Author: Leon Sukhdeo (Page 1 of 8)

This course was really enjoyable. The assignment was fun to do I love how we got to pick our own topic to talk about. The professor is really awesome for that and also the feedback we got on the assignments is really appreciated. For future students, my advice for you would be to get the assignments done as soon as possible. Don’t let the work pile up with other classes because it will all come at once. Just stay focused get what’s needed to be done and enjoy the class as much as I did.

At the beginning of this course, I came into online college thinking I won’t understand or know what to do. Throughout my time in high school, I struggled with writing. I did have a few strengths but I had more weaknesses. One of the main ones being I didn’t have confidence in my writing. Once college started I knew I would have to step it up. Based on what my previous teachers told me about college I thought all the writing assignments would be boring & the professors won’t be nice and won’t care at all. Throughout the semester, all the writing assignments that were assigned I enjoyed writing.  The assignments that were assigned helped my writing improved. I also had confidence when writing just because I enjoyed what I was writing and the topics that I wrote about. I love how the professor let us chose what we want to write about and because of that, it gave me excitement when writing my papers. In addition to the assignments, the professor was super nice and would check in on us. I loved how she would leave comments on our assignments and give us feedback. Me personally when I see a positive comment it would motivate me to continue writing. What I learned as a writer throughout this class was rhetorical knowledge, developed ways to write rough drafts, etc. This class helped me developed rhetorical knowledge by reading and writing different forms of the genre. This means I am now able to understand how the genre can affect the ways a writer writes.  Not only with writing but with reading. One assignment that comes to mind was unit 2 where we had to write a bibliography and had to find four different sources and they had to be different genres. The four genres that I chose were all different and by choosing different genres you can see the difference in how the writer/speaker talks about what they believe in. In addition to developing rhetorical knowledge I also learned ways to write rough drafts. I remembered an assignment that was given and we had to write a rough draft where we didn’t stop writing. We had to continue writing none stop and wrote down whatever comes to mind. To add on, “Shitty first draft” by Annie Lamott said, “You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something — anything — down on paper” and that’s exactly what I did which I’ve never done before and it helped me a lot which I thought it wouldn’t. Something else that I find helpful was the KWL chart we had to make for our top question for unit 2. By using the KWL chart I was able to ask questions, write down what I want to know, what I want to know, what I learned after doing a little research, and what I still want to know. When doing a KWL chart helps with the organization when writing your essay. In addition, when I didn’t know what to add to my essay I would just go back to the KWL and reread and I would have ideas that I didn’t include in my essay.

I believe from what I learned in this course will follow me throughout the rest of my college years in and out of writing. For example, when I get an assignment in any course I will start out with a plan just like a rough draft. I will write what I think about the assignment and what I want to write about or what I’m planning on doing that way I can always look back at what I thought about the assignments and what my initial thoughts were. In addition, learning rhetorical knowledge will change the way I read and write.  When reading I will be looking for who the author is writing to and the purpose of the writing. The same goes for writing.

Throughout the course,  I’ve learned a lot. Not just knowledge wise but my view on college. I learned that there are processors that will help you when you need it and you will get feedback to help you improve. Some feedback I got from my professor was, “Leon, you did an excellent job getting your first draft of the introduction for your annotated bibliography together. It’s well-thought-out, and covers pertinent ideas for development” and “While reading “Maybe I Could Save Myself From Writing,” I too became curious to see what Jose Olivarez’s turning point was. A good point you wrote is that, an education narrative needs a conflict, and in this case, it was the conflict within himself that caught my interest and made me want to continue reading.” I really appreciate the positive feedback and it makes me want to continue writing.

During the beginning of this semester, I started off strong and was really excited to learn. The goals that I accomplished was getting my work schedule and school schedule lined up. In addition, I wanted to enjoy my classes and I did. Each unit was really fun and interesting. I learned a lot and they 100% improved my writing skills. The one thing I wish I did differently was to hand in my work on time. This was my goal from the beginning of the semester and I did not accomplish this goal. I am disappointed in myself just because if I pushed myself harder I would’ve accomplished that goal and I would’ve had good grades. Whiles handing in my late assignments I was really mad at myself just because it was fun writing the assignments and completing them. I don’t like using excuses for turning in my assignments and I won’t. The only thing I can do is get better and do better. I will use this class as a learning experience by attempting to do all the assignments right away even if I don’t understand what to write. I will do a draft once the professor sends out the assignment and then go back to the draft and write more. To end of my time capsule, yes I didn’t achieve all my goals but I will continue to keep my head up and ignore anything negative that comes my way, and focus more on what’s important which is my education.