Going into this course, I wouldn’t say that I was necessarily cocky about my writing abilities, but I felt pretty confident when I read the reviews of the course, and had heard good things about the class in general. After opening Cane, and reading the first section of this series of short excerpts, it was definitely an eye opening experience regarding where I thought I would stand in the class, to where I actually did compare to the rest of the class. This class was unlike any class I have ever taken at Geneseo, and was not like anything I have ever experienced regarding school or classes in general. The information, resources, and techniques I learned in this class are attributes that I can apply to my life and use as ways to further set myself apart from other individuals who weren’t exposed to a class like this.
I was always a decent writer, I knew how to put together concepts and analyze them, however most of my assignments didn’t require much else besides these concepts or ideas. Needless to say, when I first learned the principle behind ‘They Say, I Say,’ I was extremely confused and did not have even the slightest idea how to go about such an obscure concept. Discussing it in large groups during class and watching my classmates act this idea out seemed to be logical depictions, but I was still so lost when it came to utilizing this idea and organizing my thesis, and more importantly, my paper around this concept. That is when the bouncy balls came in handy. I’m a kinesthetic learner; I learn by doing, touching, feeling, interacting. While the other sources provided visual aids and auditory simulations, it was through the act of bouncing the ball off of the wall that I slowly grew to understand the idea that we had to bounce one work off of another, much like that of the bouncy ball. When I was writing my paper in my room, I made sure the bouncy ball was close by so I was able to remind myself what the objective of this assignment was. Throughout the rest of this course, there were other tactics, and resources available to help us understand a concept and remember that concept further, tactics that not many, if any, professors would take the time to share.
Ultimately, this class did more for me than teach me information about specific topics, or understand concepts that some may view as obscure. This class provided me with the resources to become an independent writer, and to consider questions before assuming the answer. This class therefore, provided me to think about concepts and aspects of writing in aspects regarding the term interdisciplinary as a whole. This class taught me to use multiple branches of knowledge to formulate thoughts, opinions, and answers, and that is something that I will take with me wherever I go.