E - Portfolio 7

Writing in university is very different from the writing I used to produce back in high school. The variation comes from the amount of information to be included in a report or essay. The style of writing is also dissimilar in terms of professionalism. There were two main points that I had to improve on so that I could produce work that was on par with university standards.

The first and main aspect of my writing that I had to change was the amount of solid hard evidence in my writing. I used to express my opinions and relied more on creativity rather than stating the plain facts. I learnt that in university, it is the hard evidence that counts, and not your style of writing. To improve this I had to do more research in finding proper evidence and restrict my opinions to a certain limit.

The second point that I had to improve on was my organization of ideas. When writing university work, one has to organize their writing in the easiest and most chronological way possible. This makes it easier for people to efficiently read through your work without getting lost. This is a good practice for future reports that I have to produce when working. Improving this was the most time consuming for me, but was the most rewarding, as it significantly improved my grades. To develop my organization of ideas I had to write my ideas on a rough paper, organize them chronologically and relevantly before writing the actual draft.

The methods to continually improve my writing techniques is to keep in mind the lessons I learnt during EG1471, and to always ask what the goal of the report or essay really is. The key is to never drift from the topic and to always present relevant sources in a chronological way.

Grammar Mistakes

All throughout my school years, English has been my primary language, but even so I still make mistakes. One can never truly master a language, but with continuous practice one can improve their skills. The reason why I was enrolled into EG1471 was because of my inadequate knowledge of English grammar. Three of the most common grammar mistakes I tend to make are transitions, prepositions and run-on sentences.

I sometimes mix-up between which transitions I should use when connecting sentences. An example includes:
The scientists argued that the prototype was not ready and the boss refused to listen.

This sentence should be:
The scientists argued that the prototype was not ready but the boss refused to listen.

The reason why ‘but’ should be replaced by ‘and’ is because we are not adding information here but rather showing contrast.

I also find prepositions tricky when trying to describe positions of objects relative to other objects. An example of such:
The boy was leaning by the wall.

This sentence should read:
The boy was leaning against the wall.

Here we are not referring to whether the boy is standing beside the wall. We are saying that the boy is leaning on to the wall, with his body in contact with the wall.

The most common error I usually make out of the three has to be run-on sentences. I usually mix up between using commas and semi-colons. An example of the following is:

The professor looked at his watch, and it was time for the exam.

The sentence should read:
The professor looked at his watch; it was time for the exam.

We should not put a comma and the word ‘and’ because if you use one it is not grammatically correct to use the other. Furthermore, these are two different sentences that should be separated.

Hopefully by the time I finish (and I pray) pass my EG1471 course; the practice would have increased my skills in English grammar substantially. It is just like how the saying goes: “Practice makes perfect!”