Final Reflection

Project 1 was a difficult one to start, because everything I’ve learned in high school told me not to write anything in first person. Even as I got further into it, I was still having trouble getting into the flow of it. It wasn’t so much the subject, as I loved my martial arts studio, but finding the right moment to write about. My martial arts studio has been a big part of my life over the last four years and many important moments happened there. I finally decided to write about my most recent test. I picked this because it was recent and fresh and also because it was a test I wasn’t sure I was going to pass. I figured that this would make the story more interesting. Finding the right text to write about was also hard because there are quite a few important texts. I decided to do my testing certificate because it was a physical representation of my achievement in martial arts. After talking to Mat about it, I was sure to make it a personal narrative and less an informative paper. There were some parts of my paper that needed revising, but after talking to Mat I had a clearer picture of where to go.

Project 2 was also hard to start. Once I heard about the topic I knew what community I wanted to pick, but was struggling to find a good research topic. I knew I wanted to do the circus at FSU, but needed to narrow down the texts. This was my first real research paper, so that also made it difficult. I decided to write about how the circus communicated among members, how they communicated to the audience, and the relationship between the performers and the audience. After I decided what direction to take, writing became easier, but I was still having trouble finding a good way to put my research in my paper. After talking to Mat, it was easier to write. He told me that my paper need more detail and to examine the texts more. This really helped my word count as well made the paper more specific. This project really helped my ability to research as well as my ability to filter what I find and put it in a paper.

Project 3 was the only project I went into having a semblance of an idea. After talking in class, I felt ready to do the project. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to distribute in the circus, so I needed to come up with an idea to distribute about the circus. I felt that because of the many years participating in the local kids programs I could talk about how much fun the circus is. I picked an Instagram post, a YouTube video, and a live demonstration for my three genres. I felt like this message needed genres that were viewer friendly. The circus is a performance and I think that the genres need to reflect that. This project taught me how to examine the audience I was trying to reach as well as the message I wanted to spread. Having to work in three genres helped me become comfortable with more genres, even if they were genres I was already using, like Instagram. Having to actually circulate all three of the genres made me more aware of what I was doing, because I knew that people would actually see whatever I decided on. That meant I was more selective of what I posted. This project also made me think about genres in general. Everyday I’m using many genres that I don’t even think about and this project made me more conscious of that.

Coming into this class I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I had taken both AP Lang and AP Lit in high school and was honestly kind of annoyed that I had to take another English class. But now I think that class really helped my writing skills. Before this class I had no idea how to write a research paper or even how to do proper research. This class expanded my perception of text and genre and allowed me greater understanding of how they are used in the real world. Project 3 really caused me to think about how I use different genres in my everyday life and how to reach different audiences based on wha genre I was using. Overall, this class helped my reading, writing, and research skills and will help me in my future college career.