Skills to be Learned Part 1

            Since I am a freshman this year the main challenge will be to make that adjustment from high school to college. In high school I took AP English my junior and senior year. Coming into a college English course I feel more prepared for the writing style than I would have if I had taken regular courses throughout high school. I am familiar with using the MLA format when citing sources. I am also familiar with how to integrate my own ideas with the ideas of others by knowing how to correctly quote, summarize, or paraphrase another’s work. I know how to analyze a work for the rhetorical strategies, but that is one of the things I would like to work on. My teacher familiarized us with the different variety of the strategies, but I did not work on them much in high school therefore there is room for improvement. I need to work on using the correct sources and checking to ensure that they are valid. In high school online sources with .com were allowed so I need to familiarize myself with other college level sources.  Another thing that could use improvement is being able to revise my writing. I am used to having to write for time, but I would always write until the end of the time limit and not give myself enough revision time.  I usually write a decent amount when papers are assigned, but reaching twelve pages will be more difficult. Making sure I get plenty of research will aid in making the paper easier to write and add more length. I need to work on expanding what type of sources I use. I have mostly used Internet sources in the past, but since the Internet is not always reliable I could implement more information from other sources like books and newspapers. Being able to check that my sources are reliable will ensure that all the information in my paper is correct and up to date. Overall I need to work on making sure my papers are up to the college level, revising my papers and using correct sources.