One of the challenges that came with this class was the amount of writing that we did…not because it is an English class…but because it varied in the type of writing that was required. Blogging, group work, peer reviews, responding to blogs, discussion board, essays and more all came with this course.
Reflecting on this semester I would say that I have definitely gained in my ability to write. The blogging was definitely completely new for me. Setting up a blog on this site and following other bloggers is an experience that I have learned to like. A few weeks ago we worked on an assignment in which I discussed blogging and what it has become. I said in this assignment that I would probably not continue blogging after this class, but I am reconsidering. It is not a fact of having other people read this blog, or respond to anything I write, no…it is a way of venting (as we were able to do in last week’s blog) and the fact that it feels good! Blogging was the most fun writing I had this semester…mostly because it had more freedom in terms of how we decided to go about writing our assignments. A lot of my classmates took this freedom and went wild with it, something I do not have enough courage to do, and did beautifully. Another new and very challenging thing was the group work…online! I did not think this was possible but I had my fair share of online group work and it has helped me to be more aware of how I write…to maybe add some structure to my sentences and choose my words more wisely, instead of rambling on as I would do in a face-to-face group discussion.
The discussion board was very difficult to stay up to date with. Al though it seemed like two simple posts that we had to share, I found this writing to be challenging. Given the 200 words we had to write, it was hard for me to go to 200 words and not keep things too surface, but to go deeper took a lot for me to not go over 200 words too much. This assignment challenged me to pick my words well and stick with the point…no room for nonsense! As we went through the essay assignments I improved on my knowledge of MLA (didn’t think it would be as hard as it was) and explored a few different ways of going about an assignment as structured as an essay. Compared to the blog it has a more strict tone and way about it which caused me to work on my more serious, good writing. I would love to never talk about the research paper again but it must be done. This essay of six to seven pages has definitely kicked my butt. It was harder than I thought...not only to find sources, but to fill the pages with well though-out, well-written, and no nonsense paragraphs. The PDR’s were also challenging…but in a fun way. I imagined myself as the person reading the feedback I was giving and went about my criticism in a way that would be constructive. It also called for some critical reading, which is more than I would do if I had read these essays just for fun.
Overall the writing in this class has helped me to focus on different tones and ways of expressing myself and it is something that will stay with me until the day I stop communicating.
This portion of your blog was one I could really identify with: “Given the 200 words we had to write, it was hard for me to go to 200 words and not keep things too surface, but to go deeper took a lot for me to not go over 200 words too much. This assignment challenged me to pick my words well and stick with the point…no room for nonsense! As we went through the essay assignments I improved on my knowledge of MLA (didn’t think it would be as hard as it was) and explored a few different ways of going about an assignment as structured as an essay.”
ReplyDeleteI too had a hard time getting my writing into a set number of words. It was either too long or two short, forcing me to revise my thoughts. And on top of that, we had to come up with some thought-provoking question to ask others. This was difficult for me because I would find myself lacking confidence in my questions. I would think ‘no, that’s not good enough; no one will understand what I’m trying to ask.’ As a result, I found myself leaving 2-4 questions, to make sure I really got my point across.
The other thing that was difficult was the MLA format. Every time I thought I finally figured it out, the review sheet would say my works cited page was marked incorrectly.
I can relate with many things you said in your post. The blogging part was kind of scary for me at first. I've read some blogs on line and those people can be crazy! I don't know if I would have been able to handle someone who disagreed with me in a toxic manner. But Jennifer said she had our backs in that regards so I guess I didn't have much to fear.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing that kept me in this somewhat grueling course is the variety of writing assignments. If all we did was read a text and respond to questions at the end I definitely would have dropped the class long ago. As it is, I feel I too have benefitted from the sheer volume and diversity of writing that was demanded of me.
The discussions were also good in that I was able to understand different perspectives on various subjects. Some of the responses really made me consider my position on pertinent topics. However, the group work was too time-consuming in that I was constantly waiting for my group members to post. It wasn’t so bad this last go around with the PDR’s because you were only responsible for what others put on the group site. I became very annoyed, to say the least, when one person was responsible for summarizing everyone’s viewpoints and most everyone waited until eleven o’clock to post to the file exchange. I realize everyone has a life outside of this class; I am a mom and have four other classes as well, but there is a degree of responsibility that comes with a class of this nature that some students need to consider.