English 102 reflections

The Course

When I first read about this course I was intrigued by the fact it was going to use blogging as our media for assignments. The reason for my somewhat excitement was the opportunity to learn more about using internet media. I will admit the first day of class and the extensive syllabus was a bit intimidating and overwhelming. Adding in the service learning aspect added yet more work to the quickly growing list. So I'm faced with the question do I drop this class and find another that might be more traditional to fit my already busy schedule? Never having been one to shy away from work or difficulties I decided dropping the class wasn't an option. With new attitude and renewed vigor I approached the class with the goal of getting as much out of it as I could. The initial assignments were a bit of a challenge for me, learning a new media along with what seems a less traditional writing assignment took more time than I first thought it would. I grunted and stumbled through it though. The feedback I received spurred me on to focus my thoughts and knuckle down to try and do a better job with my next few posts.

Research

During this time I faced the challenges of researching a topic I really had not a lot of interest in at first. As my research methods developed and I learned to overcome the sheer mass of information on the web, most of which I found to be quite useless I began to focus my searching in a more productive way thanks a lot to the professor and students feedback and suggestions. Delving deeper into my subject I found myself growing more and more interested in it and the people it involved. This brought about yet a even more refined way of looking at the research and directed my focus more about the people instead of the statistics.

Writing

Another challenge I faced was being used to short quick posts on the internet using sites like face book. That made me predisposed to keeping my writing short and simple therefore not adding a lot of meat to the writing leaving it rather lacking in content. This hasn't proved too difficult to overcome yet I still try and keep things simple. I prefer talking over writing I could talk a 100 word paper a lot easier than I could write one. (had to fight the desire to insert a J face there)

Reading

The challenge of reading the required text in English 102, whew that's a tough one it isn't like reading a catchy or spirited novel about a subject you really enjoy. I had to teach myself to not just read the words but also break the text down into groups and write notes about it. The first few things we read I had trouble being able to recall anything from it. So I actually had to go back and reread a lot of it. Now I approach the reading in a more problem solving way taking notes about the key things of interest to my writing or researching abilities and ignore a lot of the fluff and filler.

General Reflections

In the beginning I noticed a fair amount of willingness to participate in the class by most of the students. This was exceptional for a class starting at 7:40am. Armed with cups of coffee, and energy drinks Jeremy boldly engages his students in improving their academic writing skills at an early hour that most wish they were still asleep. My favorite morning so far has to be when the discussion inadvertently turns to the analogy of a wine tasting. I could not help myself as the chuckles began but it turns out it was extremely relevant to our tasks in the class because it spoke of perspectives and assumptions of pretentiousness. This often times can over shadow writing and especially while using an online media that potentially the entire world can see. With that said the need to focus ones writing in a way to make a clear and concise point becomes more difficult when addressing a broad range of potential viewers. Normally when writing an academic paper one has a professor as there only audience but this grand and infinitely large landscape we call the internet poses a different challenge.

In closing I look forward to the weeks to come to see how my writing and approach to research and writing improve. I would like to thank my fellow students for their constructive feedback that will no doubt in the long run help me become a better writer.