Reflect on writing (1)

Writing Task PC1+ Version 01/02              SUK1/Group5/Kercher/November 27,2013   

Studying at the Department of Translation can be very challenging. It starts off with the first day where you already realize how bumpy your road through your program is going to be. Finding rooms, colleagues and internet-links is challenging itself. However, after some time you familiarize yourself with UGO-system, teacher expectations and the building. Studying languages offers a variety of fields to dive into, such as the culture and history, as well as grammar and pronunciation of them. Time management will be the essential tool for you to master your studies. Spend enough time with your languages and take the opportunity to go abroad. Being creative but structured in learning your languages will help you to be a successful student at the ITAT.

[123 words]

Improved version 1:

Studying at the Department of Translation can be very challenging. Already on the first day you experience how bumpy your road though the program will be. You are lost in the building and are not able to find the right classroom and at home you struggle with the online system of the university to register for classes. After some time, however, you will overcome all this obstacles of the beginning and can focus on your languages. Studying languages is not just about grammar and vocabulary, you also have to put a great amount of time into studying the culture and history of the countries where your languages are spoken. The essential tool to spend equally enough time with each of these aspects of your languages is time management. It is helpful to make weekly-schedules to manage your time and additionally have an overview of the work that has to be done in order to master the course. Being structured and organized helps you to master all the challenges when studying at the Department of Translation.

[177 words]

Improved version 2:

Studying at the Department of Translation can be very challenging. On the first day already you experience how bumpy your road though the program will be. You are lost in the building and are not able to find the right classroom and at home you struggle with the online system of the university to register for classes. After some time, however, you will overcome all these obstacles and can focus on your languages. Studying languages is not just about grammar and vocabulary, you also have to put a great amount of time into studying the culture and history of the countries where your languages are spoken. The essential tool to put equally enough effort with on your  languages is time management. It is helpful to make weekly-schedules to manage your time and have an overview of the work that has to be done in order to master the program. In short, managing your time efficiently and being organized help you to master all the challenges when studying at the Department of Translation.

[174 words]

The original paragraph was written during the first progress check. This one of the first paragraphs I have ever written in English. Not surprisingly it has a terrible structure, vocabulary mistakes and no coherence; above all it is way too short. To practice how it would have been an acceptable paragraph to pass the prograss check, I rewrote and improved it. The second version, in my opinion, is much more cohesive. However,  a continuos line from the beginning to the ending is still missing. In the third version, I improved the mistakes I made in the second version due to thinking in German. All in all: although the first paragraph cannot be considered to be successfully written, the third (and improved) version is quite acceptable to me.

My biggest problem with writting is that I take to long to finish it. I am never satisfied with what I have written and spend too much time on editing as well as on the preparation. I practiced this particularly for the exam as I tend to be very nervous while taking it and hardly finish on time.
I will continuosly work on this as I enjoy writting and aiming to pass the course.