Thursday, August 27, 2015

High School English Classes

Hello Everyone! As I think about my high school career, it seems as if my English classes did not have a large impact on me. I didn't necessarily enjoy English classes nor dread them.  There were few assignments in which I felt passionate about and thoroughly liked researching, writing, and revising. However, there were a lot of assignments where I did not see a purpose, in fact, a lot of it just seemed like busy work.In addition, my like and dislike of the class depended largely upon the teacher. Some of my teachers in high school did not seem passionate about English and went through the class in a very mundane manner.  Personally, I liked my math and science classes much more than any other class. I like to have a clear distinction between what is wrong and what is right when I do schoolwork. Unlike math and science, I think English gave me too much free reign in deciphering the difference between an extraordinary and boring paper.
On the other hand, I do want to increase my writing and critical thinking skills. I would like to be able to interpret subjects on a deeper level whether it is in an conversation, reading literature, or in writing papers. I hope this class will be beneficial to me, and help me develop all the basic skills I have learned in high school. I hope our SLU class will be a great atmosphere for discussion, and a place to learn from each other. Overall, I am excited for this course and I am feeling optimistic towards all of our upcoming assignments.

3 comments:

  1. I totally get what you mean with the busy work. I have been in many situations where it seemed like we were doing something for the sole fact that we were in a writing class. I do disagree and think that writing is supposed to give you the free reign. A class can't be shown what to right or how exactly to write. You have to listen to that inner voice and put it on paper.

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  2. With regards to the wanting a clearer answer to what you're working on, I always see the primary objective of any writing I do to communicate as completely as possible my thoughts on an issue. To me this gives a more concrete goal because what is right is whatever somebody else can read and understand what you're trying to say, and from there just learning what kind of language facilitates clear communication by having others read what you write makes the feedback feel much more useful than something like just liking or disliking a writing.

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  3. I can definitely agree with you when you say you prefer a class that has distinct "right" or "wrong" answers. It always helped me in math to know that there was one answer, and I was correct if I got it. However, I do like English, because you have a bit more leeway - there isn't a "right" answer, really. It's more of an expression of ideas and thoughts instead of being kept in a box with what's the "right" answer to a particular question. I know you said you thought this freedom was a little bit too much and made writing difficult, but I think our class will give us the opportunity to discuss ideas and get on the right track to what would be an extraordinary paper/discussion/speech.

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