Ciara Gregory Final Reflection

a. The picture I chose was a little cartoon creature cracking out of an egg with proudly holding his fist high, I chose this picture because I felt during this semester that I was a little timid with my work and I stayed in my shell, I was shy and expressed that in my writing, I didnt really get into it. Towards the middle and the end of the semester I really found myself in my writing. I started to crack out of my shell and started writing from my heart rather than writing the first thing that came to mind and it kind of displayed itself by receiving high Bs and As on all of my major projects. I think this picture really describes my process and experience in this course near perfectly, by the end of the semester I was holding by fist high because I accomplished a lot for myself in my 1102 English class and hopefully when I receive my grade I will be jumping with my fists held high.

b. If I were to teach this English 1102 class I would emphasize thinking thoroughly. I say that for example, because I know that when a teacher gives an assignment and you get to choose your work method or your topic I want to pick the first thing that comes to mind. The first thing that comes to mind isnt always the easiest or the hardest topic for you. That is why I think being able to think thoroughly through your assignment will help a lot of students to not just take the first thought that triggers in your brain and run with it but to think outside of the box and to really use your imagination and see what you can create and see where your imagination can take you.

c. I really enjoyed the article we read titled, Dumpster Diving. I enjoyed the topic I thought it was very unique and strange at the same time, I always knew people picked trash every once in a while, from the phrase, another mans trash is one mans treasure, but what I didnt know was people really make a living by dumpster diving. I knew people stick out a large item once a month on garbage night and people may drive by and throw the item in the back of the pick-up truck but I didnt really know people live off of what other people consider, garbage. People find necessities for life in dumpsters and that is what I find interesting because people make a living by dumpster diving. I also found it interesting that college universities have the best trash, because students throw away canned goods, leftovers, or even clothing items. I think as a society we need to do better by utilizing charities, instead of throwing respectable quality items in the trash to donate the items to charity.

d. I tend to enjoy writing a tad bit more when I am writing with a familiar topic, which I would assume that goes for a lot of people and not only just me. I know I like to take the easy way out using my common knowledge rather than researching for new knowledge. I wish I would have a different mindset and a desire to enjoy learning and being educated about new topics but I dont always have a drive for that. I say that because I tend to do a lot of projects on sports related aspects, because I am very familiar with sports being that I play basketball and grew up playing multiple sports. It just comes naturally easy for me to talk about athletics and that is why I repeatedly choose to talk about them. I feel a lot more comfortable talking about sports than most other topics, I know I do not like to feel uncomfortable so when I have the choice I tend to distance myself from that feeling. For example, I did my multi-genre project on division one student-athletes which tied into our inquiry project that I wrote on student-athletes as well. Also, my conflict narrative which I wrote about a basketball experience I had entering high school. My conflict narrative had a lot to do with where I wanted to go to high school and where my parents wanted me to be. I chose my multi-genre project because I wanted people to receive a new message, it may not be new to everyone but I certainly know that it is for some people. Student-athletes being paid or not has been a popular topic in society the last couple of years, and I thought that it was an interesting topic and people would enjoy learning and hearing more about it. I decided to take my project a step further and try to help studentathletes by emailing the NCAA president about a serious issue student-athletes deal with every day.

e. English 1102 gives you a look into a few different styles of writing, peer editing, presentations, short readings, blog posts, and videos. During the semester we wrote a lot of argumentive writing. I enjoyed writing dealing with arguments, I have had plenty of arguments over by 19 years of life. Fortunately none of my arguments were life threatening. During class we never dove right into our paper we always completed assignments that led into our major project. Which was very helpful, for me at least, it helped me get organized and get my thoughts together. It was kind of like breaking a six page paper down in parts and then putting it all together for the final product, it made writing much easier for me. We also did a lot of peer editing, I think that was really helpful sharing work with fellow classmates to better our work. We received a lot of guidance and peer review from Ms. Rand which to me was extremely helpful, it was like she answered all of my questions before I even had to ask them, I think she knew exactly what each and every student was struggling with. We did a share of short readings and blog posts, I say those two together because we didnt complete many of those, but for the blog posts we would comment on the topic and then respond to a fellow classmates response. The blog posts were very interesting and easy to write a paragraph on. The short readings that we had for class would either turn into a short reflection or an in class discussion. We worked a lot in groups and spoke aloud as a class a lot. Lastly, we watched short videos and watched one movie titled, The Truman Show. Each project we had tied together somehow, especially the inquiry project and the multi-genre project. The multi-genre project dealt a lot with your audience, who you were presenting the ideas to or who would see your advertisements. The conflict narrative stated an argument that

you the writer, have been a part of. It was cool to kind of tell a small part of your life testimony. f. I learned a lot about writing over my time in this course. The thing that stood out the most to me that I will carry on to my upcoming classes is to really know who your audience is and know who is going to be reading your paper and who you want to convey the message too. I learned that with doing the multi-genre project, once I was asked the question, Well who is your audience? is when I got a better understanding of the project and it was slightly easier for me after I answered the question to myself. I also learned that there is many different ways to go about writing, not every paper is a research paper or an autobiography. I also learned that when anyone is writing you can say, I in high school I was taught to never put personal pronouns in my papers. g. Based on my first year of college, I made lifelong friends, my education grew fonder, I became a better person, I matured and grew up, I became a better basketball player, I became stronger physically and mentally, I got homesick, I cried and I smiled, and I became a better student. To sum it up I would say my first year of college was like sailing on a sail boat. What I mean by that is some days I was smooth sailing and some days I got caught in a storm riding up and down waves with water splashing me in my face. I had a fair share of both of those days. The smooth sailing felt amazing, but boy I tell you, sailing in a storm was no fun for me. What I consider smooth sailing, is completing all of my work on time, receiving good grades back on exams and quizzes. Sailing through a storm is when I am up all night long the night before an assignment is due and doing the assignment because I procrastinated the week before the due date or realizing when I get to class and I missed an assignment. Receiving a poor grade on an

exam when I am thinking I did well is comparable to getting splashed in the face by water from the waves. During basketball season, while traveling for competitions it was like sailing in a hurricane for me, with having to complete my school work while being on the road it was a lot for me to juggle. Also, being seven hours away from home I tended to get home sick every once in a while, and that was a huge storm for me to overcome, I fought my way through though being that I had no other choice. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the storms I went through during my first college experience, it formed me into a better and tougher person this year, it helped me conquer things that I thought I never could.

Link for picture. https://www.google.com/search?q=brain+cartoons&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=B39eU9 HcFJDMsQThYL4CQ&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1518&bih=652&dpr=0.9#q=braindancing+cartoons&tb m=isch&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=bd5BUDsDPgEojM%253A%3BpWy1sZTCRDnBJM%3B http%253A%252F%252F1.bp.blogspot.com%252F_IlNUPR0M50%252FTDdvWaWax5I%252FAAAAAAAANpo%252FlwoAWB8vVUY%252Fs1600%2 52FBRAINNAI.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fbraindancingsmorgasbord.blogspot.com%252 F2010%252F07%252Fbrain-at-work-ragtag-collection-of.html%3B1181%3B1216