Reflection on English 102

This English class has given me many skills to use in my future education and in life.  Skills that I have learned in this class will be crucial to me and my future in college pertaining to writing because writing skills will be essential to proper communication.  I plan on obtaining my Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing in the future.  Pursing this degree will require proper writing and communication skills in order to successfully complete this degree.  I feel this class has given me insight into pursing skills and resources that will be essential to my future and success.

I think I have properly executed demonstrating these skills in my papers and writings over the course of this semester.  Although there are details I feel I could have included or refined, I feel as a whole I have bettered myself as a writer and a student with the help of this course. Writing and revising my critical analysis papers have made me not only a better writer, but a better student acquiring the skills to revise my own papers to a better degree.  These papers were my biggest challenges because of the anxiety and expectations that came along with them.  I know who I was as a writer before, but did not think that I had any outstanding skills, in fact I knew my handicaps and wanted to improve them.  These papers gave me the opportunity to acquire new skills and apply them in order to gain confidence in my writing.  Researching, using online tools, such as the Perdue Owl and an online tutor are ways that I chose to overcome these anxieties and produce a better grade paper.

Overall, I have new and improved writing skills that will help me in the future. Overcoming my writing anxieties has given me more confidence to produce a good paper.  The way I did this was more revision and more outside resources.  All of these things have contributed to my overall improvement in English 102 and my improvement in my writing.  These improvements will lead to stronger writing skills and better grades in college, a university or even grad school.

Skills!

http://prezi.com/mvkgpz4mqwwx/revision-and-mla/?kw=view-mvkgpz4mqwwx&rc=ref-26693271

Technology!

Online learning, especially in it’s relation to English 102, has been very beneficial to me.  Today, technology in the academic setting is more prevalent than ever.  Being able to take a class online, gives me not only flexibility, but a chance to strengthen my communication skills in the online environment.  Learning online, you not only learn the material from your professor, but you learn vital computer skills.  As a student you can apply these skills to your future in the academic field, and professional career. 

The technology that was most beneficial to me this semester is the blog and blogpost feedback.  I feel this is especially beneficial to me because I value feedback from Laura in regards to my writing structure.  I struggle most with the construction and flow of my writing. So, being able to get feedback every week helps to keep me on track and use constructive criticism when writing my papers.

In the future, I will make sure to utilize the resources I have via YC.  The online library and sources used for reference are convenient and extremely helpful.  In the past, I have mostly used the internet and found okay resources.  I felt the ones from the online library were very informative and accurate. 

Overall, the online learning environment is the optimum learning environment for me personally.  I spend a lot of time on my computer, so taking a class online is convenient and second nature to me.  I feel my learning outcome overall is that much better because I have taken this course online.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/- my most used website of the semester!

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Reflection on Revision

For this essay, I took a couple different approaches.  I tried to construct my paper in an entirely different way than I have in past.  For example, my usual routine would be writing a huge outline, then going over the paper as a whole and adding details and ideas where appropriate.  For this paper, I did the opposite, I constructed each paragraph as an individual, hoping to capture the idea of the paper in each.  

My usual revision process is not as extensive as what I did for this paper.  I feel the list Laura gave us on the assignment sheet was very helpful and I utilized that in my revision process.  Along with the checklist, I submitted my paper to online revision services which gave me feedback I used to edit my essay.  

It is very important to revise.  I will admit, I have not been as extensive in the past, but doing so really gives you a better paper.  I also did the revision process for this paper over the course of several days, which let me see minor spelling or punctuation I may have missed previously.  I specifically made sure to follow exact MLA guidelines for Essay 3. I made sure there was only one space after every period, etc.  Overall, I feel the construction of this paper is at par.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

                        http://thewritecorner.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/revision.jpg?w=468

Thesis Statement-Essay 3

Missouri native, and author of Winter’s Bone, Daniel Woodrell, released the best-selling novel to the world in 2006.  Winter’s Bone is the story of a young girl, Ree Dolly, who goes in search of her missing, drug-cooking father in order to keep the family home from being taken as collateral. Winter’s Bone is a depiction of the role methamphetamine plays in the deterioration of, not only a single person, but a family as well.  The consequences of the drug have physical, psychological and moral effects on the user.  Woodrell is exposing the drug to the reader as, not only a harmful substance, but a way of life for communities in the Missouri Ozarks.  The drug is both a lifeline and curse for all lives affected by it’s presence.

Woodrell, Daniel,Wikipedia- Daniel Woodrell,2012. Web, November 2012

Woodrell, Daniel, Bookbrowse-Daniel Woodrell Bio, 2012. Web, November 2012

Woodrell, Daniel. Winter’s Bone, Little and Brown  Copyright 2006.

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Response to "Methland" by Nick Reding

This article is taken from the book Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town by Nick Reding.  The article includes the prologue of the story and the preface Nick Reding gives to it, starting with the introduction of methamphetamine to the town of Oelwein, Iowa.  Nick gives us a history of this small, very rural farming town in Eastern Iowa and proceeds to explain how he ended up there.  He is writing a book on methamphetamine in America in the recent years of 1999-mid 2000’s, which for him, ends up as more. On his quest, he discovers his own beloved town of Greensville, Illinois, as well as the rest of the country is plagued by this debilatating “mom and pop” made drug.

“What it took three and a half years to fully understand ( nine if I count back to my trip to Gooding, Idaho) is that the real story is as much about the death of a way of life as it is about the birth of a drug.”  (Reding 22)

I believe the article, as well as the book Methland in general, are great resources for writing essay # 3.  I plan to read the book by Nick Reding in its entirely to get his whole perspective.  From what I have read of the book I can see many comparisons to Winter’s Bone.  From the degree of poverty, to the impact on the physical and mental health of the drug user’s in both stories, the similarities are identical.  For Ree Dolly, “meth” or “crank” as it is referred to in Winter’s Bone, directly impacts her and her family by taking her father away from the physical world by death.  In Methland, similar happenings are taking place in Oelwin, from the poor picking through garbage, to a top drug dealer’s 13 year old daughter needing a kidney transplant from meth poisoning in-utero. Both stories have parallel messages relating to the hope lost, and despair adapted, to the life influenced by meth. 

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                             Aftermath of an Oelwein, Iowa meth lab after an explosion due to the "cooking" of the drug.  

Response to Winter's Bone

I walk with my head high, yet feel I feel so low.

There are dreams and wishes inside me,

I will never get to know.  

Pa has left us, momma’s head is gone.

I raise these two boys,

like the sun to its dawn.

My name is Ree Dolly, 

and my demeanor is rough.

I say what I mean, 

and act like Im tough. 

Though just seventeen, I am wise 

and grown-up.  

Ill go looking for Pa, and find him I will. 

It is he that we need, for money and bills.

I will ask around town, of whom has spoke to?

Teardrop warns, for trouble you ask for.

There has to be someone who knows, but who?

I search high and low, trouble I do find,

they beat me, bruise me, and scar my young mind.

Thump Milton is to blame, he gave them permission

his wife and her sisters put all of the hits in.

Pa must be found , or the house we will lose.

Whether dead or alive, his truth I will search for.

From crank to money, his fate, he did not choose.

Pa is dead, the fact I must face,

I need evidence for the bondsman, or consequences I must face.

Where to look I don’t know, but there is someone who does.

He had me beaten, and he is of my own blood.

Thump Milton is the Ozarks and the demons it possesses.

To the lake they do take me to find the hands of Jessup,

we cut through the ice, muddy water and messes.

His hands I take from his frozen corpse

 with chainsaw, regret, and sad remorse.

Now we are okay, the house we will keep.

My heart and mind,  too relieved to weep,

for the father I lost, but life I get back.

Sleepy John took his life, for money Pa owed.

This life in the Ozarks is my long, lonely road.