Reflection

When I enrolled in this class, I was worried that the level of the class would be too easy for
me. I thought I already had a pretty good understanding of English grammar and vocabulary,
and I thought my biggest struggle at UC Berkeley would be knowing what was expected of
me when writing an essay. During this class, I discovered that much of my English writing
was based on guessing. My vocabulary and grammar knowledge was mostly determined by
what I would read and hear around me. In most cases, my guesses were correct. But I realized
that, in order to prevent mistakes, I would have to learn the rules behind English academic
writing. In this class, I learned many useful rules and techniques that have helped me improve
my writing in English, and will continue to help me.
One of the first things that I found very helpful, was to learn about how to use the
Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). Most of the mistakes that I made in my
essays were related to word choice. This was not surprising to me, because I tend to mix
English and Dutch up. Some words are used together in Dutch, that cannot be used together in
English. For me, it has been very useful to look up collocations on COCA when I was unsure
of my word choice.
Furthermore, it has helped me significantly to learn about the different kinds of
hedging techniques. I realized that I did not vary a lot in my use of hedges I mostly used the
modal verbs (i.e. can, could, may, might, should, etc.). Now that I know various ways of
hedging, I can add more variety in my writing and better express what I want to say. For
example, I practiced using probability adjectives, probability adverbs, hedging verbs, and
frequency adverbs.
Also, I found it very helpful to learn about the paraphrasing rules. I think I always
paraphrased intuitively, and most of the time I got it right. But it is good to be aware of what
is considered to be good paraphrasing in academic writing. Clearly, it is very important to

avoid plagiarism, and this includes avoiding (accidently) copying exactly what the original
author said and pretending the words you wrote are your own. I tend to be lazy with my
paraphrasing and use synonyms only to make the passage seem like a paraphrase. Now I
know that it is best if I use multiple techniques when paraphrasing. For example, combining
ideas from several sentences and making chances in the sentence grammar. I also used to
think that paraphrases always had to be shorter than the original text now I know this is not
the case. Related to this, I found it useful to be aware of shared and unique language, and their
implication for paraphrasing.
Lastly, I have become more aware of the general rules for academic writing, namely:
(1) avoid contractions, (2) avoid common words, (3) avoid phrasal verbs, (4) avoid I and you,
and (5) avoid colloquial expressions. I had never heard of some of these before. Others I
already knew of, but I was good nonetheless to be reminded of them.
In this e-portfolio I present two assignments that I have completed for this class. I
chose these assignments, because I think these are the parts of the class where I learned most
by actually practicing and putting my academic writing skills to work. Most of the skills I
have described here, I have applied in these assignments.
This class has thought me to be more aware of the rules behind academic writing.
Now, instead of guessing, I know what rules to be mindful of and what recourses I have
available to me. In contrast to my initial expectations, this class did end up challenging me,
and I think I improved in my academic writing skills as the course progressed. I will continue
to work on using correct collocations and using a variety of hedges, while also keeping in
mind the rules about paraphrasing and academic writing in general. Hopefully, I will keep
improving during the remainder of my studies, and while I am working on my bachelor thesis
(in English!) in the Netherlands during the next semester. I am very thankful that I had the
opportunity to attend this class, because I realize the value of being able to produce academic

texts in two languages, in addition to being fluent in these two languages.