Final Exam-Cortney Hazelrigg

Cortney Hazelrigg

Mr. Neuburger

English 102

12 December 2011

English 102 Final

Coming into this English 102 class I was a little on edge, I have heard from many friends that in 102 there is a lot of writing and essays that you do over the semester. I was surprised when we went over the course objectives and through the first two weeks I was feeling much better about this class.
I have learned a lot about academic writing throughout this semester and I have learned much more than any other English class that I have taken before. I have learned the most and the most helpful information has been the researching and citations. Even in high school I have not learned much about either until this class. I believe that the information that I have learned in this class will stay with me and help me out through everything else while going to school.
Writing the research paper I was going into thinking that it would be another horrible experience and writing at the last minute to get in finished, but again I was shocked! It was nice having so much class time to write and do the research during class. I found it very helpful that we could ask any question and could ask in class unlike most times where I would have been at home and waiting for an email. It was also very helpful with all the books and resources that you gave us during class and really made writing the paper so much easier. I wish all teachers would do it this way but that would be too much to ask for.
The short one paragraph essays were extremely helpful too; it really made you think about what to say since we were limited how many words. I enjoyed writing them and found it to be challenging for myself which is good for a person every now and then. I wish that more teachers would do the essays like those because students would be challenging themselves, and over time it is going to make us better writers.
The use of so much technology was a lot of fun, but then became frustrating at the same time. I enjoyed using the twitter because I usually won’t speak up and say what I want to say so that made it nice that we could all talk about a topic and everyone could participate at once. On the other side I can see where it might be a good thing to make students talk out loud and become comfortable with speaking and their class mates. I also really enjoyed blogger I thought it was a really cool way of keeping track of your assignments. Again it did get confusing when we would have to do all the different things with the assignments but it was challenging and taught me that it might take time but it is good to learn new things. I would have to say my favorite project was the video. I use to make videos like the one we had to do in class when I was younger and loved being creative and making a master piece. I never knew how many cool things you could do with it though, like the talking and being able to make different music. I liked how we were able to make the topic anything we wanted and now I have learned a lot more about my grandparents and their lives out in Sparta. For me personally the movie came at a perfect time in my life. It was only a few weeks earlier that I thought Gator was not going to make it, he ended up getting really sick and lost a bunch of weight. He pulled through whatever he was sick with and now is eating and being his grumpy old self again. So being able to make this video and finding all the old pictures of me and him was very special to me and made me realize how many good memories I have with him. I will keep this video forever and I will have it to look back on when he is no longer here with me.
Things that maybe would have enhanced the class was maybe not so much of the online stuff. It is a good thing to being able to talk in front of the class and learn that public speaking is not so rough. Even though I loved how we had so much time and were going step by step on the research paper, I don’t think it is the best to take things in baby steps because it is not how college works and many teachers just expect it to get done and they are not helpful like you are.
Overall this class was a lot of fun, and I did learn a lot about all sorts of different things with writing and using all of the new websites and different ways of communicating. I can only hope that my English classes from now on would be like this class and this much fun, but I am not going to hold my breath for that to happen. Hopefully all the things that I have learned will stick with me through the rest of my schooling and I can remember all the little things that make writing so much easier.