Download English 101 Reflection off. Final

K’Mani Blyden
Professor Tefft
English 101
December 2, 2016
Reflection
In high school, writing was very simple. When we received a writing assignment, we
would just write a basic expository or persuasive essay with our teacher or peers as the audience.
Everything changed when I entered my first college level writing course, English 101: Global
Climate Change and Multimedia at Emory University during the fall semester 2016. This course
demanded that I expand my writing skills and learn to write in multiple new genres, rhetorical
situations, and to write to audiences that I have never written to.
My writing process includes a beginning stage where I find out what topic I will be
writing on. This guides the rest of the process. Sometimes instead of writing an introductory
paragraph, I’ll just dive straight in and allow the ideas in my head to flow. This is because my
theory on writing has a spontaneous nature. I write spontaneously while following a specific
format laid out in the beginning. While writing, I engage in free writing while sticking to a
specific format. This helps me to get all the ideas out that were in my mind freely and if anything
new came up, I could easily add it without having to shift my entire essay around. By writing
freely, I can easily include information from my sources without plagiarizing. By internalizing
the information prior to writing, I can relay the information in my essay based on my
interpretation of it, rather than staring at the source and writing what it says without actually
thinking about it. My revision process is therefore extensive since there are a lot of mistakes that
can be made
I personally think that the conclusion sometimes is the hardest part. It is tricky because
you are restating the main points of your writing again just as in the intro but it has to be
different than the intro and wrap it all up.
One of the first major assignments I received in English 101 was an inquiry based essay
on the effects of ocean acidification on large coral reefs. This essay was different in a couple of
ways. This essay required me to write about 8 pages worth of information, which I had never
done. Previously, my writing was very condensed and compact but now I am forced to expand
upon my ideas and be more thorough which has changed my writing process. My audience and
genre was also different so the manner in which I wrote also change. Lastly, I had to find a way
to reel my audience in. For example, in my inquiry based essay, I started out my essay saying,
“In the opening scenes of the popular Disney movie Finding Nemo, the grand array of beautiful
colors and oceanic organisms is magnificently pictured by Pixar, coral reefs being one of them”.
By creating a popular visual that many are familiar with, I was able to create an interesting
introduction that got my audience interested. The inquiry-based essay also had a research aspect
where I had to include evidence to support my thesis. This meant that I had to include a works
cited page and also cite any facts that I included. This was a learning experience for me because I
rarely had to cite. I failed to cite certain points in my essay and luckily was given a chance to
include them. After writing this essay I learned many new things that I had never learned while
writing regular essays in high school.
Over the course of this class we had to write blogs which were totally different. It was
more like writing freely without a strict rubric. Blogs also had sentences that were shorter in
length and had to be appealing to the eye as well. A blog that is too lengthy would distract the
reader and possibly cause the reader to lose interest. Finding the perfect length for my blogs was
a little difficult but was easier when the topic of the blog was scientific which is where my
interest lies. Extensive planning for blogs with topics that lacked my interest was important to
make it easier to write. Unfortunately, being a newbie at the whole college thing led to a lack of
time management and procrastination was skip this more thorough planning period. As I
progress through college, time management will be one of the skills I will need to work on the
most, and I feel that if I do this, I will be more successful than I’ve ever been.
In my portfolio, I have an inquiry based essay on the effects of ocean acidification on
large coral reefs, and op-ed on that same topic, a podcast on public ignorance on electrical
sustainability at Emory, and about 7 blogs on carbon footprints and other topics.
Overall my audience changed for each genre. Op-eds are targeted toward those that read
articles online or in newspapers and are interested in expert opinion. Blogs are for those that care
about your thoughts on certain topics, or by those who stumble upon your website possibly by
social media. Same goes for my inquiry-based essay, but it is also targeted towards those with a
basic high school level of scientific understanding. My podcast was targeted towards those that
show up on the sight but more importantly Emory sustainability activists and the student body.
The podcast was probably the most unique assignment. Before the assignment, I had
never listened to a podcast, but after listening to a few in class I realized that is essentially a news
story like on television but without the visuals. This makes things like natural sound very
important. I learned that this helps make up for not having that visual aspect by still appealing to
the senses and making it more authentic. The use of interviews also adds credibility to your
podcast by providing first hand responses. Most importantly, my podcast called for action by
explaining what is required for progress at achieving a more aware and sustainable campus by
saying “If students are to take that individual action as mentioned by Mikaela Malsin, then they
must be aware of the cause and its benefits”.
By the end of this class I was able to Compose texts in multiple genres, using multiple modes
with attention to rhetorical situations. I summarized, analyzed, synthesized, and evaluated my
peer’s thoughts and used my own knowledge to produce your own arguments. I practiced writing
as a process, by researching where necessary, drafting, revision, editing, and reflection.
Throughout the course, I was able to understand basic principles and issues of climate science
and distill and explain them for the public through my website. I used web technologies in order
to broadcast my work. As I continue through college, I will work to perfect my writing process
to make it more fruitful and efficient.
Inquiry Based Essay
Op-ed
Podcast
Course Syllabus