Arianna Gaudette
Mat Wenzel
ENC 2135
8/1/2019
This semester has been a very good introduction to college writing, and my academic career in total. I learned how to take my time, and strategically plan my writings, and I also learned how to sit down and write 3,000 words in a short amount of time. In high school I took an AP Research course, where we spent the entire year researching one topic, to write a 3,000 word essay. I was proud of myself when I did the same thing in a span of seven days. I think this course has taught me a lot about how to manage time, when and when not it is a good time to go out, and how to wake up for an eight a.m class. There were times where my entire friend group would be going to the club, and they would be on their hands and knees begging me to come, but I had to be a responsible student and tell them “sorry I can't I have an 8 a.m.” It was hard to do, but I woke up the next morning feeling good in class. My favorite part about this course was writing personal narratives. I loved being able to get my thoughts and feelings out- which I did. However, Mat taught me an important lesson. When I turned in my first personal narrative, I was so confident and happy about it. I thought it was amazing, different, and innovative. I do not think I even looked at the rubric once, and this was my mistake. Mat taught me an important lesson because I needed to read the rubric. No matter how good you think your paper is, if it doesn't follow the code- its not good. I spent the whole night crying, but it taught me to rewrite quickly, and earn a better grade. For the second draft of my personal narrative I wrote about moving to Florida and joining my basketball team. Writing about this really soothed my soul, because it was something that was taking over my thoughts. When I get sad, or nostalgic, I resort to writing. Writing is the only thing that really brings me comfort, brings me joy, and allows for my creative juices to flow. I am really happy I got assigned this project because I was writing about this topic anyways, and I was finally able to use my thoughts into classwork. You know when you write something in your diary, but you have no one to share it with? I tend to write a lot in my diary that I become proud of that I really just want to show someone, but I never get the chance to.
The second project was an interesting one. I decided to get out of my comfort zone on this one. Normally when it comes to writing about a community I want to be apart of, I would typically write about a sport or a club I have already been apart of. I could have written about a basketball team, lacrosse club, or a piano group, but I decided to write about something I want to try- slam poetry. I always wanted to do slam in high school but I never really got around to it. I was really proud of myself for taking the time and effort to research this topic and put myself out there. Mat was really encouraging me and helped me out for my paper. The meeting I had with him gave me confidence to fix my paper to make it perfect. As soon as he gave me feedback, I went home and fixed my paper, and it was really something I was even more proud of- something that I did not know was possible.I think with Mat’s help I achieved a very solid research paper. I am not saying it was easy, because it really took a lot out of me (especially the annotated bibliography) but it was most definitely rewarding to complete.
The final campaign project was the most simple for me. The directions were clear since I learned how to read the syllabus, so I knew exactly what I needed to do. I tape my podcast on a podcast app, and I created a few memes. I presented them in front of the class and immediately got a 100%. It was a great way to end the semester. Overall, this class went pretty smoothly, and it was a great way to start my academic college career.
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