I kind of can’t believe that we’re at the end of the semester. It’s also hard to believe that the first semester was only 3 months. I already feel like I’ve been here for years. Time has flown by so quickly! I have that feeling when you stand up too fast and you get a head rush and you need to sit down.
I think the term process letter is pretty appropriate. I need to process how much I have experienced in this class and consider what I have learned. This letter is a nice way for me to unpack everything we’ve discussed since all the way back in September, and extrapolate what was important to me.
Something that I have realized is that I am at a point of change in my writing. It feels like I’m waiting for a power up in a video game to load. Some of the features have been downloaded, but it’s not all there yet. I am (tentatively) seeing some improvement in my critical thinking and analytical skills. I don’t think that my writing has necessarily caught up with my thoughts just yet, but it’s a start.
A lot of that has to do with learning how to manage my time correctly. I’ve never been the worst at time management. I procrastinate every now and then, but I know how to complete an assignment by a deadline. But I think that college has really taught me the importance of a good foundation for any assignment. This means leaving as much time as possible to brainstorm and free write before committing to a topic. For this class, that was very important, because of the two analytical/research papers that we wrote. For the first paper, I waited until the very last minute to even come up with a topic and then wrote the essay and made my presentation the day before it was due. This made me feel stressed, disorganized, and out of control.
For this past paper, I rethought my strategy. Similar to the last paper, coming up with a topic that had enough information and was interesting and relevant to this class was the hardest part. But once I had committed to a topic, I began working on it immediately. I am a person that likes to work on essays in bulk. I like to get big chunks done at a time because I get into the flow of working and then I feel more accomplished. But instead of trying to write the whole paper in one hectic day, I spread it out over the course of several days. I liked working on my project and my paper simultaneously because it helped me visualize my essay. So I would do research, pull out the most relevant information and put it in my presentation, and then expand that information for my essay. This method allowed me to streamline the process of both the essay and the presentation, and with finals week and 4 other essays to write, I’m sure glad past me had the forethought to work like this!
In some ways learning is a linear process. You work hard, and then you improve. Pretty straightforward in theory, but of course it’s never that simple in practice. I’m sure I’m not the only one who wishes they could just tell their brain that it was time to work and instantly be motivated to bang out 12 assignments in the span of an hour, no sweat. Unfortunately, that dream is hardly ever the reality. No one likes to be stressed or do lots of work, because that’s not fun. The point that I’m getting at is that the reason that I have seen improvement in my writing is because I have worked to understand what I need in order to be motivated and successful. I know that the environment I am in makes all the difference in my ability to succeed. As much as I enjoy being a social person and hanging out with friends, I know that the best environment for me is a quiet space with little distractions. Just knowing that has allowed me to concentrate on my writing and submitting work that I feel proud of.
Overall, I have mixed feelings about this class. It has been difficult, overwhelming and frustrating. The deadlines have felt extreme and the work all feels like busy work. If the purpose of this class is to teach first year students how to write at a college level, I don’t know if it has succeeded. I am also taking a writing course this semester and I think that it has been much more effective in teaching me what is expected of my writing. But I won’t say that this course was all bad. The weekly writings are a good example of this. I thought they were silly at first, but they have really been a fun opportunity to explore a form of creative writing that I might not have tried otherwise. The weekly commenting also felt like a waste of time, but they did help me analyze others’ writing and improve my annotating skills. Reading others’ blogs also made me think about what I could add to my own tio make it more interesting.
In terms of my grade in this class, I think I deserve an A-. I think I have worked hard and demonstrated my improvement over the course of the semester. I’ll admit that I wasn’t the most participatory in class. I could have demonstrated my interest more and there might have been a time or two that I played the New York Times crossword puzzle during our class period. But overall I am proud of the work that I put into this class and I appreciate what I have learned about my writing and time management skills.
