Monthly Archives: December 2019

Debesh Pant

Writing was always an obstacle for me. I hated it for as long as I can remember, hated it even more after I moved to America. You see I wasn’t born here: I came to America 5 years ago, yeah I was able to learn how to speak properly by constantly watching shows or talking to friends, but I couldn’t make my writing better by that. Things are different now, this semester and this class was able to help me find my own style.

I don’t like opening up to people, I don’t like telling people how I feel. This is a habit I have always carried. I also have a bad history related to opening up; I truly and honestly only opened up to one person in my life and that person took advantage of that and used it to hurt me multiple times. You need to let your emotions out if you don’t let your emotions out you will hurt yourself emotionally. This class taught me how to open up through writing.

I’m proud of my first essay. Even though my second and third are better I am proudest of my first essay. I was never able to talk about my past, I wouldn’t even try because I knew I would feel very weak and vulnerable. However, I took a risk while writing the first essay I tried to open up; and I was able to do it, I was able to open up by writing and it didn’t make me feel weak instead it made me feel powerful.

When I write, I write with emotions. When I write I want my readers to understand my story. This is my writing style……….

Elizabeth Chase

English 2100

Final Blog Post

December 20, 2019

                          Over the semester, I felt like I did not develop as a writer instead I felt pressured to be a writer that I wasn’t. I felt my voice was always oppressed. Although I know that my grammar was not always the best, it was definitely terrible. I have a distinct way of writing style and it always seemed to not be enough. My grades were definitely affected by it, but it’s all good because the SEEK writing consultant always liked my papers.

           The paper I’m most proud of is my research paper. I put in so much work and effort into that project. I was also very interested in social mobility and how it affects minorities. I did a lot of extended research towards how minorities are always at a disadvantage, and no matter how much funds are invested in lower-income neighborhoods, there will always be a cultural bias and discrimination. This project I hold very dearly because, as a Latina young adult, I want to know the opportunities I have in the real world. I want to see if I will also be affected by the difficulties of social mobility in America. While this is the paper I am most proud of, it was also the project I also had the most trouble in. I struggled a lot during the process of this paper, especially coming up with a question that was not broad. 

One of the biggest topics spoken about in this semester was identity. I really enjoyed reading and discussing how parents have a major role in our education. The way parents have the ability to shape our identity such as  Mother Tongue. Mother Tongue was my favorite reading because it resonated with me so much. I realized that I have a specific way of speaking with my mother and I did not realize that before reading Mother Tongue. I’m glad that during my first English semester, we spoke a lot about identity and I really did appreciate that. As first semester students, I felt that it was important to speak about our identity, to remember our roots, and what makes us, us. 

Towards the end of the semester, I definitely developed as a student and friend. Going into my first semester of college, all I heard was to learn how to manage my time. I took that very lightly and really did not practice those skills. Now it’s the end of the semester, and I wished I practiced that skill more. For my next semester, I’m gonna improve my time management skills and make sure I hand in most of my assignments on time. I’ve come to realize that it’s very important to have these skills because you are prioritizing correctly and using your time wisely. I have also had great improvement as a friend. This semester I made 2 amazing friendships, and these friends have taught me a lot. Having people skills is necessary for real life, and being social expands your network. College has taught me that no questions are stupid and I can make mistakes and improve moving forward.

Something to know about me is that I am not a really good writer. I often struggle a lot in grammar, being descriptive, and analyzing. So when taking my first college English class I knew I was going to struggle because a college English class was going to be a lot different than my previous one. I am also not good at vocabulary I tend to use simple words and not high vocabulary. So something that can change over the course of the semester is that yes I still make grammar mistakes but not as much as I used to before taking the class. Also, the work we have done in class has helped me be more analytical. I often read things but don’t really see a meaning but this class has helped me analyze what we read. Which has improved my writing because I now I’m able to analyze a reading and write about it. In addition, I am also able to write more now then back then. I used to struggle in meeting the writing requirements in high school. But now I’m able to write the amount of words I am supposed which is something I have improved in. One work I am mostly proud of is my third paper. Although it may not have been the best one due to the grading. I am really proud of it because in that paper I did research and I learn many new things. It was not a paper where it was just for my English class and I had to do it because I had to. But it’s a paper where I was able to learn about the different types of parenting styles and how it can affect someone. I was able to read about something interesting and write about it. I still struggle with grammar, I make many grammar mistakes and it is something that I’m planning to work on because as a college student, my grammar should be better than what it is. I would say I’m a decent writer compared to how I used to write back in high school. I feel like I have improved but there are still things I need to work on.

We did various reading in English class and I learn a lot from each reading but one issue that has stayed with me is the struggle to learn a new language. I also went through that situation of learning a new language and adapting to it so I know it’s a struggle. The first story we did “The first day” was a story that I was able to connect because I basically had the same story with my mother. She didn’t have an education but wants the best for me just as the story. The concepts of Identity and representation are important in society because it basically is an image of ourselves, how we are seen by others. My identity really has not changed over the course of the semester.

My first semester in college has been alright, I realized that it’s true what everyone says that one must actually sit down and study for a test and you just can’t take a test without studying. I saw this with math, at first I didn’t really study for my first two test and I didn’t do great on them but for my last two which was the last math test and final I did take some time and study and I’m very proud of the outcome. At first I thought I was going to fail my math class and that I would have to retake the class but it didn’t happen and I would be able to move on to the next math class. Therefore this is something I struggle with during the semester but it is also rewarding because I improved. Something that college has surprised me with it’s time management. I bought an agenda where I write down the things that I need to do and it has honestly helped me alot. It surprised me because I’ve never really owned an agenda,, i thought that they were not useful but now I know I am wrong. Therefore this semester has taught me a lot and I have grown as a person both in my personal and academic life.

Carolina Castillo

English 2100

12/20/19

My Very First College English Class

            English has always been one of my weakest subject areas ever since elementary school. I’ve always struggled to keep up with the class in terms of the content of a book or a novel we were reading. Comprehension is something I’ve always had trouble with. As a seven-year-old girl, if a teacher were asking to me “what was the book about?” It would be the hardest thing ever for me to answer. But here’s my English class journey at a college level.

Junior year in high school, I decided to challenge myself and take an AP (advance placement) English class. That way, I was able to experience how it is being in a college level course a few years before college just to prepare myself. In that class however, I failed miserably. I was struggling so much and had to work really hard in order to understand what’s expected in a good essay, and what’s expected in a college level essay. Although I failed miserably, I didn’t want to give up on my English skills. My hunger to be a good writer still stood within me therefore, I took an AP literature class my senior year in high school. This class consisted of writing so many literary analysis papers. Although  this wasn’t my expertise, my failure is a form of practice and a form of improving my writing skills that would be essential for college. The entire point of all these class was to in fact prepare me for that English course I was going to be taking at Baruch College. As my senior year progressed my writing started improving little by little until I got to my very first college English course.

Going into college was one of the biggest transitions for me. Going from being 100 percent dependent by my teachers to being independent and making sure I’m responsible for my own things was huge for me. To be very honest besides my pre-calculus class, I was afraid of my English class as well. Especially knowing it’s one of my biggest weaknesses. However, going into my English 2100 class, it has changed my point of view for English in general. Going into professor Sylvor’s class I knew she had a passion for English and knew the meaning behind understanding different stories. I actually enjoyed my English class and learning how stories can connect to reality and real life situations like “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “Fiesta 1980” and “Mother Tongue”. In my English class, I felt like I had to the freedom to think the way I wanted and not strictly follow a rubric on how to view a story. Which is something that’s differentiable from college and high school. Also, getting the opportunity to go and watch “To Kill a Mockingbird” on Broadway was such an amazing experience and I appreciate the professors for giving us the chance to see the book in real life. To elaborate, writing my essays for this course wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Yes, they were no where near perfection but I’m glad for the effort I put into all my assignments in that course.

To conclude, English 2100 has taught me that English isn’t so bad after all. Ever had that one class where you hated the fact that you had to be there? That wasn’t case at all for this class. It was designed to help us become better writers and I’ll also be using many skills I learned in this class in future English classes at Baruch College. However I’m not saying my writing is awesome; I’m saying that I have so much room for growth and improvement in English that I’m willing to work on.

Sunny Gan

This first semester has really taught me a lot. As a writer I can see that I have improved a lot. In the beginning I had trouble meeting the minimum length requirements and trouble analyzing and digging deeper into quotes. I am most proud of my 3rd assignment. It was my first time writing that many pages and im proud of myself for reaching that length. Even though this was my proudest piece of work, it was also the one I had most difficulty with. It was very time consuming and I couldn’t really find quotes that worked well with the structure I wanted. I still struggle with the length requirement and analysis part of writing.

One discussion that really stuck with me was that I create my own identity. The things I do and the things people think isn’t who I am. My identity as a student has shifted and changed a tremendous amount in a good way.

 It is now the end of the semester and I have really grown as a student. I was slacking and now i realise that college requires 100% of my effort. The most difficult part was to time manage everything going on. There were so many deadlines and tests, my brain was frying. It surprised me a lot when I saw the amount of work that needed to be put in, my high school never gave me this much work. In the beginning of the semester I really thought I was going to get by with a breeze, but no. I had to put in a lot of effort even though im really lazy and procrastinate a lot.

Lauren Flores

Professor Sylvor

English 2100

December 18, 2019

         My First English class Experience in College

               Going into my first English class of my undergrad years I was very nervous. I have always loved my high school English classes because they were places where I can express my perspective on books, but something I knew this classes lacked was their help with grammar. When viewing the syllabus for my first English class I was scared to find out that we would be working on our grammar. Looking back to the class the ultimate struggle I have had was with grammar because I did not know anything about it. I had forgotten the rules of grammar but when I started using Launchpad it was a great way to make my grammar better. Even though I feel like I grew with my grammar use I still feel I need help with capitalization, and I know it sounds easy, but it really is not for me. When creating the title for this piece I was not sure what words needed capitalization and which didn’t. Over my winter break that is what I will be working on because I do not want the struggle of not knowing to hit me during my second semester.

             We did many readings in our English class, we read literacy narratives which really stuck with me the most. Hearing people’s struggle in learning how to read and write and what it meant to them made me reflect on my struggles and what it meant to me. I knew that my literacy narrative includes struggle, but I didn’t fully reflect until I saw what it meant to Chang-rae-Lee the author of Mute in an English-Only World. Seeing the author narrate how their family was treated made me, upset, angry, and then surprised because I realized that my family and I were treated the same. Literacy narratives were very interesting and made me view my work differently. Seeing people be treated different because they do not know how to speak, read, and write English made me push myself to learn English and to defend those people.

            Something that was challenged the most by my new schedule was my time management because I had everything close to me before. My Elementary, Middle, and highschool were all less than 15 minutes away from me and when I had to go to Manhattan it meant an hour commute. I had my English 2100 class in the morning so I had to get up earlier than usual and make time for things like late trains and long elevator lines. My biggest difficulty became my friend when I learned how to face it. I was only late two times and even then I knew that there was a certain way to approach being late because job and school was important and had certain ways of approach.             

            Being a part of Baruch and SEEK I had a great support system during my first semester. I went to the writing center in the SEEK office when I needed help writing essays and my research paper. I went to SAC tutoring when I needed help with math and communication’s speech. I overall found myself with great resources at Baruch.

             Overall, I think I was successful in my first year or English class and College in general. I built skulls like my use of commas and being on time. I am excited to start my next semester and see what Baruch has in store for me.

As the semester comes to an end, students start to reflect on the work they did during the semester, which is what I will be doing with my English class. I think over the course of my writing has improved and become more professional because my grammar has improved, as well as I am more punctual and careful with how I write them. My essay I believe now are more on the college level as they should be as I continue my journey in college and my English courses. I think the work I am most proud of what my literary analysis paper, this is because I thought that my evidence was really strong when it came to proving my opinion of fiesta 1980. I think the writing project that was the most difficult for me was the first writing assignment because I didn’t have much information and recollection of when I learned English since was at a young age. I think when we started to learn a bit more on grammar and punctuation was helpful and helped make my writing stronger but I could still use improvement with it and make my use of commas, semi-colons, etc. more in reflex when writing so that when it comes to revising y work I won’t have to pin-point those it more carefully. In the future, I hope to continue to write a bit more as writing is an important skill that many should have as it shows maturity, responsibility, and intelligence if someone can write.
Since this semester’s course revolved around the topic of representation and identity I think it will stick with me for a while as they are very important topics that appear on a day to day basis for some people. The concept of identity and representation to me means how you see yourself, based on personality, characteristics, your environment, how you grew up, the culture you were raised in. when it comes to identity and how you represent yourself it is all based on you and to what others think or believe you should be by trying to put you and many similar to you in the same box because even if you might have some similarities all our identities are different.
I think I have made great improvement throughout the semester in this class, other classes and just as a person in general, in the sense that I’ve gotten more mature and responsible and caring for my work a lot more. Being in college has shown me a small insight into adulthood and having to juggle multiple responsibilities without letting one fall. I think one moment that I stretched myself thin was when I had a speech to do the next day an essay due for this class as well as study for a math exam I had the following day so having to make sure I did everything and also be proud of the work I was submitting was a bit of a hassle and had me stressed a little but I was able to manage through it. I think being done with the semester has been the most rewarding because I have been able to finally relax and know I was able to complete my first semester in college to the best of my ability. The whole SEEK and Baruch community have all been a great help in my college experience and have brought upon some good moments and memories throughout the whole semester.

This semester has passed by so quickly for me and as a result I learned so much from my first semester of college.  As for my writing skills, I believe I have improved drastically. In high school, I wasn’t very good at writing essays and other writings but Professor Sylvor helped me a lot and helped improve in areas I was weak with. I took her feedback from my writings and tried my best to apply it for other writings. I’ve developed more as a writer from the help I got in college and even outside of college. I started to read more from books, novels, articles, school newspaper, and even the feedback I got from the writing center. I started to write differently compared from college and highschool. High school writing for my was just answering questions or the prompt and finding evidence. College writing is different. I would have to not just find evidence to support my claim, but also to do analysis to support and connect it back to whatever the paper is asking us to do. A paper that we worked on this semester that I’m most proud of would have to be the research paper. I learned a lot about what my paper was about which was gentrification and I also learned what to look for in a research paper and what to do with the information. I also learned about Baruch’s Library resources that are available for us to use. They are credible and gives us more information about what to look for and what we can write about. One thing I struggled with in this semester was also the research paper. I struggled with where to begin, what to look for, and where I can find credible sources. However, after I read articles, and sources from the Baruch library, I began writing and helped from the writing center. This semester I’ve grown and learned differently from adjusting from high school to college.   

An identity that I have attached to me from this semester would have to be about people representing themselves and people being represented in the eyes of different people. What I mean by this is from To Kill a Mockingbird and how Tom Robinson was innocent and even when everyone in the south of whites thought he was guilty, there was still a white man, Atticus, who believed him and tried to defend him. Atticus was representing Tom, a black man in the white south and who didn’t have much odds in the case, and was defending what was right and trying to fix what was wrong in the system. Racists people convicting an innocent black man for a crime he didn’t do. Atticus showed that there is still white people in the south who weren’t racists and didn’t just view the world as white. I’m continuing to think about does the racists problem shown in To Kill a Mockingbird still exist today? I haven’t much thought about before we read the book in class but ever since I have. The thought about my own identity is clear but really representing myself isn’t so much clear. I open and represent my identity to very few people in my world. That is because not every relationship we have with people is the same. I act differently with every person I come across and it is up to time when I am able to represent my true identity. To meet the demands of college, I had to sacrifice time and people in order to get to where I am today. I had less time to be with people like friends and family, and I lost contact with people who I was close with in highschool. I think the most difficult part of college life isn’t about college life itself but the transition from highschool to college. I have to admit that I still carry some of my bad habits like procrastination from high school that won’t do me good in college. However, I have improved and will continue to improve so I can have a less stressful college experience. This semester showed me what is yet to come and what I need to do in order to be successful. It is only one of many left and hopefully I change for the better and to help me further my goals throughout the years here in Baruch. 

At the beginning of the semester I somehow believed that I wouldn’t change as a writer. Not because I thought I was just that amazing but because I truly didn’t think there was enough time to fix myself as a writer. As I progressed through the semester though I came to realize that my issues as a writer were not that unique and was actually something many others shared. This helped in improving myself because I wasn’t “that far gone”. The research paper actually helped me realize this a lot because it was such a long project that I had no choice but to continuously recheck and reformat it. Whenever I did revise it I would use the opinions of not only myself but others around me as well in order to create an unbiased opinion on the paper. I think the opinions of these people really helped open my eyes to little mistakes I continuously made and therefore improving my skills. While the research paper was the assignment that most helped me improve the analysis paper on the other hand gave me the most challenges. I truly was just not confident about the topic and direction I was going in. I had so many loosely put together ideas but no solid direction and that threw me off heavily. By starting with an unstable base I think the rest of the assignment just went down with it. I had trouble at every direction. Writing simple topic sentences became so hard and ultimately killed my confidence while writing the paper. That’s why I do believe it was my worst work.

While I do believe I progressed overall as a writer there’s obviously still much for me to work on. The most consistent problem I came across in my writing was definitely passive voice. At one point I ran my research paper through the premium version of Grammarly and almost all of the comments about my content were about passive voice. So moving on I do want to focus more on how I word things and create a mindset where I can tell when I am using passive voice. Even now I don’t realize when I use passive voice and could possibly have this entire blog post sound like passive voice. I will change this though because I think it will take my writing to a next level.

When reflecting upon the readings we’ve done in class there’s obviously a theme that is consistent and that is identity. Drinking coffee elsewhere has to be one of the most obvious readings where the concept of identity is discussed on many levels. I found that especially interesting because when identity is spoken about especially with young adults it usually involves a “coming of age” moment where they “find themselves” and this just isn’t accurate for Dina in the story. It almost seems as though she constantly progresses and then regresses just as quickly and I found that especially important because its reality. Not everyone has a happy ending and finds themselves. Instead it’s a fight that one is constantly in. I related heavily to this and even now see it within myself as I reflect upon the semester. I myself have not had a happy ending with this ending of the semester as a person. I haven’t dramatically changed for the better in all honestly regardless of what I’ve gone through. Some may even say I’ve changed for the worst but at the same time its all opinions. I personally don’t think I’ve become a bad or good person I just think I changed. Others may have a different opinion and I think that’s the reality of identity. It’s just whatever people make it. The only opinion of identity I care about is my own because I’m the one who lives with it and that’s what I think I got from this course. Just being confident in ones opinion.

My first semester at Baruch was definitely not surprising or anything that was out of hand. Although this doesn’t mean I didn’t have difficulty because I surely did many times. I just mean to say it wasn’t unexpected or unfair. When talking to others about their final exams specifically I found out that many people had five to six exams whereas I only had two. I found this to be beyond fair and something I simply couldn’t complain about. I appreciate though that throughout the semester I began to understand how to organize the work I had to do better. I hope this helps next semester when I begin top juggle two jobs and school. Overall it was a pretty fair semester and I hope to see more progress as I continue on.

At the beginning of this class, I thought to myself, “here we go again, another English class that is just going to be boring.” However, when we got deep into the class, I was proven wrong. This class was different, as it had more in class discussions, presentations, and even a Broadway show. I never went to a Broadway show until this class, which is something I am very grateful for. However, it did have its ups and downs.

Let’s begin with the ups. Throughout this class, I have developed certain writing skills, such as being careful about my grammar and knowing when to put commas and when not to. This course helped me become a writer who needs to have an outline, to get the writing done, because before I would just free write without any specific idea in mind. Through this writing process, I become very proud of my last writing assignment which was the research paper. During the research, I learned so many different things about my own identity that has broadened my thoughts of who I am in this country. I am most proud of this paper, not only because it was one of the hardest things to write, but when I put my all into it, I think it was one of my best works. Thus, I want to take these skills of researching, knowing my grammar from commas to titles and use them for my future writing. This class changed the way I write essays. I now write my body paragraphs before my introduction, which is something I thought I would never change.

Now it is time for the downs. My most challenging project in this class was the project that I am most proud of. It is the research paper. I started the research paper with an idea and I could not find any information to support my original idea, thus I changed it to another topic that I was not that interested in. However, after multiple visits to the writing center, I finally learned to stick to my original idea and finish that work because it meant more to me and was more in line with my identity. However, I always had problems with my conclusion and that is something that I still struggle with. Even though I think it has gotten better from the beginning of the semester to now, I still have to work on it and improve it. 

Throughout this class, we talked a lot of identity and not too much about representation. Learning about the different identities, helped me be aware of my own identity. It allowed me to connect to myself and see how I developed throughout the times and who in my life helped me. These different ideas of race and religion, let me to question, what would happen if the media took a better approach in representing these different issues. If the media did not shape what we see and what we hear, would these issues about race decrease or is race something that is imprinted within every human being? The class left me wanting to know more about representation and how we are shaped. However, discussing issues of identity and representation, allowed me to know that identity is when someone knows who they are and their worth and representation are when we see a visualization of ourselves or our race on the media or the news. Talking about these issues just strengthens my own identity as I know who I am and my worth.

This first semester of college was hard, especially when it came to pre-calc, which took me by surprise. I knew to survive Baruch’s math I needed that extra mile and try my hardest and that worked out. I found out that by staying focused and having that one end goal of succeeding, I can reach it. It also allowed me to be aware of my mental health. When the essays, hwk, quizzes and tests were all in the same week, I had to take a break for myself to help me. Even after all of the hard work, and the reward of getting a good grade, I still struggle with sleep. I have this high expectation of getting my school work done that I tend to stay up just to do my work, which is something I am working on to improve it. But at the end of the day, the hard work and the Baruch community such as friends and counselors have helped me complete my first semester, which is something I am grateful for.