When I first walked
into Rhetoric and Composition 101 I thought that I could fly through all of the
writing assignments since I previously took A.P. English my senior year in high
school. On the first day of class when Ms. Jarmer told us that we had to write
a four hundred word diagnostics essay on “TV’s Negative Influence on Kids” I thought
that it would be an easy first paper to start off the year with. I was
completely wrong when I procrastinated until ten o’clock the night it was due. I
had to read the article many times until I found what I thought was the author’s
thesis. Then I attempted to write my side of the argument, which is that TV
does have a negative influence on kids. When I was writing the second part of
this particular essay I believed that I was following the guidelines and using
proper examples. While I was writing this essay I was very nervous because my existence
in this class depended on my choice of four hundred words that only Ms. Jarmer
would be reading. This made me even more nervous about my writing.
When
I arrived at class two days later I was very nervous to see whether or not I could
stay in the class that I need for my degree or if I was going to have to
downgrade and have to take two years of English. When I received my paper back I
was very pleased to see that Ms. Jarmer said that I should be able to pass
Rhetoric 101. If I had a chance to re-write the diagnostic essay I would change
everything about my writing process. The main part that I would change would be
to use more personal experiences to show how television does negatively impact
children. I would also start preparing for the essay before the night that it
would be due. After being in the class three weeks I now know that I need to
spend more time on my writing and not wait until the night that it is due to
start reading the article and writing my paper. I now know that Rhetoric is not
going to be an easy class and that I have to put a lot of time and effort into
every single piece of writing that I do to pass this class.
(398)
I kind of know how you feel, William. I've always been and still am in Accelerated English at my school, so when I found out that we had a paper to write I was just like, "Eh, I'll be fine, this is no big deal." So I waited until the day before it was due to start writing it. I had read the prompt and the article in class, so I sat down at my computer at 9 pm and managed to spit out what I thought was a decent paper. Then I started to reread it and the prompt and I realized I had a whole lot of work to do. I got through the paper, then class started picking up steam, and it all started feeling overwhelming. Between DACC work, High School Work, athletics, and other activities at my high school, this is probably going to be a really long semester, but it's going to be so worth it.
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