Reflecting On My Past Experience While Looking Forward

Although I am an Education Major, I still like to consider myself a writer. I may not be the best at it, but it is something that I love and enjoy doing. Not only does writing put me in a whole different mindset, but it allows me to write about my feelings and get them down on paper. Whether someone reads my work or not, it is mine and although at times I am not satisfied with my product, I continue to write anyway. When I first entered this class, I though it was going to be much different than what it turned out to be. I just figured that we would be doing a little research and writing on the internet. I also thought that I was somewhat "tech savy" until I came to this class. I was completely wrong. This class has opened my eyes to numerous technologies and ways of writing that I have never heard of, seen, or knew existed. Writing, Research, and Technology was probably one of my most challenging classes, as well as one of the most informative that I have had thus far in my writing courses.

Writing

As mentioned above, I may not be the best writer but my writing definitely improved throughout this course. Not only do I think that I started writing better, my variety of writing expanded tremendously. I learned how to write blogs and the importance of "blogging" as a new way of recording my feelings and thoughts. I was able to write a story, based on tweets that I had composed on Twitter, about my current situation with my boyfriend being on deployment in the Army. Taking this class could not have come at a greater time with everything that has been going on with "Learning How To Let Go" from him while he is away. This course not only introduced me to new writing styles. I was able to write a Twitterive which not only allowed me to express my feelings and help me cope with my situation, but allowed me to develop a piece of writing that I am actually proud of. One of my favorite writing assignments was our rock, paper, scissors, fight. I had the best time digging into my creative side and creating a character completely different from me. I still look back on it and laugh about the way in which I created her diary entry with a "Yo Diary" to start it off. That "event" was probably the best moment that I had in class and I will never forget it.

Although it was somewhat difficult for me, blogging was probably the hardest. For the longest time, my blogs were almost essay length and I had a hard time writing my thoughts and feelings without feeling like I was doing the assignment wrong. Although I often got frustrated with my work, having such a great group of classmates who were willing to give me some tips and help me out was a big plus. In most classes I don't like sharing my work, but I never once felt embarrassed in front of my class or my professor. Even though I may not have been the best writer in the class, I know that I am walking away with a better understanding of writing and a new found appreciation for the many forms of writing that I was introduced to throughout this semester.

Research

Usually when I hear the word "research" I immediately cringe. I usually try to avoid researching anything at all costs, but knew that I was going to have to come face to face with it since the word is in the title of this course. When I found out that our research would be conducted in groups, I felt much more at ease. After learning what our research was going to be about and the fact that we were able to pick our own research question, I began to like research a little bit more. The fact that my group and I were able to pick our topic helped out a lot with my want to research the topic. Having an interest in  a topic can really help the researcher dig deep into finding information and really take the research seriously. After reading the assignments that we were asked to read, I realized how important research really is. I also learned that I'm not the only one who thought it took a lot of time and effort into writing a good research paper. However, when you do, not only do you provide information for others around you, you too learn something that you may have never knew or develop a fascination for something new. Throughout my years of schooling, I have had to cite sources and learn how to properly set them up, but this was the first time that I also had to provide a summary for every source I used. This was a tiring and difficult task for me because I either tend to write too much, or too little. I can never seem to write just the main topics, I guess I'm pretty bad at annotated bibliographies. Although I am still not the best, having to do this activity for every source did open my eyes to the importance of having summaries under every source to help out those who are reading your work.

Last but not least.....Technology

Boy, was I in over my head with the technology used throughout this course. I was in for a surprise walking into this class. I remember on the first day of class, we were asked "who believes that are technology literate". I of course raised my hand because I thought being able to turn on a computer, use Microsoft word, Google, and facebook meant that you knew how to use a computer. I almost had a heart attack when we were told that we would be making our own website where we would be blogging and writing for others to see. Hold on. Making my own website? Doesn't that take a computer genius to do that? Blogging? Oh gosh, what did I get myself into ? I felt my heart starting to pound and my palms getting sweaty. Maybe I'm not so technology literate as I thought I was.
I now look back on everything that I have accomplished throughout this class and can now be proud to say that I am somewhat technology literate, although at times I still may have difficulties. After creating my weebly website, I was so proud of it that I showed it to all of my roommates and even my parents. Who would have thought that little ole me could create a website? I am also so proud of my twitterive that I have created through Twitter which is proudly displayed on my website. I am more than please with the way in turned out, but even more in love with the way that I designed the page. Although I had some previous knowlege of twitter from another writing course, I was able to use my "skill" of descriptive words on twitter and using them to create a story through those tweets.

My final words

I honestly can say that I have learned so much from this class, more than I have learned in any of my other courses. Professor Mangini was able to open my eyes up to new ways of writing, the importance of research, and all forms of technology that I never thought I would be able to use. I will admit that I did work my butt off in order to keep up with this class and at times felt that my work was not as good as others in my class, but I can honestly say that all of the hours I spent working on my assignments for this class have paid off. I was able to complete every assignment on time with the specifics it required and I learned how fun and interesting it can be to work in a collaborative group. I am very luck that I got to work with Kim and Ashley because I believe that we all learned something from one another whether we realize it or not. As I move forward with Writing Arts, I will take with me everything that I have learned in class this semester and use it to become a better and stronger writer.