Dear Professor Rodrigo and my classmates,
This was one difficult semester. While I felt as though I was performing
exceptionally well at the beginning of the semester, various personal and
school related issues began to accumulate and this class took a massive blow
around halfway through. Whether or not I
obtain a passing grade is unknown at this point, but this class was extremely
helpful either way.
I’ve never seen myself as an
exceptional writer. Traditionally,
whenever massive writing assignments have to be done, I’ve always done them reluctantly. This class has helped wonderfully. The simple task of allowing me to write about
my own personal field (such as Project #1) improves moral considerably. To be honest, I’ve never cared so much for
reading or writing. It’s not that I have
any disdain for reading. I do actually
read a lot, but most of my escapism has been in film and not so much with
literature.
One thing this class has helped
with is organizing what needs to be done to prepare for a project. I appreciate spending a week obtaining
sources, another writing drafts, before finally submitting a project. This helps me a lot. I would always have a nasty habit of writing
exactly one version of a paper and submitting it with very few if any revisions. This class forced outlines and drafts which
forced me to put more effort in planning.
I feel this helped a lot, especially with Project #2 (which had a lot of
pre-planning involved). Peer review and
revision allowed me to see what other students were doing and use those ideas
in my own projects. Then I could see
other student’s notes on my thoughts, and revise. It was very helpful.
I also enjoyed being able to use different
formats for projects. Not every paper
was submitted in a typical MLA format. I
actually did my Project 3 as a video, which was more akin to my
background. Though that project had
enormous technical difficulties and held me up for weeks. I somewhat regret choosing video.
I’m not an expert yet on
anything. I really enjoyed this class
and what I learned. Not just about
writing, but even about my own field.
There’s still a few grammar issues I have and formatting usually gets
me, but I enjoyed it a lot.
-
- Jon Thomas
