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Josh Thaw
ENC 1101
Final Reflection

Writing has never been my strong suit. My mother is a talented

writer and so is her mother and so on but unfortunately I was blessed
with my fathers writing genes and they tend to struggle a little more. I
always used my mother for help with writing but for this course I
wanted to solely learn from my teacher about writing. Ive more about
writing this semester than I ever have before. Being able to stay on
topic, write well-formed complex sentences and research correctly
have been a struggle for me for many years. This semester was an
extremely strong semester for me and highly successful one for
English.
Throughout high school my English teachers drilled the fiveparagraph essay format into my head and to this day I still think about
it! My teachers never focused on our actual writing but rather if we
followed the format of an outline for a five paragraph essay. This
hindered my ability to step and learn the basics of writing before
coming to college making English class extremely difficult for me.
Even more work ethic was different coming into ENC1101 on the first
day. A typical A paper in high school wouldnt even pass for a grade
in an English college course. At first I thought it was bad that I couldnt

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write very well but over the first few weeks I realized it was blessing to
be able to start writing fresh. I was able to learn a whole new way of
writing that will help me far beyond the classroom. Many subjects
students take in college may be something they never use again but
English is something we will need till the day we top breathing. The
teachers arent necessarily more difficult for stricter in any way but a
college professor grades the paper off of how well you followed the
topic of the paper and your overall writing not just the format.
Being a business major and possibly a minor in criminology soon
means that writing will be something I have forever. Business emails
and letter sent in either major need to be strong. My dad runs two
companies and over summers I enjoy working for him not for money or
to blow time but to see that business is more than just having a
product someone wants but its being intelligent in all areas of
business and one of them is writing. AS stated before, my father is not
the strongest writer but that doesnt mean he didnt become strong
over the years. This course helped me realize that writing will be
something I also use in my major throughout my career and that I will
never stop learning new techniques to help me become a better writer.
Our first paper we had to narrate a chronological story from a
different perspective. For this paper I had to go back in time and figure
out how music really effected me emotionally and physically over the
years. Once I figured that out I started thinking back about stories and

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memories where music drastically changed who I was as a person for
the better or possibly for the worse. The paper was overall a great
start to the course; it wasnt too easy or too difficult. The paper did
how ever teach me a whole new method of writing, which was to write
in chronological order. I had only done five paragraph essays in high
school so this paper was new and exciting challenge for me. This
course has helped teach me about writing in first person without going
too far off topic.
For our second paper I had to analyze a very specific item. I had
to analyze a 30 second opening video clip of a concert. This was the
most difficult paper for me to accomplish. I had never analyzed any
paper before so this was completely new. My first few drafts were not
the best because I wasnt analyzing the video clips but simply talking
about the band and not as much as the clip. This paper helped me
become a stronger writer with being more detailed. I didnt even think
it was possible to write 2000 words on a 30 second clips with just
analyzing until this paper was completed. At times I caught myself
having writer block to find the right adjective or topic for the next
paragraph with a new angle to analyze the clip that would help the
audience better understand my analyization. For this paper I also had
to change how I wrote. I was so used to researching a topic than
writing about it than researching some more and so on..etc. This paper
required almost no research because the only thing I needed to

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continue analyzing was the clip. I learned an enormous amount about
analyzing and being able to write an entire paper without any broad
speculation and staying on topic as well.
In my third paper I was given a topic that I never heard of in high
school. I had to write about an inappropriate advertisement and
develop an anti-ad for it and analyze it as well. This paper was new for
me because I wasnt sure what angle I was going to approach it. I
knew the analyzation in this paper would be more broad and
generalized than the last paper but not too much. I had to talk about
the company that created the anti-advertisement and give information
about that. This paper really challenged me because the last two
paper there was always more information to talk about but with this
paper you had to use creativity to figure out new ideas to change the
ad which in return gives the writer more topics to discuss. Not only did
I have to write about the inappropriate ad and talk about how to help
change the ad to be more appropriate but I also had to recreate the ad
as well to fit people of all ages. This paper felt like a battle between
analyzing and giving background information about the situation.
Writing the paper had a mix feeling as if it was a mix between paper
one and paper two. I loved the challenge for the last paper.
English class this semester taught me more than I ever thought I
would ever learn in an English classroom. Having already took
ENC1102 over summer I though this course would be a cake walk but I

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was challenged but all three papers to accomplish the best that I can.
The papers alone helped me become not only a better writer but it
gave me the ability to write differently weather its analyzing, giving
background information, or telling a story from the past. Not only has
my style of writing expanded but I feel as if Im writing stronger
sentences now. I wanted to be able to leave college being able to write
complex sophisticated sentences and as I finish my freshman year
most that goal has been accomplished. English class was an absolute
pleasure this semester.