Harrison Hope
Unit 4 Reflection
5/2/2016
Have you ever had a subject that you could cover in your sleep and still get an A? I have, and that subject was not and is still not writing. In high school, my 9th grade English teacher, Ms. Scoggins, was the most supportive teacher to walk the halls of Chamblee High School. Even though I struggle with articulating my thoughts and attempting to put them down on paper, you could do no wrong in the eyes of Ms. Scoggins. Ever since then I have been able to keep my head up through shitty teacher after shitty teacher until I took writing 105 last year, my first semester of my freshmen year. I barely passed the class due to earning a C minus on multiple papers. Even after visits to the writing center I could not end up on the same page as my teacher in terms of understanding the expectations I needed to meet in order to be more successful in the class. Did this leave me excited to take another writing class my sophomore year? Absolutely not. However, through successful teaching methods, fantastic workshops, and strong support this year, I have begun to look forward to doing research and putting my thoughts and work into words again.
From the get go with Unit 1, I was enthusiastic about researching food politics and watching food Inc. Although I had a strong start and participated in the workshops, the latter end of the unit was a struggle for me; not because of the class but because of poor allocation of time and resources on my end. My favorite portion of unit 1 was watching Food Inc., naturally, but not because we just got to watch TV in class but due to the fact that we had to write down expert quotes and statistics. I am an avid fan of fun facts and random knowledge so having the opportunity to expand my understanding of farming and the food industry’s effect on my everyday life was intriguing. I highly suggest doing that again from a teaching standpoint in the future if given the chance. When it came to the final paper, I rushed to get it done at the last minute which was not only a waste of my time and education but an insult to the teacher as well. In the end though I was able to both identify and apply the art of Pathos, Kairos, Logos, and Ethos along with being able to properly research and cite outside sources.
I consider myself to be a fairly sociable and outgoing so after just squeezing by in Unit 1, Unit 2 was more my piece of cake– Ted Talk Presentations. Contrary to Unit 1, I started off shaky for this unit. When we worked on the Post-It Easel Pads jotting down our topic for discussion I was clueless on what I wanted to research. Although I appreciated the workshop, it was much more helpful for me to just sit at my laptop and start researching on my own, scrolling through pages and pages of potential topics. With categories ranging from domestic violence in the NFL to political campaigns, I was finally able to settle on the topic of Bill H.R. 1013, the bill that decriminalizes marijuana. Once my issue was decided I was able to make a killer PowerPoint presentation to compliment my rehearsed Ted Talk. By mixing in some jokes with factual information, I was able to get back on track in the class by hitting the project out of the park.
Coming off of a hot streak in unit 2, I feel confident that I was able to complete unit 3 to the best of my abilities. For me, the best workshop in this unit was the Scramble draft activity. By having an unbiased proofreader put my paper in order based on how she felt it would flow best, I was able to consider different ways to piece my paragraphs together. In the end I chose to switch up the course that portions of my paper followed making it better than ever.
I have never been too confident in my writing but by the end of this class I am now much more open to constructive criticism and the perspectives of others. I enjoy the challenges brought on by this course and I hope to continue bettering my writing techniques during writing 307 next fall.