I would simply like to know what you will take away from this class. What about this class resonated most with you? Did you learn something that helped to open your mind to new possibilities? Did you learn something technical in regard to writing? Did you experience something that you did not like and, therefore, would not like to pursue further? (Learning what you do not like is as important as learning what you do like.) You reflection can be as long as you please.
10 thoughts on “Blog Post #9: Final Blog Post/Reflection”
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What resonated with me the most about this class was that it helped me express my ideas and thoughts through writing. I was able to communicate who I am with the literacy narratives and this helped me realize how language plays an important role in my life that I didn’t think about before. I did learn something that helped me open my mind to new possibilities such as understanding articles that went against what I believed. An example would be the article titled “New York City is Dead Forever” by James Altucher and I liked how opened I was to hearing a different perspective. I did learn something technical in regards to writing, such as how to format dialogue in my writing. I did experience something I did not like such as learning how to use commas. I know that it’s an important skill to have but it was difficult applying that skill to my writing. Overall, I had a good experience in my first English class in college.
Before I really didn’t want to lead the class discussion, because I feared presentation. I also did not like other people calling on me to answer the question, because I really was not interested in that topic and I did not know the answer. But when I led the class discussion, I was not as nervous as I thought. I think I became more brave. I remember my first pop quiz was so terrible. I forgot to read the textbook and I didn’t read the questions carefully. After that quiz, I read every article in the textbook carefully, and I also annotated important information. Even Though this class is very long and sometimes made me feel sleepy, I learned a lot. I learned how to write a correct email and how to organize my essay. I also improved my verb tense and correct use of punctuation.
What resonated with me the most about this class was listening to other people read their narrative stories and understanding how English became a part of our life but shaped everyone differently. I love to learn how everyone took different steps to approach their relationship with English, and we somehow end up together in this class where we all hope to improve our grammar, writing skills, and communication skills. In our rhetorical analysis lecture where we looked at ads closely, I came to a greater understanding of how ads worked in terms of their way to catch the public’s attention – sometimes even without our awareness. Now when I watch videos on YouTube and I end up on a few seconds ad, I would think about the purpose/ intention of the ad within those seconds – just for fun – while before I would just go do something else or skip the ads. Regarding my writing, my takeaway is that to write better, I have to take small steps and express my thoughts in simple words. I have the tendency of overthinking when I write and I would end up with too many very confusing ideas. But now, I am trying to use simple words and phrases to convey my ideas.
The most resonant thing about this course is that I learned something that I hadn’t learned before. For example, I haven’t written rhetorical analysis before, so when the professor asked me to write a rhetorical analysis, I had to learn it slowly from the beginning. In this way, there is a desire to explore. What you don’t like is being asked questions that you don’t know how to answer, especially in class discussions. Due to the wide range of topics you choose, sometimes you are afraid of being asked when you encounter unanswered or difficult questions. In addition, learning grammar is more difficult for me, including sentence structure and the use of some punctuation marks. They sometimes confuse me.
Something that resonated with me was that the class helped me improve my writing skills and made them more straightforward. The one paper that I felt showed my improvement is the rhetorical analysis paper. I’ve never written a full essay like that, only one paragraph at most, but I can see how my writing has changed in a good way. Something that helped to open my mind to new possibilities is reading the assigned textbooks readings and articles. When I was reading them, I felt inspired by them genuinely and reflected on how to improve. Something I learned in technical regarding my writing is how to cite appropriately. I still won’t say I am good, but it has improved decently. Something I did not like is writing the research paper. I felt it is very overwhelming because I have never written something like it before. Also, I didn’t really like getting called on a lot because sometimes I wasn’t interested in the topic during the class discussion, so I have no idea what to say. Overall, I had a great time during the class, and my expectations went beyond what I thought the class was going to be.
What I like most about this class was the class-leading discussion part, I really like to listen to others’ opinions on certain topics/issues. More importantly, I like the conversation between classmates, we can discuss something that we interested in and this may have nothing to do with this class. I also learned a lot of things from the assigned reading textbook. Many of the readings just allow me to think more deeply about something I already know; this is where helped me to open my mind to new possibilities. Another thing I like about this course is that I can learn more grammar, which is what I think is different from other English courses I have taken before. This is the only class that taught me some grammar rules, and it is also the first time I learned how to use semicolons and colons. Overall, I really like this class. One suggestion I may leave for this class may be to have more leading discussions! Because I really like to discuss some less academic things, which can be social or political issues.
The thing that most resonates with me is I learn how to develop my ideas in my essay. When I wrote the rhetorical analysis, it is my first time to look close to a video, to think about the purpose of the author, and analyze the skills that the author used. The articles from the book and blog helped to open my mind which brought me a new point of view. In this class, the new work is like a boss in a game. So, I need to keep learning new skills to beat the boss. Led-discussion is the part that I think is most interesting because we can talk about any topic we want. I can learn new things from different topics. However, this also the part that I don’t like, because I was afraid and nervous to speak in front of people. With the presentation of the literacy narrative and led discussion, I think I improved.
What resonated with me the most about this class is that it gave me confidence in my writing. I always believed that my writing skills were one of my biggest weakness. Even though I grew up in American, writing has always been a struggle for me. I learned that everyone in this class has some sort of struggle with their writing and I am not the only one. After writing the analysis paper, my confidence began to build up. I realized it was not as difficult as I thought it was. I just really need to put in the time and effort. I really liked when we all shared our literacy narrative because with class being fully remote, it was a chance to learn more about others. In addition, I learned how to use grammar properly because I was never taught this in school before. Overall, I had a great time in this class, and I feel that my writing has improved.
What resonated with me about this class is it helps me improve my writing, grammar, and public speaking. My writing skills and grammar are the two biggest obstacles because it’s hard for me. This class helps to advance my essays and further develop and express my ideas in my work. After presenting my work and the student-led discussion, I feel like I’m getting more and more confident with public speaking. I also like those grammar lessons and practices because grammar is a struggle for me. Overall, this class is perfect for me because it suits my learning style and very well organized. I enjoyed my first English course at Baruch and I benefited a lot from it.
My take away is learning different ways to write my essay like rhetoric writing. I resonate the most with being an English second learner, English is not my specialty. I resonate with learning grammar because I make many mistakes in my work. I learned how to use the rhetoric device to analyze a piece of work. I also learned how to better my grammar and punctuating my dialogues. In terms of technical, I learned how to use rhetoric devices to convince and persuade people. No, I do not have problems with pursuing further.