Course Projects

Ahhh, the course projects. The time-consuming aspects of English 109H. The bulk of our course grade. No sweat.

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• I'm most nervous about the rhetorical investigation. It's worth a quarter of the grade and based on content that just genuinely makes me anxious. I'm all for Googling away in the comfort of my little dorm room, but I'm a very awkward person sometimes. I don't savor meeting strangers, and conducting interviews give me a fuzzy (but not warm) feeling. But it's healthy to be placed outside of your comfort zone every once in a while, and learning things for myself through conversation will be a positive experience in the long run.
• I'm so excited about the different genres we get to use! After writing 28,394 essays and doing essentially nothing creative in high school, I'm looking forward to the change of pace. I've always enjoyed listening to podcasts and watching videos on YouTube about topics I'm studying, so I think I will like constructing one of these myself. I also prefer picking my own topics over being forced to study something in which I take no interest. All the way around, even if they take a lot of work, they won't be a complete drag, and I'm grateful for that.
• Planning ahead: Life-saving strategy or bane of my existence? I believe that the planning and acquisition of material that goes into each project may be the biggest challenge. Each step has to happen in a timely fashion: whether it's conducting an interview, picking a topic I enjoy, or even doing all assignments to the best of my ability, these things are required for successful projects. I may not enjoy it, and I may have to make adjustments based on my ability to successfully manage time (which historically hasn't been so incredible). But again, it will be worth it in the long run, both for the good grade and for the practice with scheduling and timing.
•  High school helped teach what was expected of me above all else. Though there wasn't so much option for creativity or expression in my high school English classes, I know I still gained skills that will benefit me in this class. The high standard to which my past teachers held me seems equivalent to the standard that Sean expects from us now, so I'm grateful for having taken tougher classes back then. I also know that I am strong in English. I'm good at grammar and writing, so I don't think I will experience too much trouble in those respects.
• No questions, just ready to get started. The assignment sheets were very detailed and the examples provided helped illustrate the genres, so I have a fairly solid understanding of what to do. I'm just glad we get to begin soon!

Reflections:
Erica Mohr brought up her concern for the use of technology that I neglected to mention in my post Now that someone mentioned it, I realize I'm a little worried about it, too. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one. We'll probably cope just fine, though.
Ryan Hittleman mentioned that the focus of his past classes was on writing essays. My experience was the same - that I s what I meant about the lack of focus on creativity in high school. His post made me second guess whether I'm prepared as much as I think I am. It doesn't hurt to rethink, but I do think I'm still pretty ready and that I have some skills going for me. I hope Ryan will be able to look at the situation in a more positive light as well.