Citizenship 110 with Dr. Blincoe taught me a lot. It taught me how to take reading notes. Reading notes are notes taken from a reading and they are detail but not overly detailed. You have to pay attention to the main facts while also collecting subtle details along the way. Dr. Blincoe taught me about how important philosophy can be. When I went into this class I had no interest in philosophers, but Dr. Blincoe opened my eyes. He taught me to look issues from a different perspective and also to start on long readings days before they are due. The readings might have been long but the teachings behind the readings is what meant the most to me. Dr. Blincoe also taught me how to listen to the most key facts in a lecture. Some skills I gained from this class were looking more in depth at a text but then being able to form key thoughts about the text also. I learned how to scale down my note taking process and how to look at the big picture. I learned that I did not enjoy philosophical texts but I enjoyed the debate and the morals behind the texts. I learned that it was okay to not succeed the first time. My reading notes certainly did not pass the first round but Dr. Blincoe encouraged all of us to keep trying and gave critical feedback that helped me.

Below I have attached a button with a link to one of the set of reading notes I took from the class. The reading notes were essential for studying and for participating in class. The reading notes allowed me to learn to take notes in a different style and taught me how to break down lengthy texts.