Blog 6: final blog

The course, Writing 100, helped me gain more confidence as a writer and in myself as a college student.  I learned how to present arguments more soundly through the book, “They Say/I Say”.  I found the text helpful in gearing my mind toward how to present what I wanted to relay, my thoughts versus another person’s thoughts.  I also found the templates helpful.  At first I couldn’t understand why it was okay to use a template in essay writing, but learned that it is a foundation.  The learning I gained about writing will help me in my career path at work as well as my continued studies in college.  I also learned from receiving and giving feedback to my peers, this is something that I needed experience with.

I learned to read and reread, and to be more analytic when reading.  I do wish that I had taken the course in a full semester though because I feel I would have benefited from more time to read and reread the material as well as my writing drafts.  

The book, “The Glass Castle”, was a great read, I enjoyed it.  I felt that it was a very good lesson in suspending judgement.  It came at good time as we were just presented a course at work called “Unconscious Bias”.  The course taught us, similarly, the importance of suspending your beliefs and judgments in meeting new people, phone conversations, learning of one’s ethnicity or cultural beliefs, etc.  The book was also a lesson in gratefulness for me.  I feel that even though Jeannette Walls had a difficult childhood she was still grateful for it.  Everyone should be thankful for their parents and family in any little way that you can as you never know how much time on this earth we are granted with them.

The documentary film, “The House I Live In”, was riveting and eye opening.  Though  Eugene Jarecki the director and producer does have some partiality to the views and topics he presented based on his relationship with Nannie Jeter and her family, ultimately I feel the messages he presented were important.  Most of the opinions, research, and personal side to the story of the war on drugs that he presented are ignored in our general media.  We are usually just presented with what the media and government allow or want the public to see.  I appreciated the opportunity to view this film and think about the impact of the war on drugs in our country.

Both the book and film were relevant to me.  I learned through reading, viewing, analyzing, and writing about each of them.  I will keep writing; I write at work and at school.  However, the most important to me is journaling at home.  This is a personal way that I keep writing and put my thoughts and feelings into words.

Thank you to my peers and Professor, this was an enjoyable course and learning experience to share with you.