Throughout high school, much of my time in English class was consumed through the practice of “timed writing” assignments. The practice, to which, appeared unrealistic to compose a well-written essay. Moreover, these “timed writing” assignments, ironically, provided no “time” for narrowing down the abundance of thoughts that consumed my mind. As I transitioned from a high school English class to a college English class, I found myself amazed by the amount of knowledge we shared with one another. I walked out of every class with my head in a swirl of thoughts due to our group discussions. Shortly thereafter, I came to the realization that I lacked the ability of narrowing down these thoughts and ideas that consumed my mind. I began to notice that I had a difficulty in deciding what to write, and how to write, a blog post or an essay that incorporated all of it. As the semester began to dwindle down, I learned that the skill of “narrowing it down” is an important practice that only develops as one grows and advances in their writing skills. Continue reading “Narrowing It Down: An Abundance of Thoughts”
A Tribute to Blogging
Over the course of my academic career, I can safely say that, I have written more essays, research papers, and response papers than I can count. However, those types of formal and conventional writings have restrained me from learning how to truly write. Therefore, as my tenth and final blog post, I decided to pay tribute to the blogging assignment for teaching me how to write and the many other skills I have learned along the way. Continue reading “A Tribute to Blogging”
Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect
Every now and then, I find that I compare myself and my life to other people and their lives. More often than not, these comparisons are discouraging and lead me to doubt myself. Throughout the semester, I noticed that I began to compare my work to the work of my peers, specifically, when it came to blog posts. Continue reading “Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect”
Narrowing It Down
As I mentioned in a prior blog, “each week in Professor McCoy’s English 203 class we are often divided into smaller discussion groups to confer on various questions and activities.” In addition, I stated how I “thoroughly enjoy being with these smaller groups” because I am granted the opportunity of conversing with my peers about various materials. More often than not, I walk out of class with my head in a swirl of thoughts due to these small group discussions. I find myself amazed by the amount of material and knowledge we share with one another.
Therefore, I have come to realize that, due to the amount of knowledge shared, I have difficulty deciding what to write and how to write a blog post or an essay that incorporates everything we discussed in class. In other words, I have difficulty “narrowing it down.” Continue reading “Narrowing It Down”
The Importance of Reflection
What does it mean to be reflective? What is the importance of reflection?
As the semester begins to dwindle down, Professor McCoy has assigned a final reflection essay for us to compose in the concluding weeks. In the past, I have written a plethora of reflection essays, but I never truly understood the importance of this type of writing. Therefore, I decided to spend some time over break to do a little research. Continue reading “The Importance of Reflection”
Procrastination
Every so often, I find myself seated at my desk, overflowing with stress, glaring at an incomplete assignment the night before it is due. As I sit there, I contemplate how I have, once again, landed myself in this stressful situation. More often than not, it is due to my ‘expert procrastination skills.’ I have struggled to understand why I procrastinate when I know it only leads to the undesired consequence of stress. After numerous encounters with this situation I began to question myself, “Why do I procrastinate?” and “What influences my procrastination?” Continue reading “Procrastination”
Two Disciplines in One
According to Joe Moran’s Interdisciplinarity, “the long-standing division between the humanities and the sciences remains a resilient obstacle to interdisciplinary study.”(Moran 134) Moran’s chapter, Science, Space and Nature, goes in depth and “explores some of the connections that have been made in recent years between literary studies and the sciences.” (Moran 134) After reading through Moran’s chapter, I was able to see how the two disciplines that had once seemed so far from one another had suddenly grown closer together.
What is the purpose of blogging? Why do we blog?
Each week in Professor McCoy’s English 203 class we are often divided into smaller discussion groups to confer on various questions and activities. I thoroughly enjoy being with these smaller groups because I am able to converse with my classmates and listen to their interpretations on the information we read, watch, and discuss in class. These discussions are my favorite part of the class because I can never anticipate what we are going to be advised to talk about and what is going to be brought up as a result of the given assignment. Continue reading “What is the purpose of blogging? Why do we blog?”
Expectation v. Reality
As human beings we often have expectations for many things in life, whether they are high or low, we still have them. For instance, have you ever gone to the movies and as you’re sitting in the theater watching the movie you find yourself creating this picture perfect, ‘happily ever after’ ending in your head? Then in most cases, but not all, you are surprisingly disappointed when the movie doesn’t end the way you had expected it to.
This doesn’t just happen with the movies we watch, it happens with the television shows we watch, the books we read, and almost anything that goes on in our lives. Expectations surround us and consume our everyday life. Continue reading “Expectation v. Reality”
A Reflection on Suspicious Pants
Although to some people it may seem like our first day of class was years ago, it has only been one month since we’ve commenced our journey. For me, Reader & Text: Percival Everett Intertextuality was not only my first class of the semester, but my first class here at Geneseo. On the first day of class I remember not knowing what to expect, as well as trying not to have any expectations at all. Therefore, on the first day of class when Professor McCoy presented us with the picture of the suspicious pants tweet I remember having all of these thoughts flood into my head. For instance, “How is this going to relate to an English class?” and “What are suspicious pants?” As Professor McCoy presented this picture I recall her saying, “Suspicious pants is all of Percival Everett’s work in one tweet.”
I was extremely confused that day and all I wanted was figure out what Professor McCoy meant by that. Well here I am about one month later, and I have an interpretation of what Professor McCoy was talking about. Continue reading “A Reflection on Suspicious Pants”