After studying English Composition II for one semester, I feel that I have benefited a lot. Because I met a very good professor, he taught us to get out of our comfort zone, dare to express our opinions in class, and taught us in detail how to develop in the face of different essays. I admit that I am a relatively introverted person, and sometimes it is difficult to talk to strangers first. But through group activities, I gradually adapted to this kind of activity and actively communicated various ideas with the group members. It made me feel a change in myself and I am happy about it, all thanks to prof. Jwendlen Z Nivens. Not only a personality change but more experience in writing.

     The first point I got is to develop confidence as a writer. To be honest, I didn’t have much confidence in the class at first. Because as a non-native speaker, I am skeptical about my writing level. Because I don’t know how to develop the direction of the content, whether there is a format to plan the arrangement of articles or paragraphs. So I was worried that I would write poorly. But there is a turning point, the professor will let us have a free writing activity before class every day. He would come up with a topic and let us feel free to write about anything about it. There was no right or wrong answer, we could say whatever we wanted about the topic. This also made me gradually confident in writing. I can freely develop my ideas in subsequent articles instead of writing some general content because I am afraid of being right or wrong. I will add more details and reference examples to support my arguments, thus making my content more fleshed out and believable. So I think it is very important to be confident as a writer.

     The second point I have learned is to develop strengths and weaknesses. For this is a step to make your composition more outstanding. For example, when I first started, the content I wrote was relatively general. Moreover, the article lacks rules and regulations and does not have a reasonable content arrangement. These are my weaknesses in writing essays at the beginning. But after learning this course, the professor taught us many ways to write essays. For example, we need a strong Intro to attract readers’ attention. We can use rhetorical questions or tell a joke to make our introduction more interesting to achieve this goal. Then there is a need for hooks. Many times we are not limited to describing one thing, but more about the details. For example, “seeing, hearing, smelling, touching” and other subjective feelings to describe your feelings at that time, so that readers can better empathize with what you describe. Of course, these are also related to a point “Write a complex and well-reasoned composition in language, style, and structure appropriate to purpose and audience”. Because we first need to know what type of people our potential audience is. Then we will take different ways and detailed details to write different types of articles. Therefore, learning to be good at developing one’s strengths and discovering one’s weaknesses, and correcting them is the correct way to write a good article.

     The last two important points are “Having fun as a writer” and “Engaging in a writing process”. Although many times, we may not be very interested in the topic of the article that needs to be written, and when we have to write, we have to explore more fun. Even if the topic is boring, we can still support our point of view with more interesting examples and facts in it. As a writer, we must make ourselves happy in the process of writing, expressing our favorite ideas and resonating with more readers is our top priority. If you hate this article, you can’t write an attractive and good article with this attitude. At the same time, we must actively participate in the writing process. For example, we will observe the articles of our peers and comment on their articles. Of course, the professor will also give everyone corresponding comments. We need to consult more opinions from peers and professors, because usually what we write is our idea. It’s not necessarily the best and most comprehensive. Through the opinions of others, we can better modify our articles and improve the deficiencies of the articles to get A+ with a higher probability. No one will refuse the opportunity to get A+, right? So I am very grateful that I took this course and let myself learn so many writing skills. At the same time, I learned how to better communicate with my peers and complete group assignments together. All this has benefited me a lot, and I believe that passing this course will have a lasting impact on my future life.