Owen Bailey
Karen Morris
English-1102xx
4 May 2011
Reflection Of Semester
Coming into an English class, I never know what to expect. As you know, I took your English 1101 class during Fall 2010. For a college class, 1101 was not as difficult as everyone made college English out to be. However, the first few weeks during English 1102, I quickly learned that I was no longer in English 1101, but in English 1102. I will always remember when you said the simple explanation to a question of mine, “this is English 1102.”
Hybrid classes are important for college students. As many of my essays said, technology is growing. Classes that deal with using technology to pass the class, helps students not get “left behind” with the fast track that technology is on. Even though I knew by working in a hybrid class would help my technology skills and boost my writing skills, the assignments were always dreaded.
I expected blogs, discussion questions, and quizzes, but 1102 separated itself from 1101 by introducing wikis and ePortfolios. The new assignments given to the class were a stressor, but both the wikis and argumentative essays helped me with argumentation. Every essay given as an assignment was difficult. I had trouble writing multiple essays on the same topic that I wrote on in my wikis. Essay one was the most fun paper I wrote this semester. I thought it would be an easy icebreaker into the class. I realized after getting my feedback from my essay one that the mistakes I made from English 1101 would need to be broken to do well in English 1102. I made several comma errors, but the most important mistakes I made were with introducing evidence, and finding credible resources. From my writing in English 1102, I learned from Essay one on, that to have a good argumentation, credible resources must be found and that the person that is being quoted, or the information that I was presenting must be introduced. Going back to my first essays to revise my mistakes, I saw immediately that my writing changed over the length of the semester. I learned from writing wikis that it was important to find out who wrote the article that information is being gathered from to write an essay. Not just finding out who wrote a certain article, but learning more about who published their writing and previous work history is important to know if what they are saying is credible. After working on wikis, I noticed that my essays got progressively better with introducing a resource, and including credible information to back my argument up. I learned that when writing an argumentative essay, that sharing both sides of the argument is also important. The reader needs to understand both sides and hear each side’s defense. When including both sides of the argument, the reader can develop their on opinion. After introducing both positions of an argument, clear statements should then be made so that a reader will know what side the author believes. After presenting the author’s opinion, the reliable resources and explanations back up the author’s position and will make for more of a winning argument.
I feel as if taking English 1102 helped my writing take on a new style of writing that I have never written on. This class helped me establish what is needed for a good argument, and what I have learned will help me with English classes in the future. Bringing new assignments such as wikis helped me gather my thoughts together when writing my Human Interest Essay, and the Research Paper. Wikis also helped me understand that credibility is a big element to look for when finding resources. Along with the wikis, the ePortfolio wrapped up the semester and made me realize the difference in my writing from the beginning of the semester to the end. I now understand and see the progress I made from taking English 1102.
