Dear Tim,
I am very happy I got the opportunity to experience this class. I gained a lot of knowledge that I did not previously have. In fact, I took an AP Literature & Composition class my senior year of high school, and did not gain as much knowledge as I hoped. However, in this class, I gained knowledge and confidence in my composition skills. I have always loved writing, and this class has just made me love it more.
Regarding my final drafts, I enjoyed the takes on them. I enjoyed being able to write about truly whatever I wanted, so I could exhibit my passions. In my first one, the Visual Analysis, I obviously analyzed a photograph I found inspirational. In my case, it was an artistic piece. The only thing I had to revise was citations, but I did learn a lot from simply writing the piece. It was hard! I have never written an intricate piece like the one I did. I learned how to put deep thought into words and how to keep a steady flow of the piece. In my Position Paper, I met with my writing partner to discuss nuts and bolts. I learned about “to be” verbs and the importance of cutting them out of my writing altogether. I learned to be more careful of these seemingly small details in order to make my writing stronger. My persuasive style grew, as I was never strong in keeping a good argument. For my last one, the Evaluation paper, I had the most trouble. It was difficult to spread my thoughts out into many pages, especially when I did not have much prior knowledge to the topic of my choosing. However, I learned how to structure the paper to make it more readable to my audience, and I think my level of writing improved in being able to speak to my audience.
There were quite a few class activities I enjoyed. There were two that stood out to me the most. For one, it was the simplicity of doing a freewrite every class. One of my favorite hobbies is journaling, and I was pleased to be able to do just that. I enjoyed taking the prompts you gave us and was able to write everything on my mind about that topic. It is not something I’m used to in classes, and I was happy to be able to do that here. Another activity I exceptionally enjoyed was our “Monday Mantra”. Being able to stretch and relax felt wonderful especially in a morning class. Not only that, but I loved being able to recite “I matter. My stories matter. You matter. Your stories matter”. It gave me a burst of confidence for the day, and I even like to think about it sometimes when I’m feeling down. I felt like I really did matter and I was not just a student in a classroom.
In accordance to my Writer’s Notebook entries, my pieces have definitely changed. In my writing goals, I mentioned “I’d like to write in different styles other than narratives, such as informational or persuasive pieces, as they are out of my comfort zone” as well as “I write with The Odyssey, so I would like to work on reaching out to audiences”. These two goals out of the ones I wrote were the ones in which I noticed the biggest change. Obviously, I wrote informational and persuasive pieces that were, again, out of my comfort zone. Being able to reach out to audiences was another improvement. As a reader of texts, I realized that I did change. I read text to try to relate to myself, and used my writing goals as a platform to judge other writing. I paid attention to structure and how the style reached out to me as a reader.
The class activities and assignments I would like you to keep are simple. The ones that I mentioned were my favorite are no-brainers. Encouraging us to be personable not only was easy, but it helped me to realize my importance as a person in society. Writing about myself for 5 minutes seems so simple, but it was so effective. Assignments you should continue should also be peer mentors; not just the graduate students, but the peers within the class as well. I fully enjoyed hearing what my peers had to say about my writing and their suggestions on revisions.
As I stated, my expectations of my accomplishments were both nitty-gritty and on a broader spectrum. The nitty-gritty accomplishments were not as met as the broader ones, but I find this to be OK. The nitty-gritty goals were mostly satisfied when I would meet with my writing partner, Zach Richardson. Not only would he help me with my goals as a whole when he assisted me in revising, but he also broke down little things I never recognized, such as “to be” verbs and paragraph structure. I was very pleased to be able to accomplish my goals in these regards due to this class.
My participation in class was both strong and weak in different ways. Out of class, I feel as if I did well with participating. When it came to group work or responding to peers’ texts, I feel I did well with responding on time and giving thoughtful feedback. With myself, my research within the topics in which I wrote were well-done. On the other hand, my participation in class was a little more lacking. I have trouble in social settings, so it was a little harder to be able to share my writing and express my ideas in class due to my discomfort.
Specifically in the class, the student who inspired me most was Ian Fitzhugh. Ian was always very interactive and excited to share his writing and goals with the class. He was in my multigenre group, and he was very dedicated and immersed in the project. His dedication inspired me to become more dedicated and confident in myself and my academics as a whole. In turn, I hope I inspired as well. I feel as if I was help to Korri Hill, who was also my friend outside of class, as we had many classes together last semester. We became good friends and I would always assist her when she was stuck within her writing.
Personally, I think I may have received a “B” in this class. Though it seems as though my 3 papers have only reached “Accept” status even with my revisions (so far), I feel as though I performed very well. As I stated throughout this letter, I kept up with my tweeting, my writer’s notebook and discussions, and I turned in my drafts on time. I did miss 3 classes without a good excuse, but I hope my performance in and out of class will be able to show.
On the basis of the mini lessons given by your graduate students, which I found to be very helpful, my favorite was definitely the one on revision. It was nice to listen to someone around my age group to speak on behalf of us as students. They know firsthand what we’re going through student-wise, as they had gone through it more recently. That being said, I felt as if I could relate, and therefore, felt more comfortable listening to their lesson on revising. I felt as if I could take that information and use it easier than other revisions.
My interaction with my Writing Partner was awesome! Zach and I connected very well. We met a couple times at the library and the Chryst Writing Center, and he was very kind and helpful. I would ask him specific questions and he would help me not only with the specifics, but also with keeping an eye on the piece as a whole. He was very good with communication, as well. We would email back and forth and text message quite a few times. When we would find time to meet up, I would sometimes be surprised with emails listing things he had thought of after the meeting. The only frustration that we ran into was finding a time to meet that would work for both of us, but it was not frustrating enough to cause a problem.
The only critique I would have about this class was the focus on the documentary. I did not feel as though we spent a lot of time on it, and I feel as if it would have helped greatly with some of our papers. However, I did like the incorporation of the pathos, ethos, logos side of things. Focusing on each track helped greatly, as well.
My views of food have changed tremendously! When you told us that our main focus was to be on food, I was expecting food in general, both good and bad. I was surprised when I found that the food we were to focus on was facts on unhealthy foods and how to eat healthier. I am trying to be a physically healthier person, but my eating habits are not as good as I’d hope. This class made me realize the true tolls that will be on me if I do not make a change. While simultaneously doing this, it also praised food in general. I thought that was awesome.
In conclusion, I loved this class. I learned more than I ever thought I would in an English class. I always found English to be a strong spot, but this class challenged me. As I described in this letter, my mind expanded in ways I never thought it would. Thank you for creating such a wonderful class-not only do I feel better about myself as a writer, but I feel better about myself as a person J
Have a great summer!
Sincerely,
Anna Pederson
