Class Evaluation

What was most helpful to your development as a writer, reader, and thinker? Why?
The most helpful part of class for me as a writer was the development of a structure that I can use for my writing process. I didn’t ever really understand or utilize the first draft and then improve method. I wanted my first draft to be perfect and so I would sit and stew and delete far more than I wrote. The class helped me to realize that I can begin at a place that I am not happy with, and then improve from there. I was also challenged in this class. I don’t feel like I was able to sail by, as I was in high school or other English classes because I was above the curve. I was assessed on my ability and made to improve from there.
The blog was a joy for me. I found that I did some of my best writing for the year on the blog. I was able to capture an emotion in my writing. I have some pieces from there that I will really treasure.
As a reader I was given a whole new genre. I had never really read essays before this class. I have something entirely new to discover and to love. This has given reading new life for me. I really enjoy the idea that so much can be said with so little. I love to try and coax new meaning out of a sparsely worded piece.
As a thinker I grew to understand, or had to make, connections to why I feel the way I do. I had to not just write down my conclusions but to take the reader step by step through the thought process. It was very difficult for me but I learned about myself and about the writing process and I discovered that although I felt like some times I was stating the obvious e.g. that the extreme things women do for beauty are wrong, that when I did walk through them the things I had to say became much more powerful and personal rather than just stating them.

What can you do to continue/improve this development?
To continue and improve I must write more. I need to write for me, not for a class or assignment, but for me. That is where there are no boundaries and grammar rules or MLA formats. In that place I have found that I do my best writing. I need to confront some of the serious things in my life. When I write for me it is usually a simple log of my activities and feelings for my journal. If I were to start writing for myself, but tackling the serious issues in my life, I would be going somewhere.

What did you learn from the reading in this course? Which essay(s) did you enjoy the most? Why? What did it teach you about good writing?
I learned what the essay really is. That is has much more potential then people give it. It is an underutilized writing type. There were all kinds of great snippets that I picked up from the readings. It is hard to put them all down here. I learned that I was really adverse to the conventions. I knew I hated grammar and punctuation, but I didn’t realize how much. I learned that I am afraid of having children because of that little bit at the end of A Farewell To Arms when the wife and child die. I don’t want to put the person that I love most in the world into that much danger and pain and chance. I pulled that out of Anchovidad. I really liked that piece. It was humorous but it brought up a serious point that we learn to know and love our children. I guess I would learn to know and love a child, but I am afraid of risking someone I know for someone I don’t
I loved the knife, and Rooster Fish. Final comprehensive. Roughly taught me something that I already know. You fail fail fail before you succeed. I just think it is stupid to purposefully put so many failures in front of people that they don’t make it through them. Why physical science for a writer? I don’t need that. Don’t go on about how “you may learn something that you will write about, or you will be able to converse about science, or you are learning how to learn.” my TO WRITE ABOUT: folder is brimming already. I can hardly get to the material I have because I have to be troubled about wither or not electricity is a wave or a particle. Let me learn how to learn on things I WANT TO LEARN! I fell like Matherly was going through the same feelings that I am in this period of time when she wrote this essay. Those are just a few of the things that I learned.

Describe the writing process that you find most beneficial for you. Why does it work? How can it be improved?
I need alot of time to work on something before I turn it in. I also need no distractions. I want a pure week of writing and revising before I can turn in an essay. Ideally this would be the best writing process for me. I learn about an assignment and I begin work early. I have a completed draft about a week in advance. I can take the draft to my writing circle and have them look it over and call me on my bull. Then I take it back and I write again. Back to the writing circle, and more changes. I want this to happen three times before I finally have the real essay, the changed and refined writing that I am proud of ready to turn in.
To improve this process I think that I need to plan to give myself time, and actually work when the time is available. I also need to get further south or buy a sun lamp or something. This winter business is just too much for me. It saps all the drive and life and love out of me for some reason. So to improve I need to utilize my time, plan so I have the week, and get out of the house and to my writing circle.
The writing process I have works because I am honest in my writing, and I have to come down to the How/why’s of things. I am challenged to be better and not accepted for the first piece of writing I put out.

How has the blog been beneficial to you as a writer and as a person? How? Why?
Well the blog has made me a better writer. It stretched the scope of things that I believe I am capable of covering in my writing. It also made me read and react to writing in a more sophisticated way. I wrote with a certain goal in mind. I tried to evoke a certain emotion or reaction from a reader where previously I threw things out there and didn’t really pay attention to what they did to people or me when they were read.
As a person the blog has been beneficial to me because of the things it has captured that I would have other wise let slip by. The writings in the blog have been things that I will treasure and things that I am proud of.

What was your favorite assignment of the semester? Why?
My favorite assignment of the semester was the short personal essay. I felt like we had the most freedom and space for creativity in that essay. As the year went on the creative factor was harder and harder to squeeze into essays because of all the MLA formating, research and conventions. I am not saying that I didn’t learn alot from those or that I disliked the writing I did in their boundaries. That pure freedom to write something meaningful and creative and have it taken seriously was very wonderful.

What was your favorite part of class? Why?
The writing conferences. I felt like the energy and the learning and the development in that setting was great. I think that was a significant part of the development I gained in this class.

How is the final portfolio beneficial to you? How do you think differently about your writing because of it?
I believe the final portfolio made me take my work seriously. It let me see it in a book with a title page and a cover and I got to put some creativity into the portfolio which was cool. I really am glad that we are not having a final about grammar and conventions and MLA formating. So the portfolio saved me from that. It also let me present my work to people in a serious way. To pitch what I have written to people and tell them why I think it is important and significant. That is something I will hopefully do in the future so it was a positive experience to have some practice doing it.

Why is submitting your work to a public audience (on the blog and to journals, etc.) beneficial?
I would love to write for my living. To submit what I have written is a real step I have to take. To be forced, or guided more so, to take that step was nice because now I have that experience under my belt and I know what I will take and what the process will be like and what to expect sort of. I think it will be a good thing to know. I also loved the feed back that I got from people in the class and from the journal i submitted to.



If you were to take this class again, what would you want to change and what would you want to keep?
I would throw all the conventions and MLA stuff out the window. I would focus on the creative and the truthful and emotional and real. I don’t want to come across to negatively on what I will call the “restrictive” part of the class, because I learned alot even in those restrictions, but I felt like what I was learning in the “free” part of the class was so much more important. I wanted to focus on that.

What did you learn in this class that you will apply to other situations? How?
I learned that walking the reader through a thought process and explaining details can be much more meaningful than just stating a conclusion that I came to. I am going to apply this to my personal relationship. I can communicate much more effectively with my parents if I tell them, step by step how I came to a conclusion rather than just state it and try to defend it.
I learned that my writing improves with time and attention and work. That I can develop success over time. I learned that if I plan and am ready in advance that things go much better for me. I am going to take this to other classes, and to my place of employment. To my next college program and to relationships.


What makes good writing? Why? Give examples. How can you contribute to that sphere of good writing?
Good writing for me is a combination of many things. There is a certain feeling or energy in the writing that I connect to. I would call that the pace or the tempo.
Speech is something that is difficult to capture, so good writing must do that. There have to be conversations that I feel are real and compelling. I love to be able to feel like I was a part of an interesting conversation in reading. I pick up most of my speech patterns from books and writing.
Kind of on that same note, I want the author to connect to me on a personal note. I feel like the best writing is written to me and the author is letting me into his inner circle and having a personal aside with me.
I can contribute to that sphere of writing by making sure that my writing does the things that good writing is supposed to. I can check to make sure it does by having people I trust read my writing and be honest with me about its potential and strong points.

Anything else you need to get out about the class.

I don’t have anything really it was a great class. I am just sad that I have to disconnect kind of and move on. Wish I could have it as a permanent class on my schedule.