"College Composition1" for me is about learning how to read, understand, and write essays academically and professionally. English is not my primary language so I knew there will be struggle along the way. Officially, my final grade will determine how good or how poorly I performed in this course. The real test however, is whether I can retain the skills I learned and apply it in my personal and professional career.

The first essay, a narrative about personal experience, was easy (so I thought) because I don't have to research anything. It's just a matter of recalling events and putting them in writing. However, an excellent feedback from my classmate made me realized there is more to learn. There has to be a "thesis" statement that forms the writer's viewpoint, and a "topic sentence" in each paragraph to lead the discussion and offer supporting statements. Thanks to you, classmate, I learned a lot!

With lessons-learned from my first essay, I decided to pay more attention to details to understand how the next essay will be formulated. This time, the type of essay is "Comparing and Contrasting" things. Again, ready-made topics based on personal experience were provided, saving myself a lot of research. I think I did good this time because of previous experience and based on the feedback and grade I received. I was beginning to have fun!

The third essay, however, brought me back to reality. It's about "Argument and Persuasion" and required "Works Cited" page, meaning lots of research. I chose the topic of Legal Drinking Age and how it will impact Virginia Beach if the law is changed. I think I was able to present my argument well as evidenced by my classmate's feedback. So I enjoyed this one too.

The most challenging and exciting assignment for me is the "E"-Portfolio. Challenging because that was the first time I created a website and exciting because I have always wanted to know how to create one and now I do. It was hard at the beginning but gets easier as I learn the rope. After numerous trials and errors, I finally was able to create a template and modify it as I go. It was so much fun that I almost did not want to stop editing and re-editing the page.

In retrospect, I really learned a lot from this course. I have always been fascinated by how good other people are in conveying their thoughts into words. Each time I come across company memos or official letters from our president, I tried to pick up a thing or two about their writing styles. It always amazed me how then can effectively sum up, in the least amount of words, something that would take me two or three times the material. Composition-111 is great and I highly recommend the course to every college student.