Blog Number Six

I remember walking in to the first day of English class (late, because Will, I, and some others were in the wrong class), I though to myself, fun, school during the summer. I usually work during the summer, but this summer I decided to stay home, and relax- I mean go to school. I am a procrastinator, but mostly because I am working, going to school and being a mom. This summer to me was different though, I decided that since I was not working, I was going to take more time to focus on school work.

Everything I turned in I worked on it two or three days before (even if this meant sleeping at two in the morning) the due date. Of the three big assignments we had, the first paper was the most difficult. Mostly because I really do not read reviews about anything, if somebody recommends it, I buy it. It was very interesting to write a Critical Review about a film, I had never done it, but it was a nice experience to have done so. The Rhetorical Analysis was my strongest paper; I believe because all I had to do was analyze the strategies the author was using to appeal to the reader.

When I was in High School I decided to enroll in AP English. I remember having the hardest time understanding my professor (bless his heart), I did not know why?  he had us find rhetorical strategies. I think back and see that what he was explaining was not so difficult. I learned to identify the different strategies authors use to convey their reader. Now, when I read article, I can catch myself saying, “He is using verbal irony.” I also enjoyed learning about colons and dashes in writing; I did not know you could use them in casual and professional writing. During this summer class, I learned that No exclamations are necessary in writing unless you are trying to Yell!

English 100, plus the extra credit of 50 points, pushed me to go to the Writing Center. I was only supposed to go five times, but I went more like seven. The Writing Center staffs do help students a lot, they helped me brainstorm, and prepare my paragraph structure, for the writing assignments.

I am leaving this class knowing that I learned an amount of great writing skills. I learned effective strategies for writing. I learned to focus on writing in present tense, rather than past-present. I also learned that looking up words in a thesaurus to make my writing sound more professional does not work, because sometimes readers do not know what it means, unless they look in the dictionary, and it also makes my writing sound weird. This class was beyond fun, and hilarious, this class made my summer, it will be missed.