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Sijia Sun

ENGL 1T

Leonard

March 19, 2020

Reflective Letter

I Am Ready

Many of my friends who took the English 1A class have asked me such questions:

What is the difference between ENGL 1A and ENGL 1S&1T? Is 1S&1T a better choice?

Every time they have asked me these kinds of questions, my answer was that 1S&1T was

definitely more suitable for me than 1A. The increase in the difficulty of 1S&1T is gradual,

which has helped me more effectively and allows me to have a relaxed and interesting class

experience while improving my English skills. This semester, I am about to finish English 1T

and welcome the English 1B class in the spring semester. Through the study of 1S&1T, I gain

a lot of knowledge that I did not know before, and my English, especially in writing, has

achieved large progress. Thus, I believe I am well prepared for the ENGL 1B study. Even

though there are still many areas that I can improve in my English, I am ready for ENGL 1B

because the 1S&1T classes provide me with basic college English skills.

Firstly, 1S&1T classes are quite useful for me because I learn a lot from these classes.

And I think the three most important skills for 1B are the following: writing process, MLA

format, and PIE paragraphs. In the classes, we were asked to follow the writing process.

Prewriting expands my thinking and inspires my topic selection. The outline is better to be

detailed because it helps me sort out ideas. And the completion of the rough draft means that

I make multiple changes to improve my ability so that I can write a satisfactory final draft.

Also, the MLA format makes my essay more formal and avoids the risk of plagiarism if

writing the correct citation. The learning of PIE paragraphs let me understand how to express
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my perspectives persuasively. Definitely, these skills have made me an essay writer who can

clearly express my opinions in a prescribed format, and that is the proof of my preparation for

ENGL 1B class.

To be honest, I did a really good job in 1S&1T. My writing has changed a lot because

I was always following what I learned in the classes. When I was reviewing my second essay

“Dance Dilemma” in 1S class, I found one sentence in the rough draft that, “there was a

report on the Internet that a teacher let his student do an action of using the knees to hit the

ground despite of the safety to make the student win in the battle” (Sun 3). As can be seen,

this sentence is hard to understand and even has grammar mistakes. And after asking the

tutor’s help, I changed the sentence to “there was a report on the internet about a studio in

China where a teacher let his student do an action of using the knees to hit the ground in a

dance battle despite the danger to make the student win” (Sun 3) in my final draft. Obviously,

the sentence in the final draft is easier for readers to understand. That is why all the writing

processes are necessary. Comparing to the essays I wrote in this quarter, this sentence in the

essay “Dance Dilemma” seemed still not perfect. In addition, the essay “Music Ease” was the

best essay in my mind in both 1S and 1T classes because I got the highest grade of the class.

To describe NetEase Music, I wrote, “In addition, the daily recommendations continue to

bring freshness to users, so that the song preferences have more possibilities but not just

confined to those particular songs that have been listened over and over again” (Sun 2). This

sentence shows the improvements in my vocabulary and sentence organization. As a result,

with my advancement from 1S to 1T, my writing has changed a lot for me to get ready for

ENGL 1B class.

Without a doubt, even though I gain a lot from 1S&1T classes, I would still like to

work on my sentence structure because they may strengthen my points. I want to know how

sentences can become more formal. In the essay “Friends, Supporters”, I wrote, “It reflects
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that these friends actually worry and care about Miles a lot, but they know they need to leave

a space for Miles and Peter Parker to have a deep talk” (Sun 2). I habitually used the simplest

vocabularies, and the structure of the sentence was too conversational. That is the reason why

I want to mainly focus on this point in 1B.

Consequently, the study of this course is undoubtedly very helpful to me because it

has taught me the basic skills of English writing. Not only did I master the MLA format and

PIE paragraphs, but I also improved on grammar and sentence expression. I believe that my

existing knowledge is enough to meet the challenge of 1B. At the same time, I also hope that

my choice of words can be improved in the study of 1B.

Works Cited

Sun, Sijia. “Dance Dilemma”(rough draft). Foothill College: Sijia Sun, Fall 2019. Print.

Sun, Sijia. “Dance Dilemma”(final draft). Foothill College: Sijia Sun, Fall 2019. Print.

Sun, Sijia. “Friends, Supporters”. Foothill College: Sijia Sun, Fall 2019. Print.
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Sun, Sijia. “Music Ease”. Foothill College: Sijia Sun, Winter 2020. Print.