I
think after writing my assessment essay, I can identify with the masses of
people who are sickeningly nervous about their first college courses. The process
of going through classes, being introduced to what lay ahead in the coming
weeks, trying to clear your mind of the other expectations you might have for your
life and focus on what needs done. Then to walk in to yet another situation, but
this time be told that in mere moments you have your first test, the telling of
your worth as an intellectual and capable individual…it was a little
overwhelming.
I
read and re-read the assignment until I felt like I could have written it from
memory. It wasn’t an overly dramatic or emotional piece. It actually felt like
I was reading a bland article used for prompting just these sorts of situations.
There was certainly no passion evident to me, and I didn’t feel particularly swayed
to by the writing. Choosing a side at least turned out easy enough, since I
already have a fairly developed set of beliefs on the subject matter that was
being discussed, somewhat from facts but also from personal experience.
Speaking
of personal experience, if there were something that I could change while
looking back on my work now, it would be my lack of input in that regard. I
know that I’m an opinionated person and I likely could have written a small
novel on why I felt the way I did, citing one instance after another about my
own life to back up what I had to say. I also consider myself a fair storyteller.
It strikes me then, in hindsight, that my response to the paper was almost as
bland as the paper itself.
I
would say that the hope expressed in my first blog post is coming to fruition.
I feel the ability rising up to write more freely of my own opinions. I feel
that while my class as a whole is learning to write within the rules and
statutes placed upon us by our Rhetorical fathers or even current academia, we
are also consistently being encouraged to let our personalities flow on to the pages
we pen. Otherwise we have ‘single story’ papers, and ‘single story’ minds, that
are simply regurgitating facts.
Therefore
I think it necessary, in reviewing my work and the feelings that I experienced
while writing it then, and the feelings that I experience while perusing it
now, and while perhaps allowing structure to provide a guiding hand, to remove
being restricted by it like I was before.
Nathaniel Y. (433 Words)
I completely agree with you. I can definitely identify with anyone who is nervous about their first college experience. As for myself, I am the first in my family to go to college to pursue a major degree. So I really had no background to go off of, let alone many people to ask about their own experiences. My mother didn't even graduate high school, and it was acceptable back then to quit school and work. So for me to come in the first day and be told I have to write a paper to "decide my doom" so to speak, was comparable to a nightmare! I definitely identify with you on feeling like you had a lack of effort put into the essay. I look back, and can honestly say, that I could have done ten times better. The one particular thing I worried about with my paper, though, is vocabulary. I wanted to sound a little more like a college student than put my faith on the more simplistic, follow the guidelines type of paper. Did you concern yourself on anything particular when you wrote your essay? I understand better now what Ms. Jarmer had told our class. In case she didn't tell you, she told us that often times in high school, you would get a rubric, you would write exactly what you were told, and you would get an A if it was adequate enough. But then you wouldn't quite understand how you earned that A. If anything, she gave me a fascinating insight and help to writing my own papers. Does it do the same for you?
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