When I first enrolled into UWP, I did not know what to expect. I never liked English classes back in high school so I was not looking forward to it. I was also worried I was going to get a strict professor and fail the class, but I actually got a pretty cool teacher and ended up enjoying the class. I always feel as if I never learn anything in English classes because most of my teachers seemed to contradict each other so I never really knew who was right or what to follow, but in this class I actually did learn a couple of a lot about my own writing. Throughout the course, I learned how to write a research paper, how to analyze different forms of text, and how to feel comfortable with my own writing.
This quarter I learned how to write a research paper and how to analyze text that is going to support my argument. During my highschool years, I never had to write a research paper so learning how to write one was a bit challenging for me, but thankfully it was broken into steps which made the process a little bit easier on me. The research paper taught me how to work with APA format which is very helpful because in other future courses, professors may ask me to use that format and now I can be like “Oh I got this,” and can complete my writing. Another thing this paper taught me was to be selective with the information. For example, when I was looking for secondary sources I found a lot of articles that were very similar, but I had to look for the one that had the information I was looking for in great detail. This also helped me when it came to figuring out what questions to ask the executive board member I interviewed. I did not want to be constantly emailing her a bunch of questions every two days so I took the time to construct questions I knew would help me on my paper. With this research paper, I also learned how to analyze different texts. At first, I thought “analyzing” was another term for summarizing, but I came to find out it does not mean that at all. It actually means to break down a text and find the meaning behind it or to give my thoughts on why that statement is saying what it is saying. I basically have to give my interpretations of it which was a difficult task to do, but the document analysis assignment made it easier to do. Based off the structure and questions of the document analysis, I was able to see what I had to look for and what to keep in mind when it came to breaking down the text and giving my opinion on why the video was created in that specific way. It just made me view it in a critical way instead of just watching it for information purposes (if that makes sense). Of course I am still not the best at analyzing text, but I do now know where to start and what types of things to be looking for in a text so this is something I will continue to work on as I continue college.
One thing I really enjoyed from this class was blogging. At first I did not like them because it contained writing, but now that I think of it, I kinda miss writing them. The blogs made me feel comfortable with writing the way I wanted and did not have to be formal. When we first began writing blogs, I did not know how to start them because I was so used to writing in a specific form that it felt weird being able to write freely, but the idea of being able to do that and not getting points deducted was very comforting. I also liked how the blogs were based off a topic we chose instead of it being assigned to us, although two of them were based off readings. The passage, “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott’s really made me see writing differently. As I stated in my first blog post, my highschool teachers taught me that first draft must be perfect or near to perfect which made it so difficult to meet their expectations and led me to overthinking the assignment and causing me stress, but after reading the passage and hearing what my peers thought of it, it made me realize that your first draft should be shitty because it will give you something to work with when you are revising it and it helps you grow as a writer. This is something I am going to keep in mind when I write essays for other classes so I do not overly stress myself. Of course this is not saying that I will not put in effort when I am writing my rough draft, but now I understand it does not have to be perfect on the first try. This is helpful for students whose teachers were just like mine and wanted their first draft to be great and for any student who feel insecure about their writing. That is another reason why I enjoyed the blogs, it felt nice being able to write and not be criticized on grammar or the way things were worded, you simply just typed whatever came to your mind.
Overall, I really enjoyed this course. I learned a lot from this class, not just with writing, but about myself too. As a student I learned to not be afraid and ask questions about an assignment to your professor because only they knows how they want the work done. Throughout the course, Burke did encourage her students to use her as a resource and would extend office hours to ensure her students had enough time to come in and seek for help. I personally never went to office hours, but I would send in emails asking about the assignment when I was confused. She made it very welcoming to contact her and this experience made me feel a bit better about emailing TAs or professors.
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