English Course Reflection
Dear students,
I am writing this letter hoping that it will help you to gain insight on ENG 105 course taught by Katie Donoviel based on my good and bad experiences. Some of the activities that I carried out as part of the course included: writing projects, reading logs, presentations, and peer review groups. Generally, we had 5 writing projects, 13 reading logs, 2 presentations, in addition to the peer review groups. The first presentation was a group presentation on issues to do with grammar, commas and the like while the second presentation was on The Impact of Social Media on Teenagers which basically is the fifth assignment. We also did peer review groups once after handing in the rough draft. This gave us the opportunity to revise our group mates’ papers and to give them helpful comments.
The most interesting concepts for me were the presentations mainly the one that talked about the impact of social media on teenagers as part of assignment 5. The main point that stood out the completion of this paper and the presentation was the fact that this issue separates the people’s point of view since some see it as an amazing phenomenon while others find reason to be concerned of the actual impacts that it has on our lives (The Impact of Social Media on Teenagers 1). It is interesting to note that, social media is a concept that most of us identify with, however few of us know the negative impacts attributed with its use. Thus, if you go through the course and get a chance to do a presentation based on a research topic, just try to get the most out of it. It is always exciting to present concepts when you have all the information at your fingertips.
Additionally, writing an annotated bibliography before the final draft is written also introduces you to a vast array of literature by several authors. This gives you the chance to decide which of the authors’ claims are good enough to back up your research. This was the main task of assignment 4. The rhetorical analysis of Drake’s “Hotline Bling” in assignment 1also enabled me to gain more insight on the use of rhetorical devices of pathos and ethos in comparing the past and current relationship of the author and his lover in his attempt to win her back (Rhetorical Analysis of Drake’s “Hotline Bling” 1).
The parts of this course that I did not like the most were the reading logs and the third writing assignment. Generally, I missed a lot of these reading logs. On the other hand, I found the third writing assignment to be very difficult. Actually got the lowest grade in this assignment compared to the others. First, we had to analyze the different forms of writing, their characteristics and how they can be applied in different fields (Hypothesis 1). Then, I had to conduct an interview with Salem Al Harban who is an assistant engineer at Kuwait Oil Company. This personal interview was used for project analysis. The interview was in line with the job evaluation that I did later on the company (The Interview 2). We then had to come up with a blog post and finally compile the important concepts used in civil engineering writing (Blog Post 3). At least I learnt why the civil engineering writings use the Modern Language Association (MLA) formatting and publishing and its writings. Using this format makes it hard for individuals to corrupt, duplicate or trade in published works without the conscience of the writer (Civil Engineering Writing Format 4).
Generally, ENG 105 course was very exciting due to the vast number of ideas that I equipped myself with during the period of the course. The instructor was nothing but kind to us and very patient since she was always ready to assist even when we kept going back for the same issue. The assignments we did helped us to gain more confidence in ourselves and in our research methods. It was also important for us to work together in teams since we got to understand each other more and this made it easy for us to appreciate the comments that our team mates wrote on our papers. However, I still feel that it is important to reduce the number of these reading logs and the workload in assignment 3 or to give it in two separate assignments so as to enable the students to increase the quality of their work. However, this should not discourage you but rather; it should prepare you for the great time you will have doing this course.
Works Cited
Hypothesis, The Interview, Blog Post #3, Civil Engineering Writing Format, WP1.
Job Evaluation: Kuwait Oil Company or BP?, WP2.
Rhetorical Analysis of Drake’s “Hotline Bling”, WP1.
The Impact of Social Media on Teenagers, WP4.
The Impact of Social Media on Teenagers, WP5 Final.
