Reflection

Just like everyone else, I was dreading this day ever since I’ve been holding off on taking this class since my sophomore year. I realized this summer would be the perfect opportunity to finally take this class so begrudgingly, I agreed.

The first day of class was very unusual. Coming from a biological sciences perspective, all of my courses have a straight path with a strict lecture schedule to adhere to. There was no freedom to voice your opinion, rather, it was writing notes or going to sleep. So when Chris said that this class would be mostly a discussion forum, I did not know how to react. On one hand, this is a change to the college norms to what I am accustomed to, but on the other hand, this change would be intellectually stimulating.

As I look back on writing the blogs, I’ve noticed several things. First, I’ve noticed an increase in quality to my posts. My first post was probably the first time I have formally written something for school in a year. It was a nice, easy topic to transition into the writing mode for this summer, and I feel that my writing and the thought process that goes with it vastly improved. The second thing that I noticed was the topics that I chose. All of the topics I wrote about were ideas that were interesting to me. I think part of the problem of other uwp101 classes is the fact that not everyone has the opportunity to choose what they want to write about, and that in turn affects their writing. Personally, my writing is better if the topic is something I am passionate and for the most part, this class has allowed me to do this effectively.

With regards to the in-class discussions, I think the fluidity of the discussions has its advantages and disadvantages. The discussions were very intellectual-stimulating, and I find myself just digesting every word Chris or other students had to say and think to myself, “Hmm…” This “forum” to discuss our thoughts on key topics raised the quality of the discussions to where I have never experienced before as a science major. In science, there is not much to question, rather just facts, but in this class, every idea we talked about was deconstructed and questioned.

On the other hand, I think the fluidity of this class has its disadvantages. I noticed during class that we seem to wander from talking about the keyword and instead talk about something else that is somewhat related. I think a better idea would be to spend half the class talking specifically about the essay I the book, then the other half the fluidity would take over.

Overall, I loved this class. I think this class is truly innovative and with a few tweaks, this class could be the writing class of the future.