|
| |
Looking Back
From the moment I walked into the class and sat down, I honestly didn't know
what to expect. I had always thought a writing intensive course would
theoretically involve handing my soul over to the teacher to be tortured for the
following months ahead just to pass. This quarter has been one of the hardest in
reference to the workload, but it has also been really pleasant, much more so
than I had imagined. I learned a lot and have increased my understanding of what
different genres of writing involve. I've learned a great deal about literature,
and poetry. Coming from a person who rarely if ever reads poetry that is a
compliment indeed.
I guess I could start with my writing skills and how they have greatly
improved over the course of the quarter. Frankly, I've never really liked
writing much, in fact even the thought of writing for a career made me cringe.
Don't get me wrong, I have a deep respect for the men and women who create our
reading material, I just couldn't see myself as one of them. When I was in Jr.
High, the hardest thing for me was to write a measly one-page paper, if I was
assigned one I thought it was the end of the world. Knowing this class was a
writing intensive course, I postponed it until it was absolutely necessary for
me to take, thinking that I would most definitely fail. Now I find myself on the
computer all the time, with my headphones on (my trademark look), writing a
three-page paper. I don't even hate it all that much anymore; some of the papers
in this class made me angry, others were pleasing, but overall this class has
broken the "curse" for this non-writer. Even though it sounds sadistic
to most students (even to me), I have really come to enjoy writing papers. One
of the main reasons why I didn't like writing before was because I didn't know
the bare basics, or how to put them into practice. Throughout the last year, I
have improved considerably in writing, but in this class I was pushed even
harder to improve and refine my writing skills. The lessons I've learned and the
techniques I've accommodated have really helped to make me a better writer.
I know for me the coolest part of this class were the presentations. I really
had an awesome time listening to the other ones, and preparing my own. I had so
much fun in the book group I was in, everyone pulled their weight and that says
enough right there. When I first started reading my book I thought, The Things
They Carried was going to be all about gory stories, men who can't control their
anger, and graphic details of men being killed. Of course, being a book based in
the Vietnam War, this was all true, but after I managed to get over that, the
stories really touched me. Just realizing the people in the book were actual
soldiers gave me a more solid understanding of what things were like in Vietnam.
Before the book, I thought that all war was about fighting, moral corruption,
pain and sorrow. Now I realize it's more than that, it can be about friendship,
imagination, dreams and reunions. The members of my book group were very
dedicated to the task at hand, and this alone was a great thing to have. To tell
you the truth, I've always been nervous whenever I'm told to make a speech in
front of a crowd; the group setting helped me to overcome the obstacles of my
anxiety.
I was really looking forward to the seminars in this class at the beginning
of the quarter. In a former class I took, we had seminars nearly every day. Just
getting to know other people's opinions and thoughts, is a valuable resource to
learn from. The seminars improved my preconceived notions about poetry,
literature and the like. I've come to the conclusion that literature isn't just
books, but it involves all the genres. Plays, poetry, prose and novels encompass
the general term of literature. Learning more about these various types of
writings and hearing another's opinion made me think about things I've never
really given thought to before. For example why some poems are written in formal
stanza order and why others have lines scattered over not aligning with
anything. I know this technique has symbolism and the poet has great talent to
do this sort of thing. However, I did not learn this from any lectures, but from
one of the seminars I attended.
I'm relieved, grateful, and almost reluctant to leave this class. Making new
friends and acquaintances has always been hard for me to do in a classroom
setting, but the atmosphere in this class, I can tell, made people open up more
and lay their thoughts and beliefs out in the open. I've been in classes before
where they make you read and then write about what you had just read. I hate
that technique. I have to read and re-read pieces before I can really write a
paper on it. In this class there was an actual chance to read and study what you
were going to write about and I found that very refreshing.
So to finally sum up, I know I have improved a lot this quarter. My
explication skills, writing skills, communication skills, and ideas are now more
organized. I can now take what I'm thinking or feeling and explain it clearly on
paper, this is one thing I have always had trouble with, but the repetition of
papers we wrote helped me develop my thesis and conclusions so much better than
compared to before. I'm very grateful for this class, and I know I will always
keep these skills with me. So thank you very much. Hope to see you all around
campus, and have an awesome life!
|