarter.

All the tutorials I did are from the book ​Language Power: Tutorials for Writers b​ y Dana

R. Ferris,​ ​which is a book designed for English writers and learners to help them take control of

their writing. The first tutorial I did was “Subjects and Verbs”, which helped me to identify

subjects and verbs quicker and more accurate than before. The second tutorial I did was

“Vocabulary in Assigned Readings,” which taught me how to understand the words, which I’ve

never learned, from readings in a timely manner and effective way. Since my writing has always

been very wordy, I decided to do my third language tutorial on “Wordy Sentences.” From this

section, I understood how to express the meaning with less words, and how to use punctuation

and transition words to divide long wordy sentences into short clear sentences. The last tutorial I

did was “Ideas That Stick Together: Coherence and Cohesion,” which not only explained the

importance of coherence and cohesion in writing, but also provided few methods for writers to

improve the coherence and cohesion in their writings, including using pronouns, determiners,

and keeping subjects and verbs together.

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The learning of grammar has never been so clear and effective before I using the

Language Power​. From the language self-study project experience in Linguistic 12, I understand

that one of the most efficient ways to learn grammar is to implement the learned grammar

knowledge onto the essay I’ve written. Therefore, for my future language study goals, I will

continue using the ​Language Power ​as a reference book, practicing new grammar knowledge

through writing, helping me to achieve my academic success.