That
first day of class we got the prompt and the article “TV’s Negative Influence
on Kids Reaffirmed” by Jeffery M. McCall, my first thought was not a good one.
I didn’t like the idea of writing an essay after the very first day of class.
Then we were told this essay would be the deciding factor if we should stay in this
class or find another one. As Ms. Jarmer went over the expectations for the
essay, I kept thinking “What the heck does diagnostic even mean?” I didn’t want
to sound stupid so I just ignored it for a while. I forgot about the assignment
until late the night before it was due. I stared to panic because I don’t take
failure well and I really didn’t want to be told that this class wasn’t the
right one for me. As I reread the prompt I was still confused, so I decided to
look it up. I read this article one time; even though we were told to read it
until we could practically recite it in our sleep. I thought about how Ms.
Jarmer would be the only one reading my essay, so I wanted to make sure I included
everything she wanted and I followed the prompt as much as I could.
When I write
a paper I don’t make notes, scramble ideas, or jot nonsense on a scrap piece of
paper. Instead I got out my laptop and just started to type. I kept referring to
the article to make sure I covered everything. Summarizing the article was a
breeze for me; my only problem was distinguishing the thesis. In the second
paragraph I had to choose a side, whether I agreed with what the article was
saying about the effects TV has on children or if I disagreed. I agreed with
some parts and disagreed with others. I had ways to support either way. I ended
up just choosing to agree with the article and thought of my personal
experiences. Television and its negative effects on kids, there were just so
many situations that ran through my mind which would make this statement true. By
the time I finished my essay I was extremely tired and didn’t proof read it
like I should have. I was nervous when I got my essay back, but was very
relieved once I saw the feedback I was given. Next time I won’t wait so long to
start my paper.
-Andra W.
( 412 words)
Hey Andra I picked your post to comment on because i completly felt the same way about it as you did. I was not thrilled at all to be having an essay assigned to us on the first day of class. Also like you I put off the essay till the night before it was due because I just didnt want to do it. The only thing that was different is I dindt panic because I am use to this kind of stuff because I procrastinated all high school.
ReplyDeleteI thought you did a very good job writting this blog post because it was long enough and makes since. I also had a hard time choosing if i agreed with the article or not. Keep up the good work!
Zack Girton
Just like you my first thoughts about writing this essay on the very FIRST day of class were not positive thoughts. I was just thinking in my head “What? This just can’t be happening already.” Another thing that we both had in common on the first day is that diagnostic was a foreign word to me too. I couldn’t even begin to tell you what its meaning was. I was also very nervous about Ms. Jarmer being the only one reading my paper. I mean here I am on the first day of my college career and I’m about to give a lady I know nothing about a first impression of me based on my writing. That was not very soothing for me. For this paper I didn’t write any notes or ideas down either and I now think that maybe I should have done that and it would have helped me stay on topic a little better than what I did. I probably should have also taken a little more time like you did to fully understand what I was supposed to be writing about. I’m glad that we all got passed that part of the class, but that was only the beginning!
ReplyDeleteKamaren C.