Course Reflection Page

Sarah Britton 

Longhany 

ENC 1102 

23 April 2014 

Course Reflection

            Taking this course has opened my eyes to a whole new way of writing and creativity. When I entered this class I thought it was going to be an English course that would earn me an easy A—I was wrong. I thought that I would have to read and take tests on what I read. I thought this course was going to be like every other English class that I ever took; I thought regurgitating information would get me through this class. 

            In ENC 1101, when I found out that we wouldn't be given a solidified topic to write about I was terrified. My life as always been all about order and organization and the thought of having to be creative and not having any direction as to what I was going to write scared me. For the first month of ENC 1101 I was so lost, but not in a way that you feel lost in a math class where absolutely nothing makes any sense, it was more of a baffled lost where I didn’t know how to properly handle myself when given so much freedom. Eventually the feelings of being terrified and lost subsided and I began to realize that I wasn’t as bad of a writer as I initially thought. ENC 1101 gave me the confidence I needed as a writer, and if I never took that class I would have never been able to successfully complete ENC 1102.

            I do realize that this is a course reflection for ENC 1102, but I felt it was necessary to include how ENC 1101 set a foundation for me going into this course. After taking ENC 1101 I entered this class not knowing what to expect. At first, when I found out this course would be based on a research paper I thought it would be a breeze, but I didn’t realize how much work it would take. Before this course if you were to ask me to explain what a research paper is, I would have explained a paper where you gather information from previous researchers and restate all the claims they’ve made. After I realized that I would have to make up my own unique argument that was different from any other previous research, I started to get scared again. I always think I’m a lot less creative than I actually am and I had no idea how I was going to make up an argument that was completely my own.

As I began this journey with my research I found myself feeling lost again, but as I continued to do all the little assignments and research my primary research question, I could tell that something beautiful was beginning to form. All of the research I read gave me new little ideas that I could use to make an argument on but none of them felt completely right until we read the article about how different generations perceive each other—it was like I had an epiphany while I was reading because I finally knew what argument I would make.

ENC 1102 taught me that I am creative and that just because I get to decide what direction a project takes doesn’t mean that should scare me. Taking ENC 1101 and 1102 opened my mind. Although some parts of the journey made me feel lost, I wouldn’t have it any other way. This course taught me more than just how to write a paper, it taught me that I should learn to be more confident in my intelligence, even when faced with things that I think I’m inadequate at. Most of all this class taught me how to think of things outside the box; I learned to question everything and I learned that I should never stop learning new things. Although I’m not a very vocal person, all of the Ted talks really made me think about things differently and I enjoyed every single one of them. 

Maybe I’m getting too sentimental because I’m realizing my freshman year of college is already over, but I really did thoroughly enjoy taking this class. I think the reason why I enjoyed this class so much was because I actually learned a lot and was able to take away a lot of valuable lessons. Thank you for being a great ENC 1101 and 1102 teacher and teaching me lots of knowledge (not sucking up just saying).