Introductory Reflection
With the English 250 class in its closing chapter in the Spring 2011 semester, it has been an interesting and exciting experience for me. I always saw English as subject that did not fall close to my interests. But after this semester, my thoughts have changed. I strongly feel that the small class size, compared to most of my engineering classes, has helped make the class more enjoyable. The course’s aim is to improve its students through WOVE (Written Oral Visual and Electronic) modes. Although there were some imperfections, I felt the course was pretty well laid out to achieve its goals. The assignments were very specific and helped me realize my strengths and weaknesses, and gave me a chance to improve. Through the semester I have learned a lot of new things, improved on concepts I knew and also was able to realize what I did not know. Let me take you through a rough tour of how this course has helped me better myself.
The first few assignments concentrated on summarizing and analyzing written text. This was something completely new to me and gave me the chance to look deeper in written texts. I realized that a deeper understanding of a text helped you realize the author’s reason behind writing it and if he is biased or not. It also gave you a better picture of the message that the author was trying to convey. The fourth unit concentrated on rhetorical analysis of visuals such as print ads. This showed me a whole new side of analysis in English. The last unit’s major component was collecting information. It helped me improve on my information searching skills. I had the opportunity to explore Google Scholar and more websites that would help me gather as much information as possible that is relevant to the topic. I also got to use the library for the first time for searching information related to my mediation paper. The next task was putting this information together. This is probably the most difficult part for me and I have definitely been struggling with my organization of information. I realized the importance of transitions, organization and flow of information from one assignment to another based on my instructor’s feedback. The emphasis on editing and revising your work before submitting has helped me see the huge number of silly mistakes that I commit while writing my first draft. Peer review, being a part of the review process, was something new and interesting for me. It helped me see others work and at the same time correct mistakes in my work that I overlooked. It provides a great opportunity for me to see how others think of my style of writing. I have made some significant amount of changes after feedback from my peers and instructor, which helped me improve my language skills. I also had the opportunity to interview two of my engineering professors for my research paper that introduced me to the whole new field of interviewing and communication. This brief explanation has summed up most of the things in the course that has helped me improve my English writing skills and other components that help me get to that point. Now let’s see what the WOVE modes are and how the course accomplishes them.
The Written part of the WOVE mode is a major component of every assignment that was given (English 250 Assignments). It tests your context, substance, organization, style and delivery. As I had mentioned earlier, the different assignments have helped me improve the context, substance and organization of my work. But I still feel that I have remained where I was in terms of style and delivery of my writing. I also feel that I have to improve a lot in my vocabulary, to make my writing more interesting. My instructor’s feedback on all of my assignments included many mistakes in mechanics of sentences and flow of information. Moving on to Oral, the course gives you two opportunities to talk about your assignment to your class. Assignment 4 (Visual Rhetorical Analysis) and Assignment 5 (Compose to Mediate) were two assignments where we could share our work and decisions with our class through PowerPoint or any medium of convenience. I felt that I was proficient at speaking in front of the class and explaining my work. Having presented in front of a class a good number of times before, I feel that I have been continually improving my presentations skills. Overall, I think I am a good speaker and the class provided with good opportunities to show it to my class and my instructor. Next is the Visual component. This was also major part of Assignment 4 and 5. Assignment 4, visual rhetorical analysis had a major emphasis on visual understanding of advertisements and a deep analysis on its effectiveness. Furthermore, both assignments required us to present our analysis to the class wherein visuals played a major role. Finally the Electronic part of WOVE. This has not been a major part of our assignment but was required to complete each assignment. The information was searched online and the PowerPoint presentations were a skill to develop. I also used Word to type in most of our assignments, which helped us realize the variety of tools that the software has to offer to help you make your writing better. I also used www.weebly.com to create my ePortfolio which consists of all the information that I had to turn in during this course.
Given these opportunities, it was the student’s responsibility to make sure he gained most out of it. I do feel that I put in my sincere efforts to make sure I gained as much as I can from this course. Although I am still not the best in English, this course has helped me become a lot better in its different components that I talked about earlier.
The first few assignments concentrated on summarizing and analyzing written text. This was something completely new to me and gave me the chance to look deeper in written texts. I realized that a deeper understanding of a text helped you realize the author’s reason behind writing it and if he is biased or not. It also gave you a better picture of the message that the author was trying to convey. The fourth unit concentrated on rhetorical analysis of visuals such as print ads. This showed me a whole new side of analysis in English. The last unit’s major component was collecting information. It helped me improve on my information searching skills. I had the opportunity to explore Google Scholar and more websites that would help me gather as much information as possible that is relevant to the topic. I also got to use the library for the first time for searching information related to my mediation paper. The next task was putting this information together. This is probably the most difficult part for me and I have definitely been struggling with my organization of information. I realized the importance of transitions, organization and flow of information from one assignment to another based on my instructor’s feedback. The emphasis on editing and revising your work before submitting has helped me see the huge number of silly mistakes that I commit while writing my first draft. Peer review, being a part of the review process, was something new and interesting for me. It helped me see others work and at the same time correct mistakes in my work that I overlooked. It provides a great opportunity for me to see how others think of my style of writing. I have made some significant amount of changes after feedback from my peers and instructor, which helped me improve my language skills. I also had the opportunity to interview two of my engineering professors for my research paper that introduced me to the whole new field of interviewing and communication. This brief explanation has summed up most of the things in the course that has helped me improve my English writing skills and other components that help me get to that point. Now let’s see what the WOVE modes are and how the course accomplishes them.
The Written part of the WOVE mode is a major component of every assignment that was given (English 250 Assignments). It tests your context, substance, organization, style and delivery. As I had mentioned earlier, the different assignments have helped me improve the context, substance and organization of my work. But I still feel that I have remained where I was in terms of style and delivery of my writing. I also feel that I have to improve a lot in my vocabulary, to make my writing more interesting. My instructor’s feedback on all of my assignments included many mistakes in mechanics of sentences and flow of information. Moving on to Oral, the course gives you two opportunities to talk about your assignment to your class. Assignment 4 (Visual Rhetorical Analysis) and Assignment 5 (Compose to Mediate) were two assignments where we could share our work and decisions with our class through PowerPoint or any medium of convenience. I felt that I was proficient at speaking in front of the class and explaining my work. Having presented in front of a class a good number of times before, I feel that I have been continually improving my presentations skills. Overall, I think I am a good speaker and the class provided with good opportunities to show it to my class and my instructor. Next is the Visual component. This was also major part of Assignment 4 and 5. Assignment 4, visual rhetorical analysis had a major emphasis on visual understanding of advertisements and a deep analysis on its effectiveness. Furthermore, both assignments required us to present our analysis to the class wherein visuals played a major role. Finally the Electronic part of WOVE. This has not been a major part of our assignment but was required to complete each assignment. The information was searched online and the PowerPoint presentations were a skill to develop. I also used Word to type in most of our assignments, which helped us realize the variety of tools that the software has to offer to help you make your writing better. I also used www.weebly.com to create my ePortfolio which consists of all the information that I had to turn in during this course.
Given these opportunities, it was the student’s responsibility to make sure he gained most out of it. I do feel that I put in my sincere efforts to make sure I gained as much as I can from this course. Although I am still not the best in English, this course has helped me become a lot better in its different components that I talked about earlier.
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