English 150

Fulfilled: Goal 2 & Honors Course

The first time I looked over my course schedule for my first semester of freshman year, there was one course that stood out the most, Honors English 150. There was no description and no explanation of what was to come only an ever growing sense of dread. Simply stated I was not fond of English as a discipline, but this class has made the experience of writing a much more enjoyable experience by teaching me to write flexibly and developing my current sense of revision as a necessary part of writing.

Before college, I had written to a professional audience. I had written a proposal. I had written an essay, but I had never written to an audience. My papers were formal, professional, and concise. Unfortunately, they were also formulaic, robotic, and dense.

During my time in class, I used different methods of revision to improve upon my initial attempts by taking out some ideas, rewriting others, and  even complete rewrites of the introductions. Not only did the revisions assist me in making my points clear and concise, it helped me to practice the critical thinking that goes into rewriting entire paragraphs of a paper which I had rarely considered before let alone attempted. The experience improved my ability to identify an audience and tailor my writing to that specific group of people so that it would best appeal to them while remaining on topic throughout the piece which stretched my capacity to think beyond just the format of any given text. It is a newfound skill I am ecstatic to continue improving upon.

The final essay for the class, which is posted below, was by far the most rewarding of all the writing assignments. It was also, in my opinion, the most difficult assignment of the entire semester due in no small part to my own decisions. The directions were to write an essay of at least five pages in length which would describe why a study abroad experience of our own creation should be implemented as part of Longwood University’s repertoire of study abroad experiences. I chose to write about Special education 305: Behavior Management, a class I have not taken, in China, a country I do not know a lot about. However, I knew that there was an education system and teachers in China who had to manage behavior in the classroom, so I went from there.

While I do not believe that I will necessarily need to write about my church, China, or write an annotated bibliography for my future career as a special education teacher, the skills will carry over. After this class, I know how to tailor my writings to a specific audience through the use of vocabulary, sources, and appeal. My parent-teacher conference memos will not read the same way as the directions on a worksheet to my students, because what will appeal to the parents is far different than the needs of my students. I will also be prepared to conduct research in support of future grants I may wish to obtain for my classroom and school as a whole because I can search tangentially to my main topic in order to find evidence to support my claim. For now, I will be able to write papers, emails, and proposals throughout my college career that will assist me in gaining entrance to graduate school. These papers will be better because I know how to most efficiently utilize different revision strategies, research in a nonlinear fashion, and I can adapt my writing style to the needs of my ideal reader. However, this is only the beginning, because as I become a stronger writer, I see more areas in which I can improve and English 150 has given me the thinking strategies needed to do so.

To Experience is to Learn by Taylor Bauer was created on December 7th, 2016. The paper above is a demonstration of the research and writing skills I acquired over the duration of the course. The assignment also served as an opportunity to further explore cultural diversity within my chosen area of study.