Skills To Be Learned

     There are a few skills that I am familiar with while many I need to improve upon.  I am familiar with MLA Formatting, understanding plagiarism, and properly use in-text citations.  As I was growing up, I learned MLA formatting multiple times, from different literacy sponsors and teachers.  While I was in school ( specifically High School) , I learned that plagiarism is one of the most common way people get kicked out of college.  I would like to improve as many skills as I can because I know that a perfect paper is written by good reading and writing skills.  I would like to improve on writing better papers, a better paper is written with more vocabulary, correct in-text citations, correct use of grammar, no plagiarism and so on.  I understand the longer your paper is the better your professor is more likely to credit your paper, the longer your paper is (without redundance) the more value it has.  I would also like to improve on knowing the difference between editing and proofreading, and how to be able to use them and to know what to do when getting stuck while writing as well because I get stuck sometimes in my own thinking while writing.  Getting stuck while writing could be one of the major reasons on finishing papers late and not on time which is why I want to never get stuck while writing.  Knowing the difference between editing and proofreading is very important because a writer can often misunderstand the correct usage of these two skills and might consider them the same.


     Another skill I would like to have as a good writer is using writing as a brainstorming process, that way I can collect general ideas about what i am going to write and go in detail following that.  This process will make what ever I have to write easier because my ideas and thoughts will already be written down and organized.  I want to also learn adapt appropriate voice, tone, and and level of formality as well as the ability to understand how tutoring is different than peer review.  After practicing these skills I will become a better writer and reader.  I think after taking this course I would learn a lot of skills for writing that I do not have or currently weak in.