Hey dear me! I’m you, Jakub and I’m international student from Poland. My major is Business Management and Administration. I’ve come a long way, same as you. From small town in Poland move to NYC to achieve goals; like finishing business degree in US.

You’re after your first semester now. Remember the first class? Well, you was late as usual for first couple classes, but I’m talking about what your professor asked you? What does her last name mean „Bolster”? You googled it there was 2 meanings, a pillow, and a helpful person. As a joke you firstly said a pillow of course. But after all classes with your professor, I can definitely say the second meaning can describe her professor. She helped us many times, being understanding for us. It made the whole class much easier.

Remember what you wanted to achieve in this class? At first it was hard to say, what you wanted because, you never were the best in writing essays etc.. I think you did it, you finally improve our English and starting to write pretty long and interesting essays.

It was a long way, 4 essays, each of theme taught you something.

But firstly, let’s talk about reading, vocabulary, and grammar.

Reading was tough at first, but you’ve gotten better. Remember how you learned to preview, skim, and scan texts to understand them? You also figured out how to take good notes and highlight important information. All of this helped you understand difficult readings.

Your vocabulary has grown a lot. You’ve been reading a lot and using context clues to figure out new words. Writing them down in a journal has helped you remember them. Your improved vocabulary makes your writing and speaking more effective. Also, your professor helped you a lot, forcing you to check every word you don’t know.

Grammar was challenging, too, but you’ve made progress. By studying grammar rules and practicing exercises. It was tough with sometimes sleepless nights, but you’ve become more confident in using correct grammar. Keep it up!

As I said you’ve learned also from assignments. The visual essay assignment taught you how to combine visuals and writing to explain complex ideas. You learned how to use pictures and other visuals to make your writing more interesting. This skill will be helpful in the future because visual communication is important in many fields. 

The critical review assignment taught you how to analyze and evaluate other people’s work. You learned how to give your opinion on a book, artwork, or something else and support it with evidence. This assignment helped you think critically and express your ideas respectfully. 

In the visual essay assignment, you got to be creative. You learned how to use visuals, like pictures or graphs, to make your writing more engaging. This assignment improved your writing and presenting skills. 

I remembered one more thing about this assignment, when Jane said she’s rating an improvement in essays between first and final draft you’ve got a brilliant idea to make a “shitty” first draft, and you did it. First visual essay you’ve made was terrible, and you know that, you didn’t put that much effort in it, but it was on purpose. Jane saw that improvement and your “brilliant” idea actually worked out, but don’t do that again and put 100% effort in everything you’re doing.

All these assignments also helped you become a better researcher. Through the critical review assignment, you learned how to find good sources, especially in CCNY database and use them in your writing. Using the library resources, online databases, and the Internet, you’ve found relevant sources for your writing projects, especially critical assignment when you turn yourself into really tough movie critic. You’ve also practiced summarizing, paraphrasing, quoting, analyzing, synthesizing, and citing sources. These skills have made your writing more accurate and credible. This skill will be useful in your future studies and work. 

One important thing you’ve learned is appreciating the differences in languages among your classmates. You’ve been working together to improve your writing skills, and it’s been helpful to learn from each other’s unique perspectives. Remember your peers? Mathew, Emiljano and Susam? They were awesome, helpful, and understanding when they couldn’t understand your accent.

You’ve also learned how to approach writing better. From planning and drafting to revising and editing, you’ve improved your writing process. Reflecting on your work and getting feedback from your mentioned peers has helped you identify areas to improve.

Throughout the course, you’ve learned about rhetorical situation, tone and purpose, genre, and stance. These concepts have helped you understand different audiences and adjust your writing accordingly. By participating in discussions and doing writing exercises, you’ve learned to express your ideas clearly.

Working with classmates on writing projects has been valuable, too. By collaborating and giving each other feedback and ideas, you’ve grown as a writer and learned to work well in a team.

You’ve explored different type of expression than writing, including visual form. This has shown you how strong writing can be effective in many different contexts, not just in science.

You got a lot of good memories from this class.

Lastly, don’t forget to create a digital portfolio to showcase your best writing. AND REMEMBER BS with write short paraghraphs. This will be a great way to demonstrate your progress and skills to others.

Remember, learning is a continuous process. Keep pushing yourself, seeking feedback, and improving your skills even if it’s your last English class in college. Embrace the diversity of your classmates as a valuable resource for learning. Stay committed to your growth, and you’ll achieve even more as a writer.

Best, Jakub