As I was leaving Storer after Jenny helped me turn in my teacher evaluation form and held the door for me, and Danielle collected the rest of the forms, I was already reflecting about the class. Although I did not have to walk as far as I did on the first day of class, there has been a significant change of tolerance in my arms and legs; they have adapted quite well to my crutches. Walking with crutches has become second nature: during the first couple weeks of class, I easily ran out of breath and energy from walking a couple hundred feet; however, accomplishing that same feat now tests only my patience and nothing more.
Similarly, my approach to this class has also changed from being too picky in my writing to elaborating myself naturally. After re-reading my first couple posts, I noticed that I tried too hard to "beautify" my writing. Over the next 11 posts, I believe that it is not the quality that has changed but the feeling and personality. Ironically, while I initially thought my last half of posts were less adequate than the first a couple weeks ago, I now realize that in the latter posts they are "Bernie," not the "Bernie who is trying to write a perfect essay," talking.
Regarding the style of this class, I personally love it. At first, I thought it was only our UWP class that tested writing narratives and analyzed modern technologies, but apparently my friends taking other UWP 101 classes also wrote about similar topics. However, the idea of "blogging" takes our English class to a whole different level. Despite fulfilling the 6000 word requirement, "blogging" takes away the pressures of having to b.s. 1500 words the night before an essay is due. Furthermore, for those who do not speak much in class, it allows them - including myself - to express themselves in a more comfortable environment at home. In fact, I am actually well-acquainted to "blogging," only that I use an old school blog - Xanga - as my personal online journal. Hence, I feel that I have a comfortable, yet somewhat emotional and private tie with "blogging" and this class.
I am pretty sure that Chris mentioned this sometime during the past five weeks, but "blogging" may become a revolution in not only English classes, but also writing in general. When I showed a friend my "Immobile" post, he claimed that my idea of linking to a picture to the teeth wind-up toy copied that of BDL (a Yahoo! Sports NBA blog). In addition, I was reading an article from a legitimate website (sorry, I can't remember the site and can't find the link) that linked to Wikipedia - a resource that some teachers disapprove of. Blogs have emerged in popular web sites and linking have spawned within the blogs; perhaps someday this style of writing will become an established norm - starting from our class.
Kid
15 years ago
2 comments:
I completely agree with you and your experience on blogging. I really feel like this class allowed us to write whatever we want rather than 'what the professor wants'. The part about the B.S. the essay holds such truth; I can't even count how many times I've done that on a paper I didn't care about. I do find a strange emotional tie with blogging as well, probably because I have a Xanga as well and this is more like our writing, not just writing for the class. PS: your stories about Crutches are always fun to read. I do hope you get out of them soon!
After reading your post, I realized that I too, did have to B.S on many occasions. Well maybe on all occasions where a paper with certain guidelines are required. I feel like this is the first writing class where I actually have a lot to say and express in my writing. So I agree that blogging is a great experience and should be considered in other writing classes.
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