Retrospective Essay

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I remember opening the syllabus for W131 on my first day of the semester. I read through it hoping that it would help prepare me. Before going into W131, I wasn't feeling that confident. All throughout high school, I have always loved writing until I took AP Composition. It was a very difficult class and the teacher emphasized that the difficulty of the course is meant to prepare us for college English courses. I was constantly reading boring textbooks, working on challenging essays, and listening to monotone lectures. Thinking about taking an actual English college course made me very anxious. However, as the semester is coming to an end, I can say that it has been an amazing course and I enjoyed it thoroughly. The whole semester whenever I worked on assignments for this class it felt like I was getting creative. I was engaging in the class, not for the grade, but for the knowledge and skills I am gaining. The course is like none I've ever taken and it has taught me a lot.

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The two projects I would like to showcase for my final ePortfolio are the film review and the immersion experience. I really enjoyed writing these and would like to showcase them. 

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Discovering, exploring, and analyzing ideas in order to write with a strong sense of ownership is one of the semester goals for W131. My immersion experience this semester was a very enjoyable aspect of this course that helped me achieve this goal. I'd never been enrolled in a course with assignments that encouraged me to learn by getting out there. The immersion experience was something that really did change my first semester in college. It was the first time I was doing an assignment and enjoying it. It was the first time I worked hard on an assignment and truly understood why I was doing it. Many texts we read for the course show the benefits of learning by immersing yourself in an experience. An example is Jennifer Percy's "My Terrifying Night with Afghanistan's female warlord" where Percy goes to visit the warlord Commander Pigeon in person. Although it might've been dangerous and difficult to get there, especially due to the difficulty of arranging a meeting with a foreign warlord, she was able to experience it for herself and capture the true story. Getting to do something similar to that this semester has taught me a lot and ignited a new passion for me. 

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Another goal for this course is to use sources effectively by synthesizing ideas, integrating them smoothly, and documenting them correctly. I have also learned many writing strategies and techniques that helped me better integrate my sources. The main thing I benefitted from was learning how to structure an ICE-ICE synthesis paragraph. The ICE-ICE strategy taught me how to correctly introduce my sources then make an accurate logical connection between them. This has also helped me reach another course goal for the semester which is shaping, revising, and editing my writing to meet the concerns of purpose and audience. In my film review, I went back and added quotes from articles coming from two different sources and made a connection between them. Both articles were talking about the remarkable cinematography of the film and I ended the paragraph with, "Through superlative cinematography, we are shown the diverse exquisite species and the pollution that harms and kills them". After adding this paragraph and synthesizing sources, my film review had reliable, credible, and integrated information. By better integrating my sources and forming good connections, the reader will benefit from knowing the connection I am making between my sources. 

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I have learned many things this semester from W131. Initially going into it I wasn't excited to be in another English course that focussed only on the traditional way of learning. However, this course has been able to teach me ways to learn that keep me engaged. Getting to design a whole website as my ePortfoilio kept me motivated throughout the semester and I truly enjoyed it. After taking this course, I can say with full confidence I can create a clear focus and provide sufficient support.