“My Journey” Including my Narrative as a Student in English Class this Semester.

Submitted by: Nadia Douglas in lieu of Final Exam, ENG 1121

Section #: E106

Date: 5/20/2019

 

Dear Professor,

My Journey as a student is to complete my degree.  I felt like I wasted some years as to completing my degree.  I think that I should have already finish this degree and maybe started another area of study.  Write now I am completing a CST – Computer System Technology degree course, which I started in 2012.  Right now, I have less than 5 classes to complete this major course. There was a three-year gap since I haven’t been to school or have taken any classes.  I gave birth to a beautiful daughter.  I started back classes at City Tech in the Fall of 2018. This is my second semester since I have been back from that long break. I took one class previous semester, and so am I this semester.  I am also expecting my second baby soon, but this time nothing is going to stop me. I made up my mind that I must complete my bachelor’s degree no matter what.

There are some challenges that I face.  One of them are time.  Time to be in school on a regular basis.  Time to be able to do more than just one class per semester.  Time to make the friends or to group up with friends to discuss work materials and papers that are due or just time to get the extra help I may need to help me pass a class.  I think that I am coping fine for now.  I am managing my time.  I am making the time to be at school even if taking one class at a time.  I will soon reach the end of my journey as a student at City Tech.

Right now, I am focusing on completing this (ENG 1121) English Composition 2 class that I am in by getting a good grade. Another challenge(s) that I have is in this class.  One of them is writing with constraints and another is having to prepare a research inquiry, then to get that research inquire on some sort of digital media recording done, then to have it posted to YouTube privately, then to send a link to my professor to view.  How can I forget this other challenge?  Genre and Rhetoric’s.  I think this was one of my biggest struggles in this class.

Genre is a topic I have not given much thought of as I go about my everyday life.  After reading an article by Kerry Dirk – Navigating Genres, I begin to understand that having my own style in writing can contribute to a type of genre that might capture someone’s attention.  Also, the effective way I choose to use rhetorically in my essay writing.  As for now, I cannot say if I have achieved anything.  I think working well in class is completing your assignments and having satisfactory markings by your professor.

I need to make a little more time to achieve what this class is expecting of me.  I also need to read more. Coming to this class held my interest a little bit.  I did look forward to coming to class, to see what new thing we would do.  Our Professor always comes up with some sort of challenging class assignment, for us to do in which we are timed.  I like the way she plays different genres of music according to our given assignment. This method helps us, I guess to think and be able to write at least a paragraph to a page, rather than being stock in the assignment. It causes us to flow.

I think timing our assignment was a food thing because it causes you to think harder and a little more in depth.  I also thing by doing these timed assignments allows you to complete something like a first draft.  It is like the brain-storming part of what we need to do, and later developed for a grade.

Reading articles like Genre Writing Awareness, Rhetorical Analysis, and Shitty First Drafts, did open some awareness for me, and caused me to understand a little more about the different types of writing and how many times we should rewrite, to have a polished assignment.  Creating a Recipe of our own I think was also a great idea.  This exercise allowed me to think.  Starting off the semester writing about freedom was a good thing we had done.  Having to be able to improve our grade is also another good thing you professor Schmerler have granted to us.

Yours Truly,

 

 

____________     5/20/2019

Nadia Douglas