Blog 10

This course has to be the most fast paced class I have ever taken and probably will take in the future! When I first signed up for this course I definitely thought that this class would be easy to pass and get a good grade in. Little did I know that I would be staying up late at night writing essays during the summer.

Although this course was fast paced and required a lot of individual, self paced work I am very happy with the result. I have never known myself to be a good writer and actually dreaded writing an essay of any sort. This class allowed me to break out of my "confined writing shell" and expand on a multitude of ideas and genres of essays, some of which I have never even heard of. I think that the first two essays were personally a little more difficult for me because the topics were limited. That forced me to think about the particular given topic choices. On the other hand the second two essays allowed me to come up with new ideas that I was passionate about and expand on those. I learned that it is much easier to write about a topic you are passionate about.

I am most definitely a procrastinator. I always wait until the night before the essay is due to edit and sometimes even start it (hopefully saying this will not effect my grade). It is a habit that I have always have and despite the stress it places upon me I will most likely always have. Procrastinating does do one thing for me, it forces me to actually sit down and concentrate on the task at hand, in this case the essays. I think that in some ways the stress that is inevitable in this short course made me scared about my procrastination habits. Although I did not always physically write something long before the assignment was due, I defiantly thought about it in advance. This small step to me is even a big breakthrough.

I arranged my papers in my portfolio chronologically, from the first essay written to the final essay written. I personally believe this is an efficient way to arrange them because it shows the personal growth I have gained as a writer from the assignments. The first paper was definitely the hardest to write for me even though it ironically was the shortest. I have always been a bit hesitant to get my ideas out in words for a unknown reason. But as the course went on I began to feel more and more confident about my writing ability. The two text references were a definite help to my writing ability.

Although this six week course was not my first choice for an English class I am very satisfied with its result. I feel I have grown not only as a writer but as a composer all together. My problem was never getting my words out on paper, but making sure the words flow together. This course taught me how to keep the paragraphs of my essay clear and to the point. All in all, this course has taught me more than I thought I could have ever extracted from a first year English class. With these new found tools I can continue using these skills in other classes.