Dear
Professor Cline,
With taking this online English class
I wasn’t sure how much different it would be compared to taking it in a
physical classroom. Overall I’m glad this class was available online. With the
blogs the class feels more engaging instead of empty like some other online
classes. Also reading other students work and their perspectives is helpful.
The biggest challenge in the class I’ve
had so far is just starting the writing process. Getting my ideas on paper are
always hard. Once I have started writing my breakdown of the reading I can
usually keep going. Another challenge I’ve had is differentiating between
summary and analysis. It’s so easy to summarize rather than exploring deeper
meaning which can be a problem.
I think my biggest success has been my
literary analysis of a poem. The way my essay turned out has impressed me. I
can still find areas in the essay to make corrections to make it better though.
From where I have come from in terms of writing skills to today is amazing. I
feel like I have improved.
Well the readings in the class surprised
me. Before I read Frankenstein I expected the story would be dull old book but
it surprised me. Sure they’re some students who thought it wasn’t great but I
enjoyed reading the novel as well as my poem. The novel was full of emotion and
there are good thought provoking ideas in there. The book is a classic for a
reason. The poem I wrote about was full of rich imagery. Because both readings kept
me interested it has made the writing essays about them much easier. I like
having the choice about what poem I got to write about.
Literary analysis is different from
other types of writing because I actually have to delve deeper into the text to
find out the symbols and meanings. Literary analysis is also different because
there is no right answer. I just need to provide evident to support my thoughts.
With the second half of the session my
goals are to just continue to improve my writing skills. I want to make my
final project decent. I want to make my ideas and sentences in essays to flow
together better. I want to make the most
out of this class because this is probably the last English class I will ever
take. Writing essays is not something I enjoy but I know the only way to
improve my skills and abilities are to practice.
Sincerely,
Jordan Anderson
Jordan,
ReplyDeleteI think it is great that you are focused and know exactly what you want to improve on! Good luck. I also enjoyed Frankenstein, more than I thought I would, I think it was a great book to read. The final project is scaring me a little because of all the outside source book we must read.
I also have some problems, like you, with analysis. It is so much easier to just summarize, I liked the way you said, "Literary analysis is also different because there is no right answer." I agree, it is mainly your interpretation of the ideas and themes. Good job.