What I Learned In My Writing Class

Prior to taking this class, my only real experience with writing consisted of text messages, e-mails, and employee appraisals. Influenced largely by the casual nature of social networking, I never took the time to reflect on my inability to communicate clearly and professionally via the written word. Given the relative success I experienced after dropping out of high school, I never really developed an appreciation for higher education. I worked primarily with my hands and didn’t understand the need to seek colligate writing skills. I planned to make my living off of the skills of my trade and had no intentions of expanding my career opportunities with needless classes. Now that I am in my thirties and lead a large military workforce, I am

Prior to taking First Year Writing, my main approach to writing stood on the principles of a constant formalness, persuasiveness, and providing context. Often too much context. I believe this was primarily due to most of my prior academic writing prior was solely consisted of argumentative writing, which I see as a pro and con. The good thing is that I knew how to make debatable thesis, but not with much use of all of the rhetorical appeal of pathos. Now I believe I approach writing in a much more open way, in the sense that I believe that I am much more versed in writing for academia both formally and informally.

This course was comprised of many learning activities; each was designed to help me achieve the course learning outcomes. I have taken two college English classes in the past; however, it has been several years since my last college class. I have some experience in writing and this class definitely helped me get back into writing. I often have trouble brainstorming and capturing the subject I need to write about. This class definitely helped me overcome the challenges I faced in writing and being able to effectively express my ideas in a clear and concise manner. Not to mention, it definitely helped build my writing foundation through a step by step approach to each assignment. Therefore, this class bolstered my writing and communication skills.

Before taking this class I never liked my English classes more specifically writing essays for them. I didn’t understand much of how to use strategies while writing essays and focuses little on learning it. By taking this class and using the strategies that I was provided with it made taking this class easy and enjoyable while writing analytical essays. I was willing to put in the effort and do my part in order to get a good grade in this English class and it worked. I feel that my performance in an English class has improved significantly.

In December of 2013, I was told that I was not considered for the full-time temporary faculty position in political science on South Campus by Dr. Sonia Nieves because I was not able to teach international relations even though I have graduate level coursework in international relations and Political Science degrees do not specify a focus. I later found out that, this requirement was false and inconsistent with Broward College’s Faculty Credentialing Manual and that Dr. Nieves hired an adjunct faculty member from another campus who had the same degree as me. This left me in the middle of December with no classes for the upcoming spring term despite my ability and record to fill my classes and outstanding reviews by students and supervisors. Dr. Neves also mentioned to me, on several occasions, that it was always a major scheduling “hassle” to be forced to find a downstairs classroom in order to accommodate my ADA needs.

My goals I have set for this class are to use this opportunity to strengthen my research, brainstorming, outlining, and editing skills. I understand that writing is a key concept, necessary to excel in my desired field of work. By the end of this class, I am confident that I will put in the work necessary to sharpen those

Before taking this course in-depth writing and research was a task I didn’t have to perform often. As a result, I never thought about the writing process or the details I put into a paper. E.L. Doctorow said “Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader- not the fact it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.” Reflecting before my technical writing course I would have looked at this quote as just another quote on the internet. Based off some of the lessons I’ve learned in this course to me the quote means when I’m writing I should use concrete details vs abstract. Without the writer saying it’s raining the reader know by the concrete details the writer use.

This semester has proven to be challenging and time consuming, but upon completion it was worth it. Throughout this diminutive semester I have gained a vast deal of knowledge in literature. The topics I have explored this semester introduced me to new information and concepts. Writing a paper can be deemed as a personal challenge, writing is more than mindless thoughts tossed around on a piece of paper. It is a personality of its own, writing is its own art and it truly introduces creative thought. Writing is truly a gift, and will only continue to develop.

I have definitely learned a lot more from College Writing II than I thought I would have. When this class started, I was not excited, because I have never liked writing, and felt that I was not very good at it. Now it’s coming to an end and fast. I always enjoyed coming to class because it went by quickly and was never dull. It started with free writes to help with our fluency, to class discussions, peer editing, and having Dr. White revise our essays. All these of have helped me with the writing process and becoming a better writer.

My contribution to the course material was as follows; First, I conducted a meeting with my team to divide the tasks and set the criteria of the work that needed to be done. Second, after receiving the individual’s deliverables I performed QA and provided both positive feedback and constructive criticism. Third, after providing feedback some team members were reluctant to accept them, so I stepped in and rewrote tables that were not clearly visible, wrote notes on the slides that contain tables and figures that didn’t have any, adjusting the overall format, and selecting a background of the presentation.

Without a doubt the lessons and exercises on time management were the most meaningful to me. They brought insight into why I seemed to be constantly working yet still never really got anything I wanted to accomplish throughout the day finished. I realized the majority of the activities I had been spending the most time on didn’t reflect my values of hard work and self discipline and long term academic goals to be successful in college. This motivated to completely change the way I managed my time by effectively striking a balance between my maintenance, committed, and free time.

“Be a reflective teacher. Honestly look at what you do from time to time. Evaluate the purpose of your role as a teacher.” (Robert John Meenham, 2011)

When I first picked this class I had in mind that I speak another language as well, I might be able to bring a different mindset to the class. I can say that the class was not what I picture or would have liked to be. I imagined more of setting where we discuss more languages and how they shape people and their culture.

“Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.” This is a quote from an Irish poet named W.B. Yeats. This statement can be a powerful force for the life of an educator. As a student learning the art of teaching, I have been placed in a couple of different schools to gain more experience and insight to what I will be doing for a career. This semester, the experience came from a school named Eastwood Elementary, located in rural Pemberville, OH. They have a newly renovated school and state of the art facilities to use. For my field experiences this last semester, I was involved in ProjectSuccess. For this project, we were given the opportunity to tutor certain students to help improve their reading skills. Lessons for each session were provided and I was given two students. I tutored Jessica, a kindergartener and Davis, a fourth grader. Through ProjectSuccess, I have been able to connect theories learned in class to how tutoring was going. Different theories that were connected involve the sociocultural theory, Social Cognitive theory, and Piaget’s theory of Cognitive Development.

When I was in second grade everyone in my class was taught how to read and write in cursive. It was a new experience, we had all just mastered writing in print and then this was thrown upon us. I remember being confused at first as to why we had to learn this, it was like learning a new language. Slow at first until we started to get the hang of how the letters flow.