The Formula of How to Get to the Moon

I had the typical dream of traveling to the moon in grade school, aspired to study mechanical engineering in high school, and am finally majoring in it in college. Frankly still, English and writing has never been my forte or major interest. I dreaded each course in high school and took the AP courses in hope of getting college credits in order to place out of future English courses. I luckily placed out of one, but still am required to take two. My first requirement is completed after these 11 weeks, as I have taken English 101 Composition and Rhetoric. I would definitely say my attitude towards writing has changed since taking a college-based writing course. Unlike high school, the writing assignments are not as rigid. As a student, I was granted more freedom to write about topics personal to me, rather than researching a novel. I had the freedom to, for instance, develop my own research topic that expanded over a wide range of topics under the broad umbrella of writing. I also had to write about times in which I was engaged and disengaged in writing. Again, this topic was more reflective and individualistic, allowing me to write about the history of my experiences with writing. Though writing is still not my favorite subject of interest, my attitude towards how college writing courses are structured is much more positive than how high school ones are.

I think that I find writing and English to be difficult courses for me to enjoy and comprehend because there is no true, correct answer. For math and science based courses, there is a formula, there are numbers and there lies an answer. However, with writing, there is rarely a true definition of what good writing is defined as. Every individual has different writing styles, faults and techniques. So, I argue the idea of “learning” how to write. Sure, you can learn in grade school proper spelling, grammar, punctuation and so on, but you can’t really learn your own style of writing. It is moreso something that you develop over the years as you write different types of essays, journals, etc. However I would definitely say that your teachers influence how you develop your own writing style. Still, it is very different to learn a skill such as writing versus learning a skill such as algebra. In algebra, there are formulas to memorize and steps to take in order to learn the material and solve for the correct answers. However, in writing, one teacher may grade a paper different from how another would. So, I would definitely say that you don’t necessarily learn how to write but you rather use your attitude to develop your skill of writing. Your attitude is directly correlated to your writing skill and style. It is your own attitude and opinion that makes your writing individualistic to you.

Things Were Taught and Stuff was Learned

This writing course was very different from the writing courses I have taken in the past. I did learn a good amount of information and more about my writing style in particular. First off, I learned what rhetoric truly is and the parts of rhetoric. Previous to this course, the only recollection I had of rhetoric was a rhetorical question. Specifically with the parts of rhetoric, I was able to review logos, pathos and ethos—all of which I previously learned. However I was unfamiliar with kairos and exigence, with only having heard both words used rarely. Reading essays in the Praxis, such as the case against Strauss-Kahn, helped me examine kairos and exigence directly and understand both terms better using an example. I also analyzed This Is Water by David Foster Wallace, and examined the piece or audience, author, purpose, exigence, kairos, logos, pathos and ethos.

            I think the piece of writing that I enjoyed reading the most was “For the Sake of Enjoyment” by Cindy Phan in The 33^rd. The piece was an enjoyment for me because I could easily relate to it, as the author was also a college student in my same position. I also liked that the story was a true one, to get more of a grasp of what could happen when a student interacts with a professor. From this piece I learned that it is often difficult for students like me to find interest in writing and we all rarely know what exactly to write about. However, the author taught me that I could easily find inspiration in things I have previously read and have wrote about. Also, she taught me, as basic as it sounds, that I could always approach my professor if I were to need help with a paper or if I struggle to find inspiration in writing one.

            From my own writing done in this course and with the help of my professor, I have realized that I tend to frequently write in passive voice. Though it seems strange, I assume it is because I have been formatted to not write in first person and as an unbiased third party. In many of my sciences and engineering courses, first person results in a deduction of points. So I had to adapt to writing in a clear active voice. Writing in passive voice always caused me to exceed the word limit as well. When I changed all of my writing, I realized I was under the word limit and could write more analyses. Moreover, from reading others’ writing I was able to experience different writing styles. For instance, one student was very strong in his ability to have clear transitions between different ideas and topics throughout the same paper. For instance, he begins on paragraph describing “In high school I manage to be a shop instructor..." then transitioning to the next with "Once I finally got to Drexel it was all very strange..." and then the last with "Now it is the end of the term..." (Proctor). He clearly establishes a timeline and follows it, which allows the reader to imagine him/herself going through the same timeline. I tend to lack in that ability because I have to many different ideas going on at the same time and I result in pure rambling. So from my fellow student, I learned how to clearly write out each idea and analysis and how to transition to the next.

              I would definitely say that my writing has changed somewhat after the past ten weeks of attending this course. I try even harder to avoid passive voice and write in more concise sentences that “get to the point”. Moreover, I try to have other peer edit my papers to get various feedback. For instance, if another student, like Theodore Proctor, who is talented at establishing a clear timeline reads my paper, he can assist me in establishing my own.

Compendium

In terms of essays, there have been two major composition projects that I have completed in this course. The first major project was about “Describing and Evaluating”. The objective was to "Reflect on your relationship to writing within an analysis of the writing situation. Develop your sense of audience and your sense of what to include and exclude about your experiences. Respond to your classmates' writing as if you were in a conversation with the writer about his or her writing experiences." I was asked to write about situations in which I felt engaged in writing and situations in which I felt disengaged. The project called for specific examples of writing assignments in my past. Various brainstorming questions included "Who were you writing to and why? What were you hoping to do with your writing-- what were you hoping would be the effect? What were the readers' responses --  that is, how well did the writing work? As you think back on these different writing situations, what did they make you think about yourself as a writer and about writing? What kind of conclusions can you draw about the role of writing in our culture and in school situations?" 
This paper was more of a reflective piece, rather than an analytical or research one. I wrote about when I interviewed my mother about her journey to move to America. I chose this situation as a time when I was engaged because "I didn't have to write about a book I read or a poem I analyzed. All I had to do was tell a story, one that was unique to me" (Chin). The second essay that was assigned was an “Exploration”. Each student chose a topic that involved writing, like note-taking, Facebook, or handwriting. I had chosen text messaging, and developed my research question which asked “how has text messaging affected generational gaps individually and amongst one another?” (Chin). I used four sources, two secondary, one primary and one visual. The primary was a survey amongst Drexel freshman and the visual was a graph. Unlike the first project, more research was done and questions were asked throughout the entire paper.

            In terms of discussion boards, we have had twelve informal writings which we submit online through BlackBoard Learn. They range from aspects of each project, like the Letter to the Reader or the Research Question, from writing a rhetorical situation for an essay in the Praxis. Weeks 2,3, and 8 all involved analyzing and responding to an essay in Praxis or another form of medium. Weeks 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 all involved submitting a part of one of the composition projects. For instance, they included the Letter to the Reader, the Annotated Rough Draft, or the Proposal with the research question, to the Reflection on Writing so far this in the course.

            For responses, I responded to a fellow student’s post of when she used rhetoric. In my response, I was looking for the five parts of rhetoric and examining them. This response was added as a comment to the submission.

Faulty Alarms

I never missed a day in middle school. It sounds absurd, but my attendance was perfect. Then came high school, where my immune system declined and so did my perfect attendance. Ironically, the majority of the days I skipped high school was for academic reasons, either visiting a college or spending the day studying for an AP test instead of attending classes. My high school attendance was not perfect, but still praiseworthy. Now, in college, they all say it’s great because you don't technically have to go to class, and it’s also terrible because you don't technically have to go to class. In college, attendance is not technically mandatory because you won’t get in trouble with the law if you don’t attend, unlike grade school which is mandatory. So I could easily skip class each day. Especially the large lecture halls with around one hundred students, where the professor will not notice if a tiny 5’1” girl is sitting amongst the rows of chairs or not. It’s also super easy to oversleep and miss your class without even realizing, until you suddenly jump up and realize it ended three hours ago. From grade school all the way to high school, I became used to my mother walking in my room, dragging me out of bed, and telling me it was time to get to school. I was honestly afraid that I would sleep through every single alarm, because the only alarm that proved successful for me was the sound of my mother’s voice.

Honestly, I do not enjoy skipping classes. Though this sounds peculiar for an eighteen-year-old college student, it is most definitely true. Skipping a class, especially a more difficult college course, easily puts me very behind and struggling to catch up. Even if I can get notes from a friend or find them online, it still would not be as proficient as hearing a professor explain it in person. To me, it is more work to make up for the class than to just attend the period.

Specific to English 101, my attendance has been near perfect. Being a 9 am course, and me not being a morning person, it is definitely difficult for me to wake up each morning three times a week. However I only missed one class, in which I woke up with a fever and was suffering from bronchitis. In terms of participation, I will admit my participation is not stellar or extraordinary. Because English is not a true interest of mine, ideas do not come into thought as quickly as it does for others. So instead, I tend to merely listen to others’ ideas in order to spark my own. However I work tediously to get my work done outside of class and by the required deadline. Unfortunately, I would admit that my participation is based on my interest in the course or topic of discussion itself.