Finally...

Well its that time of year when classes are ending and we are moving on to a new set of classes. We sometimes stop and think what we learned throughout the semester and question if they were worth the time put in or if they were just a waste of time. In English 103, we learned about rhetorical analysis. For me, it was a completely different type of style of writing than I had ever done before. I went to a relatively small high school so the teachers all made sure the styles of writing throughout the four years was similar. In the beginning of the semester, I liked the class a lot. The project where we had to pick a movie poster or album cover was by far my favorite. This project really taught me how to analyse a multimedia object. I realized how to analyze something using ethos, pathos, and logos. The rest of the semester for me was sort of pointless. I have never been a fan of research papers and when we started them, I sort of gave up in the class and got really far behind. I delayed a lot on the paper so by the time we started to have to turn things in, I was to far back to want to catch up. If I could take away one thing from the class, it would most likely be the research paper. The project at the end of the year was good. The multimedia project was a good way to sum up everything we have learned and the techniques to use. Also, the way we got to pick the topic and make it how we wanted was good because it made the project more interesting and personal. A factor that made the class really great was the kindness of the teacher. She was very nice and understanding. She was also funny and could joke around when necessary and be serious when need be. This made the class a lot more enjoyable and made the environment a more comfortable place to be. The only thing that would have been nice but not completely necessary would be more baked goods. We got brownies once or twice but it would have been awesome to make it a weekly thing. Another thing that I noticed was that a lot of the days were just work days. During the heart of the research paper, we would just walk into class and told to work on the research paper. I do not know if other students felt the same way, but this would make me not want to come to class because I felt like I could be more productive in a place like the library or my dorm room. I feel like those days we should have done an activity from the book. I feel like quizzes from what we read should have been given more frequently. It would have been a good incentive to come to more classes and keep up an easy grade. But other than that the class was good. I also noticed that each project we had to do assessments of our peer's works. This idea is good at times but I feel like too much emphasize was put on them because they were graded and done every project.

I wrote 556 words.

This class did help me become a better writer.  I worked more on these papers than any paper I ever wrote in high school and felt pretty confident about them.  I really only learned a few new tricks to make my writing style better.  For example, I think my comma usage has improved drastically.  I have also learned to get over my irrational fear of using the semi-colon.  I even learned to use a semi-colon to make my thesis incorporate a second element.

Additionally, I have learned the value of transition statements when starting new paragraphs.  I used these statements anytime I began a new argument.  My quotations now have more consistent introductions rather than just existing as a sentence floating in the middle of a paragraph.  

In addition to my introductions, I have learned to not rely so heavily on block quotes to fill up space.  In high school, every paper I wrote consisted of at least one block quote to help me fill up space.  I would also double space my header to fill up even more room.  Now I find that if I think through my thesis and come up with logical arguments I have very little trouble filling up several pages.  I no longer use these petty tricks for that reason.  The fact that all the papers you assigned had a word count requirement rather than a page requirement may have also helped kill this habit.  

Overall I think this class has helped my writing evolve into a much more organized form.  I fill my papers with well thought out logic and refrain from using informal writing.  I feel prepared to write more papers next semester and earn good grades on all of them. 

In regards to the other aspects of this course, I found some of them to be tedious and unhelpful.  These blog posts are perfect examples of this thought.  I consider myself to be a good paper writer.  I think things through and use proper grammar (for the most part).  By having these blog posts simply be a completion grade it is allowing me to goof off and avoid working hard on this assignment.  I can honestly say that if I looked back at any of my blog posts over the past semester, with the exception of the Halloween one, I would be repulsed by the awful rambling quality they all possess.  My laziness thanks you for this wonderful gift.  

In regards to the readings, I can honestly say I read most of the time.  I also have the worst luck because every time I did not read we had a quiz.  If you quizzed every time then people may start to take these assignments seriously.  I would recommend you find a new book because the one we had to read was highly redundant.  There is really only so much you can say on the topic of rhetoric and the book finishes anything original after it defines the pillars.  The visual chapter was really nothing more than common sense. 

Boom!  I have officially exceeded 500 words.

P.S. You should make the class do more activities like the vampire vs. zombie debate.  Watching power points and videos tends to put people to sleep.  Force people to participate and they tend to do it.  

P.P.S. Thanks for all the baked goods!

The end

English 103 was my second class the first day of college and we just got the syllabus and reading homework like the class before. I thought this class would be the worst class with a lot of reading and essays to do like in high school. However, while the semester went on it turned out there would just be little reading assignments in the textbook that we never really used, blog entries every week, and just three big writing assignments. I thought the class would also be really boring but our teacher was young and active in teaching the material so it was not awful to be in.

As far as things I learned in this class, rhetoric is probably the main thing that I learned about throughout the course of the class. So this class did a good job in what we are supposed to know and understand about expressing ideas in a way to sway an audience. I realized that rhetoric is everywhere and is difficult to get away from in this era of multi-media immersed surroundings. This idea of rhetoric was evident in all of our assignments throughout the semester. The first major assignment was the rhetorical analysis paper on a subject matter of our choosing which I thought was good for creating an argument that I can relate to. The second major assignment was the research paper on an argument and rhetoric analysis of visual. This paper was more like the papers I had in high school that were supposed to be really long and informative on the topic. The third project was a group project that was about convincing the audience of an idea which involved rhetoric yet again. This project was good to see how working in groups can be in college; even though there were only three of us in a group, we still got the project done with a lot of work put into it.

Things that were bad about this course were buying the textbooks because they came with an access code that we never used. I did not really use the textbooks much, but that is probably why I did not do so well on the quizzes we had on the readings. There is not anything else that was bad about this course. I thought it was good that our teacher actually graded our work and not just gave a completion grade like some of the other teachers that I have heard about. Although that made the class a little more difficult, it is still good for making sure that we know how to write and communicate effectively with an audience.

Learning about the writing center was also something that is helpful because I will not be taking many English classes or classes that require writing so when the time comes when I need to actually write a paper, I will know where to go if I need help. I think having more group assignments would be good throughout the year so we can learn how to work effectively in a group setting.

Evaluation of English 103

This English class was not what I expected my first college english class to be like. I figured we would read a lot of novels and write about them as I had in many other english classes in high school. But this class was exactly the opposite of that. It was really nice to have a younger english teacher; that doesn't happen often for me. I really liked it when we watched Youtube videos and had class discussions. I also enjoyed the multimedia project we just did because it required us to use creativity and it also gave me a chance to make a video which I haven't been able to do since high school. Overall this class was not extremely difficult, I think it introduced us to writing in a format that is expected in college. I did not get much out of the textbook we had probably because I never really read it. I'm glad we never had quizzes on the book but personally without being held accountable for my reading I hardly ever do it. The outside of class work we were assigned was good and I liked that fact that we weren't swarmed with busy work to do.

What we learned in this class coincided at times with what I learned in my other classes at times and that was kind of cool. My communications class was discussing the way that things are said and how words can be spun in our favor which I felt like was part of what we were studying. This class wasn't nearly as hard as I expected it to be. I feel like you did a good job of giving us enough time to get our work done and none of the deadlines were unreasonable. I don't think this class was that kind of class but I miss reading and I wish we would have had a few novels to read but that will probably be in another english class.

Some days when we had class I felt like we didn't really have that much that we had to do in class and it would have been better to just have time to work at home instead of coming to class. But that said you did cancel class sometimes and we did have in-class work days. For the most part this class was relatively painless and taught me a some about persuasion and how people use rhetoric in everyday life. I never really noticed how much rhetoric there was in everyday life and to be honest I wasn't even sure what the word really even meant. So yes I did learn important things from this class and luckily it wasn't too hard. For someone who doesn't even want to be a teacher your pretty good at it. I liked the idea of blog posts and the last one especially helped me with my project so that definitely was a good thing. Sometimes class was a little unorganized and I would say that was the only bad thing I can really say about the class. It was a good class though, thanks for putting up with us:)

Sweet Sorrow?

Coming to college, I was just short of terrified at the thought of beginning my first college English class. In high school, I had always been friends with older students who, for better or for worse, skewed my opinions on almost everything after recounting their experiences to me. Especially when it came to my schoolwork. For four years, I knew exactly which classes to take, which classes were easy, which classes to avoid like the plague. But after graduation, their guidance was gone and, with no preconceived notions, I naturally assumed the worst. English in college would be terrible: a new paper due every week, extensive analysis on every aspect of the literary world, and there would be hot coals and we would be forced to walk across them despite our tender freshmen feet. I was filled with pure dread.

But this first semester has been nothing like I had imagined and I find it difficult to describe the relief I feel. We had far fewer assignments than I had initially anticipated but they still managed to fill my time quite nicely. Not having to read novels and then tear them apart for symbolic content was exceedingly refreshing and a welcome change form the English classes I had taken in high school. I think that the curriculum broke up the components of these assignments in a way that made them extremely manageable and produced better papers overall. I believe that because of the class structure and feedback I received I have grown significantly as a writer. Next to the absence of hot coals, this was the most welcome surprise.

Having to turn in the outline of my paper was a blessing in disguise when it came to getting my work done on time. I remember feeling overwhelming stressed out that week and the approaching due date of the outline only added insult to injury.  But when it came to actually getting the work done, it worked wonders. There was something so helpful about putting my thoughts down on paper like that that really helped me to have a better understanding of what my paper should be about. Although I thought it was a colossal waste of my time at first, it ended up saving me so much extra time when it came to writing the actual paper because I already knew what I needed to say. Outlining is definitely going to become a regular practice when it comes to writing papers in the future.

While I really enjoyed my English class this semester, I do wish that it had incorporated more class discussion. What drew me to English in high school was the intellectual debate that accompanied our coursework.  I have always enjoyed exchanging ideas with intelligent minds to further my understanding of subject matter, and while the prospect of ‘intelligent minds’ is a bit ambitious when it comes to a freshman prerequisite course, discussion is almost always helpful on at least some level. It allows the class a whole to grow more comfortable around one another and makes it easier to evaluate the work of your peers when you feel relaxed around them. Arbitrary comments in class are hardly enough to express intelligence and personality to fellow students. I am sure that most of the people in our class concluded that I was some kind of autistic based on all of my sleep related commentary but despite popular belief, I am not. If we had been able to share our thoughts and insights in class more often, I am sure that people would have felt more comfortable with me peer editing their work or working in their group.

Done So Soon?

Coming into college, I thought this English class was going to be the worse course I would be taking this semester. In high school I was not bad at English but I had to put a lot more work into it then my other subjects. At the college level, I thought I would be drowning in essays and reading assignments. Fortunately, my first experience in a college English class was very positive. I felt engaged and thought the course work was just the right amount. While having a few big papers seemed intimidating at first, the process of writing them was not that painful. Instead of reading a novel and writing an analysis about it, we got to focus mostly on rhetoric. I have never focused on this in my previous English classes so I was not sure what to expect. After writing the last two papers though, I can say I really prefer this kind of writing. I enjoyed being able to pix my own topics and argue what I want. I think this was best part of this class because we got freedom to work on topics that we think are interesting.

While I really enjoyed this class, there were a few things I would have changed. Sometimes, I felt that we should have been doing more discussion in class. On a few occasions we did this, such as when we watched the TED talks and gave our opinions afterwards. Also, there were the days in which we spilt the class in half and had a debate. I really enjoyed these days and I wish there were more of them. I think some of the work days were not really that useful. For other people they probably were more useful but for me I think we might have had one to many here and there.

The only thing I wish we did not do in this class is use the textbooks. The textbooks really only seemed useful when we were writing essays since we could use it to better understand how to form arguments and incorporate them into our paper. On the days where we were supposed to read and discuss the reading, I felt that we did not really accomplish much. I think Ms. B was much better at coming up with topics to discuss then the book. Also the topics that Ms. B would come up with to discuss were always more interesting and would get more people talking such as when we discusses Halloween costumes. On those days, class was very enjoyable and I think there should have been more days dedicated to that then discussing topics in the textbook.

Being a physics major, English is not my top priority but I was able to take away some valuable information from this class. While I enjoyed learning about rhetoric over novels, I think the most useful part of the class were the essays. Before this class I knew about thesis statements and topic sentences but this class really helped me improve upon them. I do not think I learned anything new about writing papers but I most certainly learned about how to improve my writing and my arguments. I think I am a better writer now and I also think I can do a better job editing my own writing to find mistakes or weak spots in my arguments.

Overall I enjoyed this class more than most of my other classes. At the beginning of the semester I could not wait to be done with English, but now my opinion has changed. This class was nothing like what I thought it would be and so thank you Ms. B for being such a great teacher. 

First Semester, Over Already?

                English has never been my favorite subject, to writing papers, reading a book or analyzing what a piece of advertising makes the audience feel.  As a first semester freshman was dreading the thought of having to take an English class.  I’ve always been known for my math ability.  My friends would mock and laugh how bad my papers sounded.  It destroyed almost all confidence I had in myself as a writer.  But, thanks to this class I think I finally understand why. One thing is, I had never been able to write what I want to write or read what I want to read.  The last research paper was something I really did enjoy, (Social Networking), because it was a topic that interested me.  I spent more time writing it than I ever have on any other paper.  And I think it’s the best thing I’ve written to date.  I still have a long way to go in developing my writing skills, but I feel this class has helped me more in effectively getting my point across.  That has been your goal since day one; helping us to communicate with others in an effective manner.  Also, I feel that my grammar skills have improved.  I find myself minimizing the number of times I use weak verbs in a paper such as, “is”, “are” and “was”.  It makes a paper sound much more sophisticated, with something as simple as changing the wording of a sentence.  Also, I no longer write a paper the night before in one sitting.  It is impossible.  I have found my thoughts are much clearer when writing on a clear head. I now have more confidence in my writing and I really do mean that.

                The class it’s self I enjoyed.  I think you are an excellent teacher, and have found a way for me to look forward to class every day.  One thing I have enjoyed in the class has been the random debates in class.  Such as zombies versus vampires, or that mock presidential election we did.  I feel that things like that have helped to get my creative juices flowing.  Also the blog posts, some of the topics have been more entertaining than others.  But overall I feel that they have helped me in thinking of things to write.  I really like how they don’t have to be so formal as a regular paper.  I feel more relaxed when writing a blog post.  I also liked the “Ted Talk” video we would watch from time to time that would be followed by an interesting and entertaining class discussion.  I don’t think I could have asked for a better English teacher.  You are very reasonable with deadlines and easy to approach with a question. 

                At the beginning of the semester I was just hoping to get out of English alive with a B as a best case scenario.  Now, with the grade on my last paper, it is still mathematically possible for me to get an A out of the class.  The thought of that thrills me.  This class I have enjoyed as well as you being my teacher.  I am going to miss this class; it has been an honor being your student.  Thank you.