Hi blog readers! My name is Devora Siquin and I am currently a sophomore majoring in Psychology and Social Behavior at the University of California, Irvine. And if it is in your interest to know more about me, click on the About the Writer tab. Well so far one of my concerns throughout my school years, is my writing skills which I personally feel are one of my weaknesses. As a matter of fact, my fear of writing papers stopped me from taking any Advanced Placement classes for English in high school. Therefore, when I submitted my Statement of Intent to Register to UCI, I found out I still had to satisfy the Entry Level Writing Requirement. Weeks after taking the placement test, I received an email with the results. Like expected I did not meet the requirement, but I had the opportunity to take Writing 37. As I reflect back at the Writing 37 course, I took with Dr. Haas during my first college quarter, I was able to improve in my writing. Writing 37 was a class that not only taught me how to become a better writer, but how to become a better communicator through various mediums. Now, as I begin my journey through Writing 39C I have more confidence in my writing, knowing that once more with the guidance of Dr. Haas, I will continue the process of becoming a better writer. Definitely, as a writer and a communicator there is always room for improvement! The Language and Grammar Diagnostic Quiz, helped me realize I am not aware of a few grammar terms. For instance, when it came to “comma splice” or “dangling modifier”, I had no idea what they meant. It was no surprise then that I scored an 72% which is a passing score, but certainly not the best score. In regards to writing skills, I believe my writing it is not the best or the worst. During my four years in high school, I would be placed in English Honor Level classes, because I would earn A’s in them. However, I have always felt writing is one my biggest weakness, especially when it comes to in-class timed essays. As I reflect on this, I think I feel this way because I struggle to get all of my ideas, thoughts, and opinions down on paper. For example, when writing an essay, I have difficulties on coming up with my introduction paragraph and also the thesis statement, even though I went through the brainstorming previously. Honestly, the only areas in writing I think I am okay in are spelling and grammar. Without a doubt, the various individual and group presentations I had in Writing 37, helped me not only to become a better presenter but also overcome my shyness and nerves when being on the spotlight. Such course gave me confidence when preparing and giving future presentations; I have seen the results in other college courses as well when it comes to presentations. Despite all of this, I have never done extensive research in any college class, so I am looking forward to the skills I am about to gain with the preparation Dr. Haas will provide. However, I think my close-reading skills are pretty good; whenever I have to read, understand, analyze a text, I like to do it more than once if time permits and take annotations. Nonetheless, I look forward to gaining knowledge in writing and communication, but also in the research aspect. I am confident that with the help of Dr. Haas, at the end of this quarter I will feel very accomplished. One of Week 1’s assignment was to read and annotate various chapter of the TIME article, “The Animal Mind,” by Jeffrey Kluger to have a sense of the topics under the branch of Animal Science. Out of all the chapters I enjoyed chapter 2 “Social Groups” and chapter 4 “Mourning.” Chapter 2 was of my interest because I enjoyed reading the importance of group bonding and community sense within many animals that serves for psychological benefits and physical ones like having a longer life expectancy or more offspring. Chapter 4 from the same article was also one of my favorite readings because it demonstrates that after many years of empirical and observational research, we are starting to uncover that in their own ways animals mourn and feel the upsetting feelings one also faces when losing a loved one.
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