English 101 Course Reflection

After orientation week, I was not sure if I was ready for the realities of the college lifestyle. Perhaps my main concern was my writing skills because I did not know what to expect from my English 101 course. Although the course was not simple, it was not extremely difficult due to the fact that I quickly adjusted to the professor’s curriculum and I learned how to balance all my courses. However, I had to overcome several obstacles in order to secure my success in English 101. Before my arrival at Claflin University, I did not know what the college professors would expect from me in regards to my writing. In high school, the instructors taught the students about basic writing skills, but their teaching never went into depth. Therefore, most of the high school students in my class were not prepped with the knowledge that was required for a college English course. Despite the fact that I did not recognize my strength and weaknesses as a writer, I understood that I needed to improve my writing skills in general. After my third week in English 101, I realized that my writing suffered from the lack of details and vocabulary. All of this was revealed to me after my English professor, Dr. Ratliff, made corrections on my first essay. I appreciate the corrections that she made because if
Honestly, my high school instructors failed at informing the students about the correct format for citations. During the course of my high school experience, I never properly completed the works cite page and I did not care to make sure that I was listing the sources correctly. However, my mentality changed when I realized that source citation is a vital part of an essay and an individual could be accused of plagiarism if they did not cite the sources properly. My English 101 professor explained the citation of sources in depth and I was able to use citations