Final Week

I have learned a lot and improved as a writer in this course, and the most important thing is APA method. Now I know how to cite the name of the author, the year, and put the resources. I am proud that I have made some of the good scores in my writing because I have struggled at the beginning of the class,and I thought I as not going to make it through. I think the impact that I will have for the rest of my life is how to state another's ideas quoting  or paraphrasing effectively, not to copy and say that is my idea.

Writing Center Experiences.

I have some experiences after going to the Writing Center. At the first place, I thought I would, of course, prefer the face o face tutor because I Iike to communicate directly. However, after submitting and getting feedbacks from online tutor, I now prefer the online one. The reason is because when they send me back my final draft with has marked my writing errors, I can see clearly my mistakes and know how should I fix that. Maybe it is also because I didn't have a chance to talk with a better face to face one. I went there two times to see the same person, and she did help me, but I think it was not quite what I was expected. The only problematic with the online tutor is that I have to wait a long period of time to get my feedback, and sometimes my friends couldn't get their results in time. I am taking English 1301 for the next semester, so I m planning to go to the writing center again.however, I will book appointments with a different tutor in order to get better feedbacks, and I will use online tutor also.

Blog Experiences

          I had never written any blog until this writing class. I like this activity because I can write freely about what I think or any think. The best part is I don't have to worry about grammar or punctuations. I like reading my classmates' blogs because I can learn more from them, and it is fun. I also like to know what others thinking about the situations or things. Do they have the same point of view as mine? How would they respond to something or anything? I am trying to get used to the comments, and I think it is a good chance to practice writing English. It also shows how you think about the other's idea. I think without having to make 2 comments would make it easier not just different. However, We as students should not get too easy on our own because we are not going to learn effectively that way. 

Blog #10

 I have 71% of the 1-500 words type, 14% of the 501-3,000 words type, and 15% of the more than 3,000 words type. It was kind of surprised me because I thought my writing had more everyday words. I think I am happy with my result at the moment, but I need to improve more and more to be in English 1301 class next semester. I would like to change most of my content words because I want my writing to sound more academy. However, it is really hard to remember these words because they are long and complicated to me.

Gender Roles

I think Biology is more important in shaping gender roles because we were born the natural ways. Some people say it is easier to change the world than to change a person's personalities.  According to Hamilton McCubbin and Barbara Blum Dahl,(1895)" woman develope breasts and can bear and nurse children; men cannot (Par 9)". This is how we made of, Women are expected to be mothers and take care of the children while men are better at hunting and bring food for families. As a human, we can learn different things and be  different kinds of people, but we can not change how we really are ourselves.  Like Deborah Tannen, man and women are even different in communicating, expect things, and deal with problems. While women tend to have one or two best friends and share their secrets, men prefer to hang out in larger groups and play competitive games.

Ten Years Later

Imagine myself ten years later will be having two twin daughters, and I will dress them alike. I will buy same shoes and clothes for them. Iwill take plenty pictures of them and hang around our home. I will be working as a nurse and trying to make end meets. I will be travelled many places including Australia, Singapore, and Thai Lan. I will be able to speak English fluently. I will be able to make lots more money to support my family and my parents as they are getting older. I think success is when I can be independent in financial and take care of who I love. That might be mean that when I have a lot of money and can buy things without thinking too much. It is when I have time to go for vacation to see the world, to love and beloved. The most impportant I believe that success is when you achived your goals in your life and be happy, satisfied with it.

Library

I have my Library card because it is in the back of my student ID. I did not know until one of my teachers asked me to borrow some books from the library. I usually spend time in the library to study after class time because I think I can concentrate better in the school's environment. When I am surrounded  by people who were working hard with their assignments, I feel like being one of them. Sometimes, I stay in the library to hang out with my friends. I also went to the tutoring center to seek for help with my mathematic. Honestly, I rarely spent time in the library when I was in Vietnam. I found it interesting to sit in the library just to read a book sometimes. However, students in Vietnam don't have the habits to stay at the library and study. They tend to go to a coffee shop to have a drink, discuss their homework, and review their lessons. We don't have the library in town, but in universities. Vietnamese don't read a lot, they tend to talk more than read, I think. That is why they don't often visit the library.

Reading Habits

I used to read novels every day in Vietnamese when I was in high school. However, it has changed now. I feel like I don't have time to read anything here. I remember reading books before going to bed back in Vietnam. My mom always told me to put off and go to sleep because it was getting late, and I had to get up early for school the next morning. I had so much fun exploring  new stories, newspapers, and teenager's tips  at that time. I had to learn about the changing of my body myself due to my parents were shy to talk to me about that. I thought that was the reason why I like to read at the first place. When I grew up, I found out that the internet is a great way to read. I started using facebook and read the news more often. It's so much more convenient to read on my smartphone instead of books or newspapers.  Because of using facebook, I always have something new to read that comes up every time I check. It feels like I can see the world through my small device. How awesome! Moving here, I don't have much time to read, so I don't check facebook page as often as before. I have classes in English, and that are all sources for me to read in English. Other than that, I don't read anything else. I only read my assignments to do the homework as needed. I thought my English vocabulary is not good enough to read a novel which I like the most, so I feel hard to start reading  that much pages in English.

Writing Feedback

It has been a long time since I wrote my last essay in my native language- Vietnamese. Yet I still remember how good my writing was every time I wrote. My Vietnamese teachers said that I can understand well the purpose of the question and give the main answer. I liked to write because I often get good feedback from my teachers. However, writing in English causes me lots of stress. I had several helpful feedbacks from my professors said I need to eliminate my sentences and check my grammar before submitting.For instance,  I had run on sentences, fragment, and wrong punctuation. Writing in English is differently from Writing in Vietnam in structure and grammar. I think my Vietnamese writing stay too deep in my brain, that is why I always have Viet_Eng essay. Another useful feedback was to write down immediately the ideas pop up in my mind and try to  organize them before writing drafts. The only problematic feedback was outlining because for me its a waste of time. All I need is a brainstorming and that's it. I want to save that time for editing.

Culture Shocking

I have experienced "culture shock" in the United State since I came here. I remember there was a time when I first time went shopping at Home Depot and be in an awkward situation. It was a Saturday night, 12th,  April, I did not know that I had to get in line in order to pay for something or ask for help. I was trying to buy a red paint with my poor English. There were a lot of people standing in line in front of the cashier counter , waiting for their turns to come (which I barely understand at that time). All I know was I wanted someone to help me find the exact color to paint the walls in my room. So I walked straight to the counter and wondered what all those people were waiting on. When I asked the cashier to help me, everybody looked at me like I had something on my face. The cashier then told me that I need to go back to the end of the long line and wait to be called like every one else. I was so embarrassed that I wish I could vanish in the air. In addition, it was hard for me to get used to greeting every single time I see my friends, teachers, or even someone on the street passing by. I felt uncomfotable.It was strange for me to be surrounded by cars, and felt alone walking by meself. People drive in their cars everywhere. Another things is tipping. I had never tipped anyone in my country, and found myself hard to adapt this manner. However I was amazed on how everything can be returned for a full refund, and people can carry their purses or backpacks into any store while shopping. I am pleased to experience these interesting things.

Mai's week 2

I used to read my drafts out loud or silently to myself to find and correct my errors in writing. It depends on how much time I have. For example, when I had to write in class, I only read to myself because I didn't want to bother my classmates, and it is also faster to check my draft that way. However, I had to write something at home, I read it out loud, so that I can find my mistakes. Honestly, I used to write a lot in my language, and I feel like I never had enough time to write, especially when I took a writing test. It is so much easier to write in Vietnamese, I rarely feel like lack of words t write. Instead, I had so much to say and always ran out of time to write what I had in my mind. For me, there is  a big difference between English and Vietnamese in using words. English has words that look the same but have different meaning while Vietnamese words are different in appearance and meaning. Therefore, I sometimes use online resources to investigate questions about language in order to improve my knowledge. I tried "Check your grammar" to find my errors in English, and that worked well for me. I think that is the only strategy I use for writing, so I do not know if there are any ways that not work for me.

Week 1

Writing in my language is much easier for me. I was a good writer in my country because I used to write a lot when I was  in elementary school, secondary school, and high school. I also was one of the  five students on top of the writing classes most of the time in my country. However, moving to the United State has changed my writing pretty much due to several reasons. First of all, the way of writing in Vietnamese and English is totally different. In Vietnam,we usually need " the opening" to get to the main points or problems. For example, if someone owed you money and you want it back. Unlike Americans, Vietnamese never ask right away that they need their money back but they would talk about the other things that related to that money such as, how is your work this month? do you remember that you need to do something for me at the end of this week? and so on. Then after a long conversation, they will ask for the money. It is such completed, but  Vietnamese think that is polite. l remember struggling to write first drafts in English was my challenges. Here they tend to write straight to the point and be done with it. My writing was  terrible as you could not imagine. Secondly, lacking vocabulary makes my writing worse. Sometimes it is even harder to write down things that you don't know how to call it. I had the ideas but I did not know how to describe it the right way. I was thinking in Vietnamese and writing in English which made my essay like a chaos. Finally, it is really hard at the first place to determine while writing about the position of the part of speech. In Vietnam, we always put a noun before an adjective but English is opposite. For instance, Vietnamese say book red while American say red book.  I appreciated what I have learned, and I think writing is a fun way to express what you think. The more I write, the more I like American way because it is clear, simple, and shorter than Vietnamese's.