Stephanie Russo
ENG 112
May 6th, 2014
The
Wall
One of the many goals of taking a college course is to
not only learn and apply the material given, but to also grow as an individual.
This goal has flourished through the ten courses I have already taken as a
college student in that I continue to learn more about my abilities in academia
along with as individually. Throughout English 112, I had a few standards for
myself to achieve during the course of the spring semester simply because you
cannot measure your success without determining your starting point. As I plug
along through these four years working up to my career, I seek skills that will
benefit me for the duration. It is evident to me that my improved
organizational skills and ability to review while writing will benefit me in
the future and into my career as a Speech-Language Pathologist.
When writing, organizing the piece so that it will flow
and make sense the entire way through has proved to be more important than I presumed.
Before this semester, I was unaware of the different techniques used in
organization, and just made sure that my ending sentences and topic sentences bounced
off of each other. Because of this, attempting to put my ideas into essay
format as well as making sure the organization was strong was difficult for me.
I would just write whatever came next in chronological order every time. In my
blog post “Activity 6”, there was no sense of organization as I jumped from the
idea of critical analysis to the importance of asking questions. If I were to
attempt reviewing this activity even further, I would apply the knowledge that I
now have of creating an after-the-fact outline to make sure my organization,
topic and ending sentences held fluidity. Furthermore, like many other first
year college students, I was under the impression that the five paragraph
layout was the way to go. English 112 has clearly shown me that this structure
of an essay is not efficient and will not be considered “college-level
writing”. I started off my Autobiographical Essay titled, “Love from Afar” this
way and found myself struggling to incorporate more information without making
the paragraphs all bleed together. The end result became many different
paragraphs when going to a new thought and proved to paint a better essay than
the standardized high school model. There are many ways in which you can
organize your paper including spatial order, time order, cause and effect
order, and compare and contrast order, to name a few. Implementing one of these
strategies, my Southern Problem and Solution assignment titled “Gym Nightmare”
followed a problem solution pattern in each of the body paragraphs and a concession
and refutation paragraph just before my conclusion. In doing this, the essay
was rhythmic and was well-organized compared to when I first wrote the essay
and had problem and solution paragraphs scattered about. Organization is a worthy
skill to obtain so that your readers have the ability to follow along with your
perspective easily and also keeps the pieces interesting.
It was also true that prior to this semester, I would be
able to get away with changing a few sentences here and there when going from
rough draft to final draft. But the power of reviewing your paper yourself and
peer review has changed my perspective completely. I was never a fan of peer
review as stated in my “4R” blog post. I write, “Excited to be a part of
writer’s workshop in high school for the first few times, I’ve learned that it
was pretty awful in the end. Not only did I give peer review a second chance, but
definitely obtained new ways for myself to become a more efficient peer
editor.” These are two statements that I expressed through my reaction blog
post for the week and show the contrast throughout the peer review process that
I experienced. My outlook changed completely when performing these tasks in a
college classroom setting and I was humbled by it. Additionally, peer editing
was such a warming process to know that other people in my group appreciated my
writing and were kind enough to provide feedback that would later help me improve
my piece. The insight to different perspectives was provided and this process also
gave me time away from my paper so that I would be able to go back to it with
clear eyes and a clear mind. With maturity comes progress and I have
demonstrated this to myself in English this semester. Contrasting my opinion of reviewing from the
beginning of the semester to now is a good representation of how my perspective
on the future has changed.
Speech-language pathologists, sometimes called speech
therapists, work with people who have an assortment of speech-related conditions.
These disorders can include the inability to produce certain sounds, speech
rhythm and fluency problems, and voice disorders. Helping people who want to
modify accents or who have swallowing difficulties is also included in this
occupation. With sheer confidence, English 112 has prepared me with the
necessary skills to move forward. Beginning with being able to write a clearly
organized report on various cases will be a crucial expertise to hold
especially if treatment stretches over a long period of time. It will ensure
that the next person who deals with this same patient, will be able to easily
follow the report on their diagnosis and take appropriate further action if
needed. Also, being a part of the peer reviewing process has made me more modest
and able to work with a diverse group of people. Even on a small scale, being
able to collaborate and work on a task together with a diversity of people is a
skill not able to be taught and very useful when approaching any job.
I look at the transformation of my writing this semester
as a perfect work in progress. By meeting the benchmarks I set for myself, my
abilities to essentially review my skills have shined through. Knowing that there
will be lessons from this class that I can apply through the rest of my life
and into my career is such a relief. All of the time and effort put into this
semester, whether it be reorganizing my papers or developing someone else’s,
was worthwhile and has helped me grow. But, the climbing does not stop here. I
will take these lessons and abilities and apply for whatever comes my way. Think
about a period of time that when you look back, it is as if you have knocked
down a soaring wall and gotten through to the other side. What a breath of
fresh air.
