English 165

English 165: Honors Writing and RhetoricĀ 

I took English 165 with Dr. Haffner during my fall semester in 2018. This course was one that continuously pushed me out of my comfort zone. While at the time I did not appreciate this and struggled a little, this course definitely helped me to grow as a writer.

English has never been my favorite subject because there are not many set rules and many things are left up to interpretation. I dreaded going to this class every Tuesday and Thursday only because I never knew what was going to happen and that stressed me out. However, I thoroughly enjoyed every class and was pushed out of my comfort zone in each class.

On the first day of class, we were each handed a post card with a painting or other artwork on it and had to write about this post card for ten minutes each day for the first week. This is the first assignment that challenged me. I took a more analytical approach to the assignment attempting to analyze various aspects of the painting from what colors showed to what the position of the dancers demonstrated. The real challenge came from writing every day. After the first ten minutes, I felt as though I had nothing left to say and had no idea what I was going to do for the next six days. I tried to never repeat myself during the week, which became harder each day and started to feel like I was grasping at ideas in order to get a new paragraph down. This assignment was difficult at the time, but looking back at it, I can see how it helped me develop as a writer and being able to see something from a new perspective.

Dr. Haffner would often come into class with a bag containing the activity we would be doing that day. This bag could have anything from the postcards to essays from previous classes to various little objects from Dr. Haffner’s house. One day Dr. Haffner brought several objects from his house like a belt, a salt shaker, a candle holder, or a bookmark. We each chose one item and then had to write fifty metaphors relating to that object. I remember this activity because hearing the instructions instantly stressed me out. Starting the assignment, I did not really thin that I knew what a metaphor was, and I definitely did not know how to write one, let alone fifty. I eventually wrote down all fifty of them, and to my surprise, they were all actually metaphors. This is just one of the assignments in English 165 that pushed me out of my comfort zone.

In this course, we had three major essays or projects. The first was a persuasive research paper, which is attached below. I was very comfortable writing this paper since I was used to doing these types of assignments in high school. However, this essay still pushed me out of my comfort zone as I had to make my own vote very present in the essay, meaning using less quotes and more analysis, as well as being able, and even encouraged, to use the first person. This was something that has always been drilled in my head to never be done. The next essay was a personal narrative that death with stereotypes that we held about other but were proven to be incorrect. I have always struggled with writing about myself so writing an entire essay was a nightmare for me. I chose to write about my assumptions about living off post as I have grown up in a military family and grew up living on military posts until recently. For our last project, we were able to choose the form and created our own assignment sheet. As someone who works best with set guidelines detailing what needs to be done, this immediate pushed me out of my comfort zone. I was not able to write a research paper and had to create my own rubric and guidelines. For this paper, I decided to stick with the concept of stereotypes, writing about assumptions others make about me that are incorrect. I wrote a short story that focused on the views some hold about introverts as being extremely shy or even ride, when in reality, they are just anxious or quiet. This essay was again more personal and was a short story which is a style I had never written in before, making this assignment that much more difficult.

While I struggled throughout the semester in this class, this course is one of the best and most beneficial courses I have taken at Longwood so far. I experienced something new in every class and was constantly being pushed out of my comfort zone. Having to write in various styles and doing multiple small writing activities or assignments helped me to expand what I was comfortable with. One of the biggest issues I have struggled with in any class, especially English classes, is being confident in my work. I would come to class with a rough draft or the final product feeling as though they were the worse papers ever written. However, from all the experiences in class as well as the encouragement and constructive comments made by peers and the professor, I became much more confident in my writing. Seeing the confidence in myself grow, as well as realizing the importance of pushing the limits of my comfort zone are my biggest takeaways from this course and are things that I will always continue to work on throughout my college experience.