My_Reading_Wxperience

Course: ENGL1102 Name: Huiying Zhong Date: 09/07/2011 My Reading and Writing Experience The improvement of reading and writing ability is a process that needs to be accumulated. My best reading and writing experience happened during the time when I studied in global pathway, and it helps me a lot in my academic journey. Before I took the Advanced Communication class at Northeastern University, I did not know so much about writing in English. Hence, my writing score in ILETS test was very low. I decided to enhance my writing ability, so that I paid a lot of attention to the Advance Communication class. In this class, I did learn so many skills about writing. Firstly, I knew that doing research is the base of a good essay. I need to put something to support the topic of my essay strongly, otherwise readers will feel confuse about what I am talking. I can search the information from internet, books or school library. However, there is another important problem during this process. That is how to evaluate your materials. As we all know, not all the information we obtain from the searching engine is correct. Therefore, we need to which information is reliable and can support our point helpfully. We can judge them from the authors, the publish organizations, the publish date, etc. Secondly, a clear thesis statement is necessary. I understand that I have to make my readers know exactly my viewpoint from the beginning of my essay. And then, it is no denying that an excellent essay can be attributed to a good structure. After studying the writing skills, I found listing an outline of my essay is very good for me to have a logical and well organized construction. What’s more, I have learned plenty of different formats about different kinds of essay as well, such as MLA, APA, CSE and so on. However, the most essential thing is that I learned how to make a correct citation according the requirement of different writing style. In fact, I did not think highly of citation when I was studying in China and I also did not know that I would at the risk of plagiarism if I did not have a proper citation. Therefore I considered it as the most crucial experience in my writing learning process. Turning to reading experience, I also gained a big treasure from the study in Global Pathway. When I was in high school, my reading speed was very slow, so that I always cannot finish the reading assignment in time. However, after I followed the steps that I learned in Advanced Communication class, the situation changed totally. I realized that it was unnecessary to read the words in articles one by one. I could pick out some important information that were needed by the questions and read them carefully. This skill can not only help me read faster, but also more efficiently. In addition, I also learned how to analyze an article. Finding out its topic sentence would be the first step of reading. It can assist me to understand the opinion of author better. The following step is learning the main idea of each paragraph. These steps can help me to know the article in a whole. During the process of reading, I have the chance to learn some new words. It does not mean looking up the words in dictionary, but try to understand what it means according to the relevant sentences and paragraphs. When I am reading an article, I should guess the around meaning of the new words instead of knowing the exact meaning of the words one by one, because this can help me remember the new words more quickly and efficiently. Another big change in my reading experience after I came to Global Pathway is that I have an opportunity to read much more materials which were written in English. For finishing my homework assignment, I have to read a lot of English papers, which I would seldom do in the past. It enlarged my vocabulary and expanded my horizons obviously. After a few months training on it, I found myself could read in English much easier and with more confidence. Advanced Communication class helped me a lot in the accumulation of my reading and writing experience. During the class, sometimes the professor asks us to read some interesting articles before we do the group discussion, debate or presentation. I believe that it can not only help me in practicing reading skill, but also improve my oral English ability. I used to be quit unconfident with my English ability and did not dare to talk with others in English, since I attended the course, I was filled with the power to face those difficulties in my English performance, and has been confident step by step, currently, I can write the essay easily and smoothly, and make them have a good logic to express the facts and my thoughts, at the same time, I feel unhurried in talking with other foreign friends, thus, they can see the special Chinese social customs and habits what I totally displayed to them, I considered that it was really a honor thing for a Chinese to have a Chinese cultural diffusion for others who came from other places in the world. In conclusion, the study experience in Global Pathway program made it possible to develop my English skills and writing level; the experience was benefit for me to take the different courses in Bachelor’s program in Northeastern; made it easy to come into contact with American social things. On the other hand, the foster of my confident will help me to join the different organizations, which would make me know many new foreign friends and get a rich and colorful study career in America.