Upon taking English 215, I read more in one semester than I did my whole life. Growing up, I have never been a big reader or enjoyed reading that much. As I have gotten older, I have found more of an appreciation for reading but really only enjoy reading books on my own time and by my choice.

When I first saw the syllabus for this course I was pretty intimidated. I had this class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and for every class the student was supposed to have read something. Most of the readings on the syllabus were short stories or poems, however, even a “short story” can still take up to two or three hours to read. Luckily, not every story was super long or complex and reading them went more smoothly.

Not only did I read more than ever before, but I also improved on my note taking skills while taking this course. To further explain, for every reading, there was a short quiz about it every class. Meaning, you not only had to read the short story or poem but you also had to have a basic idea of what was going on and remember details about the story. For me, I learned that I retain information best by writing it down, so while reading each story I took my own detailed notes in an effort to remember important details about the story/poem. Furthermore, I took more notes in class while the professor was explaining the importance of the short story or poem. My notes just served as me retaining the basic information, while my notes from the lectures during class helped me further understand the concepts of the story and helped me learn the importance of each story/poem.

Even though this course wasn’t an honors level class, I still got a lot out from taking it. By taking this class, it taught me the importance of reading and that reading isn’t that bad after all, it’s actually kind of fun. Reading allows someone to interpret the story in their own way but at the same time, wanting to understand the authors point of view. As previously mentioned, this course not only taught me the importance of reading but also effective note taking. When I made the decision to take my own notes and notes from the lectures during class regarding the stories, I found that I really understood the stories on a basic level as well as on an advanced one. I believe this course really opened my eyes to how college courses can be and by finding an effective way to learn the information, the student is destined for success.

Above is my term paper for this course. For this assignment I had to compare and contrast and contrast the settings of three different readings discussed in class. I spent a week writing this paper and worked very hard on it. The prompt was some what of a challenge for me because I was told to compare and contrast just the settings of the three stories without just providing plot summary. Even though the prompt was challenging I still managed to complete the assignment and receive a satisfactory grade. Also, with the use of my notes from class, it made completing this assignment a whole lot easier!