Before I entered Old Dominion University, I had to take the writing placement and support essay exam in order to get into college composition once I started my classes. When I took the exam, I scored a one and was put into University 150 to supplement my lack of writing skills. To be honest, I preferred reading literature over writing essays or journals when I took English courses in the past. Writing for me is a long process; I am hoping that University 150 prepares me on writing a conclusive paper faster than I normally take to write a paper. Another weakness for me was putting too many commas in my essays because I felt that every pause in the sentence or certain adverbs needed commas to split the independent clauses and phrases. I never went to outside sources when it came to writing essays for my university classes; when Mrs. Isenkul told us that I am required to communicate with people from the Writing Center after I write my essays, initially I thought that it would be too time consuming because I did not know the times available for me. Also, I did not think that I would learn much from going there, but I was wrong because it turned out to be very beneficial in the end. Although the people there could not tell me specifically what was wrong with my paper, they gave me broad ideas to implement and remove. It was nice to have a one-on-one session with somebody that could write great papers; it was nice to see things from a different perspective. Going to the Writing Center helped me write a better paper. Also, I enjoyed meeting with Mrs. Isenkul after our papers were graded because it gave me the opportunity to know which concepts of writing I should focus on in my next paper. She explained where each of my points came from and what sources I could use to help solve my problems in writing papers. The first few weeks of class were a process because I did not know what to expect, but I am finding out that my writing is improving based on my journals and first essay.
