English 103

            English has never been one of my favorite subjects and so going into a college level English course I expected IB-like papers every week, lots of non-fiction reading, and being forced to learn arbitrary rules that I am unlikely to ever need use of outside of an English class. This class was nothing like I expected. Honestly, this class has made me have less of a dislike for English.

            English 103 was a class that I had the ability to learn from and did. It helped me improve my writing process as well as my writing. I was able to learn how to better construct a research paper and was able to learn what a thesis truly was. The paper aspect of English 103 was not as hard as my brain expected it to be. The papers given did succeed in making me constantly busy though. The visit to the writing center was extremely helpful and I hope that this is included into future classes, though I would suggest incorporating it earlier on in the paper because by the time we had to go there was little the center could do to help us. Also, I loved the interaction and caring that you showed us throughout the class. Very few of our teachers do that and it was nice to see it on a big college campus like Clemson’s. I also really appreciate that when we had many things going on, you would extend our deadlines by a couple days to allow to feel less overwhelmed. I enjoyed this class and its focus on rhetorical analysis though rhetorical analysis annoyed me greatly. This class did a wonderful job in conveying the wonders of English to us and your teaching style was great.

            I wish that we had delved further into the writing process, maybe to the point of breaking it down into steps. Though the process is something we all know, it is something that is easily forgotten in the daily life. This class only touched on the writing process and in fact made it just a reading outside of class. Also, I wish the class had included more discussion. Discussion helps most people when figuring out ideas because they can bounce them off of one another. Also, discussion would have helped the class become more familiar with one another and would have broken those silences that we all hate. This class should have included at least one book analysis. This is a skill that everyone needs to learn that they may not have been taught in high school. Despite these minor things, I loved English 103 and am very glad it was my first college English class. The class was highly developed and helped me greatly in all things English.

            Truly, I am sad to see this class go. It’s hard to believe that this semester is already over. I’m honestly distraught at the thought of leaving this class, these people, and our wonderful teacher. Thank you for putting up with us on our best and our worse days.