I
have always believed English to be one of my strongest subjects throughout my
years in high school and the time I have been in college so far. Coming into
English 102 I discovered that while I am good at English, I still have things
that need to be worked on. This semester has shown me my strengths and
weaknesses and I have learned so much about my writing, research, and also
myself that I know I am ending this semester not only a better writer, but a
better person as well.
This semester we were faced with a project that would
encompass the whole semester and almost everything we wrote was for this
project. When I discovered that we had this huge project that dealt with real
and very serious problems in the world right now, I will admit that I panicked.
My first thought was, there is no way I can pick one of the eight topics and
spend the whole semester writing about it and be able to find information for
all three of the major essays. I was proven wrong very quickly. When it came time
to write the local paper, I found more information than I thought was possible,
and it invigorated me.
I learned this semester that one of my strengths is that
I am able to write argumentative papers rather well. I find that writing an
argument is easier than writing a straight research paper. We did need a lot of
research for our papers though. I am very picky about the research I will use
in my writing because I want to make sure it will fit with my paper. That is
one thing that I learned and had to develop over this semester, and that was learning
how to tell if a source is credible and if it is worth using. I know I can use
the skills I gained for determining credible sources in my future because the
two career paths I am looking at are forensic science and being a curator. Both
of them are research intensive and you have to make sure your information is
correct in every way.
One area that I know I struggle with is citations. I can
never seem to cite sources correctly in text or in the work cited page. I do
believe that I have gotten better at citing over the semester, but I know it
still needs improving. I can never remember all the little rules for citing,
like if there is no author what do you put for the in text citation? I also
seemed to have issues with point of view and context in the beginning of the
semester. In the rough draft for my first essay I put a lot of “you” and other
third person words instead of keeping it broad and more formal. By my third
essay I was able to keep them out fully and keep it a strictly formal essay. I
also had an issue with contractions in my first and second essay and by the
third essay I was able to remember to write the words out fully.
Another thing that I learned how to do this semester that
I found very intriguing was the film analysis. I had read things on the
internet about “deeper meanings” in movies but those were usually conspiracy
theories like “Disney movies have subliminal messaging to make our children
more aggressive or sexually aroused”. I am not saying that these theories are
fully incorrect, but they never seemed to have enough evidence to support the
claim. This semester I learned that movies do have deeper meanings, but they
usually are not as abstract as the theories about Disney movies. I ended up
finding that if you really look at The
Hunger Games, you will see more than just a sick game for the Capital’s
enjoyment, but you can see true poverty and hunger and the striving to feed
yourself and your family and being willing to do whatever it takes to make sure
they have food. There is a real global issue that was brought to light through
a book and movie for people’s enjoyment.
I cannot say that I had this semester easy or that I was
able to pass every assignment with flying colors, because that would not be
true. This semester was a struggle and it challenged everything that I thought
I knew about English and how to write. I learned new things and was able to
improve on things I learned years ago. I was able to work on my weaknesses to make
them even a little stronger. I was able to push myself and branch out and take
steps to becoming a better writer and learn crucial techniques that I had never
thought to be that important before. There is nothing better than being able to
say I struggled, I got mad and I even wondered what the point was; then I
opened my mind, I learned, and I am better for it.
