During the spring semester of my freshman year, I completed my foundations writing and rhetoric requirement. Going into this course, I thought that it was going to be an average English class similar to those I have already taken. However, it was different than what I first thought, and I know I will be able to use the information from this class to benefit the rest of my education career.
One of the first main assignments of this course was a literature review, which you can find below. I believe it was able to encompass all the parts of this course that I found a challenge, as well as the strategies below that benefitted me as a student and a writer.
The first strategy was that this course was research and discussion based. I believe this helped me to better understand the material because the class worked together to analyze how effective the information was being communicated. By studying tools and strategies of effective writing, I was able to improve my own writing.
Second, I had never been in a class less than about twenty students before arriving to Longwood. This class section only had eight students. The small class size helped me to make contributions to the class conversations and ensured everyone’s ideas were discussed which gave me new points of views to look at the material with. It also meant that we worked in groups to peer review our work. This process was one that I felt helped me to become a better writer because I was able to receive feedback for my work. This was especially beneficial to help me write in a new referencing format, APA, as throughout high school, I mainly wrote in MLA and in my major courses I have only written in Chicago, but now have experience with all three referencing formats.
Finally, this course was focused on writing across college curriculum and how writing can be used as a learning tool in all fields. I think by researching this topic, I can go into any situation and be better prepared to understand the demands of writing assignments and communicate effectively.