Hello World

Hello everyone! My name is Tayven Taylor, 'Tay' for short. I am a first-year computer science major here at UCI. I was born and raised in Michigan; however, I am also a South African citizen. If you would like to know a little more about me, click here :). The most recent writing class that I partook in was a 'Modern Literature' course during my senior year of high school. I learned about poetry from studying the works of Clint Smith. While learning poetry, I learned how to recognize symbolism and explore the deeper meaning that the author hides behind text. This helped improve my writing and analyzing skills; however, I still think that I have lots of room for improvement. As of now, I would like to improve my diction and flow. I feel as though my work can be lackluster and hard to read at times. Additionally, I would like to learn how to thoroughly elaborate on a topic instead of redundantly restating the main points of my work. Although there is a lot that I can improve on, I would like to say that I am an average writer. I think that my biggest strength would be outlining essays and consolidating my points. Moreover, throughout this course, my writing will improve and I will be able to see my progress through the blogs and assignments that I will be completing on a weekly basis. I will also see improvement on my reading and grammatical analysis due to the various Connect assignment that I will have to complete. I received an 82 out of 100 on the grammar diagnostic that was supposed to assess my current level. Although that was not the score that I was hoping for, I believe that I can easily improve my score with more practice. The majority of my errors stemmed from quotations and citations, so if I can improve on that I believe I can get a more desirable score. I am looking forward to seeing how I grow as a writer in this class! I intend to give this course my all and strive to achieve a high grade in the class. However, this is impossible without abiding by the grade contract found in the syllabus. In the grade contract, I am to complete seven criteria in order to receive a B in the class. Some of which includes: participation, completing work on time, proofreading, and more. Additionally, I must work closely with the syllabus. The syllabus establishes how to do well in 39A. Which advises students to make sure that they put in effort and invest time into assignments, get help when needed, stay curious, and not procrastinate. Although this advice is straight forward, it is easier said than done. I will have to work hard to see the results that I desire.