Journal 10: Self and Course Relfection

This course is very well planned out. I was so surprised by the effort Ms. Afzal put into the class and from behind a screen, she made it as close to a real classroom experience as possible. I loved the personality of it all and I liked that the course was taught through films. Not only was I to learn about writing persuasive essays, learn about rhetoric and genre, etc. as I had expected at the beginning of the year. I got to watch films, which I used to believe was a casual pastime, and learn how to understand the way they worked. Ms. Afzal’s collection of films and videos from great sources was very impressive and I was never bored watching any of them. They were very intriguing and didn’t really seem like “school” at all to me. She would always have class discussions that were connected to our next Journal or project and so often I would use the information and the jargon I got from videos and lectures in my projects. That made my writing doable, as I believe it was originally challenging. I liked the prompts she provided for us and the projects appealed to me because I had the opportunity to write about what I most cared for. I very much loved this course, however, I am more of a people person, so I really enjoy being in a shared class room. Due to my circumstances, I was forced into an online class, but I am sure glad that I took this one. I struggled with the technological portion quite a bit, as I am not fluid in that department. Twitter has never been something I loved, just because I don’t like checking something constantly and responding to feel like I have no responses back, because that’s usually the case on my social-media’s. However, Sarah made sure to comment on every post or like it for a confirmation that someone heard it! It was more appealing to me to speak with other academic people and having positive talks about movies or the Rhetorical Triangle.

As for the workshopping that was offered in this class, I was very happy with the way it turned out. Each workshop we would have, and we had quite a few, Ms. Afzal would give us a new discussion group with different students in it each round. I found that to be particularly helpful when I had workshop mates that wouldn’t post a lot of comments on my drafts. I love constructive criticism more than most people, so I was a little disappointed to see only 2 comments on my drafts. I love that aspect of ENC 2135. We, as novice citizens of society, should be encouraged to work with others and really get comfortable doing that, because we need those skills in the work force. For the drafting process, I believe that this class really drilled into my brain what encompasses each step. Get out anything that comes to your head about the topic, organize it, add good diction and syntax, and perfect! It is hard to start writing a paper expecting it to be perfect as you type it! You won’t go anywhere and you’ll get anxious. Seeing the others student’s drafts in comparison helped me understand where I stood on the scale of understanding the project. Because Ms. Afzal’s projects were very open ended, it was hard to know which direction to go in. By a couple student’s drafts, I was able to see if I liked the direction I was going in, or if I could be inspired to do it another way.

My favorite project was Project 1, where we got to pick a scene from a movie and using the cinematic jargon we learned in class, describe it. I chose my favorite movie of all time and I believe that is why I loved this project so much. I would say the project that I put least effort into was the Twitter account because I often pushed it out of my mind due to the fact that I never could get used to the app. However, it was a school project so I feel I should’ve gotten over that. It wasn’t that hard. If I got an opportunity to go back in time and re-do this class, I would surely try harder on Twitter and actually comment on other people’s posts, and I would not do it in 6 weeks, with two other very difficult classes taking so much of my attention. I wish I could’ve given this class more. You get out of something what you put into it. I am sad I was going through anxiety and depression so it was extremely difficult to put in as much effort as I truly wanted to. I loved this teacher though. She was very understanding and accommodating for me and let me turn in assignments.

I honestly think this whole class was planned out very well that I am not sure I know what criticism to give. Of course, every class can grow in what the students may want teachers to do, but Sarah taught the curriculum very well and made it interesting and pushed us to connect with each other. That is awesome. I at first thought it was a lot to do, but then in retrospection, I realized what an amazing class this was.