Reflection on English 110 and general engilsh writing in my freshman year

When I look back at my first literary critique, which is written only for fun before I came to Agnes Scott and is never handed in, and compare it to my essays after the first year of college with courses in history, political science and English 110, I see an amazing progress on English essay writing, especially the focus of thesis statement and the weight of analysis. However, while I am glad that my improvement is obvious, English 110, a course that really focuses on “literature,” raises a question to me on the issue of international students being forced to learn English writing skills.

My first essay is on Wuthering Heights. This is the first English novel that I analyze in detail, not the first English novel I read obviously. Although it is fairly long (about 14 pages in MLA format), in retrospective, I do not feel good about it at all because there is no thesis. I still remember how ambitious I am on the first essay I am going to write in English so that I tried to include everything in it. However, someday this semester while I am reading the assignment of English 110 on the introduction to different types of literary critiques, I realize how naïve I was of the ambitiousness of my first essay. Even the most profound and experienced critics cannot include everything in a single essay; I dared trying to write an epic? It is a shame to me because it reminds me of an ancient Chinese saying that only those who are ignorant dare try everything. Only after finishing the literary critique on The Storm and a historical analysis on Atonement did I realize how important narrowing down a thesis is. Only by focusing on a suitable coverage of thesis according to the pages of the essay can I really reach the point of making MY argument. That is the first thing I learnt in my freshman year.

The second thing I realize on retrospective of my first essay is the endless quotations and the lacking of analysis. I used to think that by direct quoting, readers will understand the point I try to make because the text is copied exactly onto my paper. However, only after several times of peer editing when I see the same problem taking place on others that I cannot understand what others are talking about did I realize how rarely ideas can be expressed only from quotation without analysis. Or to put it in another way, quotation is only supplementary. It is nevertheless others’ intellectual property. A liberal arts education should teach me how to think critically, not by imitating, but by creating. Probably the difference between studying in high school and in a college is the relationship between knowledge and the students. In high school, we are knowledge importers. We learn what is written in the text books, memorizing facts (at least it is the way in my country, China.) However, in college, we are supposed to transit to a knowledge exporter by providing our own opinions and giving evidence and analysis to support our argument. I know it is a long way to go to be a true exporter; but at least, I am clear of the qualitative difference and it will take time to make quantitative improvement.

While I see my progress in English writing, I become more aware of the gap and challenge for international students studying in a college conducted in their second language. No matter how clear our structure is, how logic our transitions are, and how interesting the thesis statement is, the subtle vocabulary choices and ways of expressions are not that can be learnt in a short period of time. We are not born with an innate understanding of English. There is still a gap between our mother tongue and the second language. While English writing might be difficult enough for English-speaking students, it is MUCH harder for us because language might be our biggest problem in expressing ideas. It always happens on international students that we know what we want to express, but could not find the correct words or the way of phrasing. However, by choosing to study abroad, we are forced to the same starting line with other domestic students. I sometimes question the system of English 110 because it is unfair for us to be put into the same classroom with American students because we are actually not at the SAME starting point. However, is there any better way for us? Nevertheless, we are supposed to, or I would rather say, we choose to get involved into the English-speaking environment as quickly as possible and the learning of how to write in English and all the formats along with is the must-step for us. We have pretexts to complain, but there is no way we can escape.

After the first-year in college, I am happy I have made huge improvement on my writing because that’s the first step to express my ideas and to be a serious critic. I am also aware of the challenges in front of international students but the only way we should choose is to face them and put more diligence into writing to catch up with domestic students. I feel my vocabulary is not diverse enough and I need to learn the nuances between similar words to make my future writing more understandable and clearer. That’s my goal for the summer.