Links to referenced compositions can be found in “sample work”
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Writing the compositions for this class was where I felt like I learned the most about writing in Spanish, and about my own writing style. Being able to write beyond casual form and conversationally, is a skill that in my opinion, differs someone from being considered conversationally fluent and someone who is also fluent linguistically. My biggest struggle was being able to use my Spanish knowledge to transfer to my writing, while also maintaining proper grammar and syntactical fluency. Something that I really enjoyed about writing these compositions was that I find it sometimes easier to write out my thoughts, as I have time to think about the small details that I often miss while speaking. These include using the correct conjugations of verbs, commas, punctuation, and other grammatical rules. In my composition of Taller 1B, where I write about a self-portrait by Frida Kahlo, I found myself really interested in this topic, and this also transferred well to my audience. I think being able to write about something I am interested in helped me write a better essay. In my rough draft for this essay, I learned some things about writing a more academic and informative essay in Spanish, as I had to use some proper nouns, and more sophisticated vocabulary related to art. This process allowed me to expand my vocabulary and Spanish lexicon even further.
In my last composition, for Taller 4, I chose to write my essay about living in the city versus living in the country. For this essay, we were required to find sources to site, and use them as evidence to support the pros and cons of each, comparatively. I have done compare and contrast essays in English for many years, and have a lot of practice with them, but I have not quite done my fair share in Spanish. This is something I felt was new to me, but also a skill that is important to have while studying the language. Being able to read an article in Spanish, and find information relevant to my topic, and then cite the source according to Spanish reference rules, was something I am glad to have learned. I think this essay may be one of my best, and is also the one where I put in the most work in both my outline (bosquejo) and during the writing process in general. I think doing this writing process for Spanish was slightly more difficult to me than it would be in English, but the challenge was expected, and helped me grow as a writer.
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