Just as I began sitting down to write about how week 12 in English 105 went, it finally registered that we are twelve whole weeks into the semester. Lots of words have been written and a lot of procrastination has occurred, but we are heading into the final few weeks of the semester so I am optimistic overall. I have been frantically reading the past few weeks as a lot of my classes have assigned a decent amount, but the idea of close reading has actually transferred to some of the readings outside of this class. One example is in my French Globalization class, where I had to write a paper comparing two very different works. However, the tools that we were taught about reading a text closely helped to reveal some implicit similarities and I could effectively explain why I came to those conclusions. In that same paper, I was able to produce a good thesis statement by using the handouts from this class. My professor even commented on how it effectively led into the rest of the paper. My stress levels have been very high, just like most of my classmates, but I am taking it day by day and trying to give the best quality work while also working efficiently.
Our week began on Tuesday, as we focused on our thesis statements and further explored the next steps in Unit Project Three. We came into class having turned in a tentative thesis for our Feeder 3.2 assignments. I liked how this process went because by class time we had already received Mr. Paul’s input on our thesis statements, and since he is the ultimate grader of our papers, it was nice to know what he was expecting from us. I personally was not confident with regard to my thesis because I had changed the passage that I was going to focus on. My main theme was also a bit different so I was nervous to see if I had adapted well enough to have a coherent thesis. Luckily, we had the opportunity to have a classmate input on our theses as well, and I feel like this helped me to be confident in mine. After we worked on our theses, we read and analyzed a sample literary analysis with our small groups. Our group was assigned to read “The Wall,” and we made an outline to help organize our explanations of each paragraph. We learned through this exercise that shorter paragraphs could improve our arguments by forcing us to get straight to the point. Overall, this day was great for getting us off on the right foot with Feeder 3.2.
Thursday was a day that I probably should have paid more attention to, yet Halloween was just around the corner. I was excited for my Halloween plans that evening and I coasted through this class mindlessly. Luckily, I reviewed the material later and I believe I am still on the right track. The first big activity that we did was a workshop on our Feeder 3.2 assignment. I believe that I was helpful in my grading as I actually did put a lot of effort into improving the rough draft that I graded. Likewise, my rough draft had some very insightful comments and I plan on implementing those into my final draft. Following the workshop, we went through a Powerpoint titled “Document Design, Digital Literacy, and Multimedia Composition.” This was an important resource because it explained so many things that I never thought about, such as the color scheme, the placement of images, and consistency in font size for aesthetic appeal. I believe that this should help us in our final Unit Project because I would guess most of us are unskilled in a lot of digital media. My takeaways from Thursday’s class were mainly related to the Unit Project and it got me thinking about how to best put together the final product.
Just like all the other weeks in English 105, it was pretty busy. We made a lot of important progress for Feeder 3.2, which should lead into our final Unit Project videos. My favorite part of the week was having Mr. Paul offer feedback on our theses because I love to get reassurance from the source that matters most. This made me a lot more confident in my paper, and I have been able to write it much easier. I am looking forward to working on Unit Project Three because I love learning about different types of digital media, and I hope to make the final product look clean. The semester is going to continue getting busier, but you can bet on me procrastinating like usual. The football team may be disappointing, but that doesn’t mean we will be! Keep grinding!
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