Final Reflection

I don’t even know how to start writing my final reflection. This semester has opened my eyes to writing styles I hadn’t known before. I came into this class with no expectations. I didn’t take AP English like a majority of the class. I didn’t even take English at a high school. I went straight into Composition 1 and 2. In those classes you are already expected to know about standard academic English. I didn’t know all of the rules and I struggled. This class helped me to learn how to write academic pieces the correct way.

On the first day of class I realized that ENGL 1103 was going to be a class that I had to give my all in. When I first saw the Syllabus I realized that I had never heard of a lot of the writing we were going to do. I remember feeling overwhelmed and contemplated dropping the course. 

One of the first things Megan had us do is create a name card. The first thought that went through my head was “are we in elementary school?” I was sorely mistaking. We were then told to get a “daybook”, a journal. There were two quotes that Megan told gave us regarding the day book. One by Ralph Fletcher that states, “This notebook is a private place to write badly.” And one by John Donne that says, “The point of a notebook is to jump-start the mind.” I took that quote to heart. I wrote a lot of things in this book. One of our first writing in to the days was about Trajectory. There were a few quotes on a handout and we needed to pick one and respond to it. Mine was as follows, “Every city is always changing, on its own trajectory.” - Olafur Eliasson. At first I took this as a literal meaning. Now looking back at the quote and the assignments through the semester I see that it is reminiscent of a person. A person is constantly changing and they have the ability to choose their path and what they want to do.

                This theme appears in my Writing History Response a few times. I realized that I am in control of what my future holds. The writing history response was the first major assignment of the year. When I read what we would be doing on the Syllabus I thought it would be easy to just write. I realized that it was quite difficult to connect school and life events into my development of a writer. I had my first “Aha” moment while writing this paper. I hadn’t realized how much writing truly did help me through life. Writing turned out to be my escape from the world and help me develop into the person I am today.

One of the first things Megan told us that we would be using a lot this semester was Blogger. I was infuriated at first and couldn’t understand why I was being told I needed to blog.  I didn’t want the world to see my writing. I was very insecure with my writing and never let anybody besides my teachers read my work. The first experience with the blog was connecting our timelines for the Writing History Response. I was okay with posting this just because it was a writing piece.

Soon after posting the first draft of Writing History Response we started workshopping on our blog. Nothing had ever scared me so much in a class. I didn’t know these people in my group and I thought they were going to eat my writing alive. During the first workshop I realized that they weren’t out to get me and they too had insecurities with their papers. That night we did a workshop reflection and I soon realized that everyone in my group was there to help me and push on my thinking.

I vividly remember a heated conversation in our class that last in to two class periods that was sparked by SocialClass and the Hidden Curriculum of Work. That was the first time our class really got into a debate that was intellectually stimulating. We all were throwing around our opinions towards schools and how the different classes were taught differently. I then remember we went slightly off course and started talking about Financial Aid and how it needs to be redone. This conversation sparked my interest in others in our class as more than just classmates. I was truly interested in seeing where they came from and delving past the surface of what I could see. This then translated in my writing.

I would write well but there was no depth to what I was writing. As shown in my second draft of my Exploratory Essay. I wasn’t pushing on the topics. I would simply list some facts and move on. There wasn’t any analyzing of the information. Megan would always ask the questions “how?” and “Why?”I was only answering the “What?” and that needed to change.

The exploratory essay was the most challenging piece for me to write. Having to pick three articles and to find and connect a common theme was rather challenging. Taking Montessori and Liberal education models was a no brainer to me. Then adding in Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work seemed like it would support the views from each education system. This piece was hard for me because it took me back to my school age roots where my creativity was suppressed and I could only use facts supported by the article rather than my opinion on the matter. I have always struggled with using the author’s opinion solely.

Our next assignment was the AnnotatedBibliography for our inquiry. When I first heard that we were dong an inquiry project I got excited. I was excited to look up a question that I had always been wary of. I was soon told that we had to focus our question on education and I was upset. The week before we picked our inquiry topics we watched a TEDtalks video about schools killing creativity and then we were given an assignment with a cap on creativity. That was the first time I felt displeased with the course. I loved how free we were in the class and that we were able to speak freely and engage in great conversation; but to then be forced to pick a topic in education for our inquiry seemed wrong to me. Now that the semester is over I can understand why we did it that way. We kept all of our focus on education. It allowed us to push on each other’s thinking because we were all thinking in the same mind set and all knew about the material and the background on the topic.

I had never written and Annotated Bibliography and I am extremely glad we needed to. It taught me that I needed to be thorough and that if I spent the time to make a good Annotated Bibliography that I wouldn’t have to look back at the sources every few minutes for quotes. It was all in one place.

I have always been an emotional writer since I was a little boy. I love to put my heart on the paper. I want everyone to feel what I am feeling while writing. I had never thought about writing a play or script before in my life. When we wrote Joining theConversation Step #1 I thought I would hate it and that I would suck at it. I quickly realized I could go on for days, just like when I was typing my book. When it came time to write Joining theConversation step #3 I knew that I had to write more to my script. I had to add characters and give them more distinct personalities. I completely fell in love with writing a script. I loved that I could make it real and true. I tend to write my actual papers like they are real life so it was a nice way to write the way I do best.

We had to write a letter to an elementary school student answering the questions they had asked us. I forgot what it was like to be a 2nd grader and writing a letter to someone. Sanquan's letter included questions about  if i liked writing and how do I get started writing  In his letter he drew pictures and told me that he writes about what he sees on TV. I soon realized that i was the same way as a little boy. I would be watching TV and see something that captivated me and then I would immediately have to go write a story about it, This allowed me to connect with my youth again and to realize that writing isn't about all the fancy words and hard concepts. It is about what makes you interested and inspires you to write. 

As I sit here and reflect on the semester, I am able to see how I have changed. I came in as a writer that just did the assigned tasks and followed the bullet points on the page, I left as an inquirer that can push on my own thinking in ways I didn’t know that were possible. I am now able to understand the commonalities between articles of major differences. When a person takes the time to take a step back and look at things together the thread is easy to see. This class took me, the little insecure writer and allowed me to see that others are not here to ruin me, but here to help me rise. I can only hope that now that I have some tools to enhance myself as an inquirer if I am able to continue to enhance myself down the road.