Project 4

Dear Classmates and Instructor,

    In high school, going through math courses and science courses and so on, almost every single student wonders why they are learning about what they are learning and when are they ever actually going to use it in the real world. English or composition is perhaps one of the few classes in which that question is not heard often. Whether the level of the class is first year language, AP Literature, or College Composition, English class is important because it teaches us communication and allows us to understand life on a deeper level. Throughout my entire writing career, my writing was absolutely, undoubtedly, unfortunately, far below par. I was an unorganized, thoughtless, and immature seventh grader who did not understand the power of words. As the year progressed, my writing developed and I began to get a feel for who I was a writer and my abilities as a writer as well.  My first year composition classes have certainly taught me a significant amount about myself as a writer, Over the years, my writing has greatly improved and has taught me a lot about myself, and this development is due to; excessive brainstorming, countless hours writing, reading, and researching (even when it seemed impossible), and reviewing and editing.

         I used to think that brainstorming was pointless. I thought that I could just think about what I was going to write and then successfully write about it without jotting down any notes or anything to help my thought process move along quicker and smoother. My first-year composition courses have proven to me that brainstorming and planning is an important step in the writing process and it actually makes writing a lot easier. The lightbulb in my head flickered when we began doing brainstorming activities such as bubble maps and other things similar to that. When I first used Google Draw to create my first bubble map, Cluster of Robots Vs Humans Controversy, I was intrigued by how much the cluster aided me in my writing later on. It seemed too easy to just go back to my cluster and make sure that I was remaining on the correct track with what I was trying to accomplish in the first place. That cluster lead me to the epiphany that made me realize how important brainstorming is. Brainstorming definitely improved my writing from what it was a few years ago. When I would write without a good amount of brainstorming, I would often lose sight of what I was trying to say. I would get off topic. I would be unorganized. I would do all sorts of crazy things. Brainstorming developed me as, not only a writer, but a person as well. It emphasized to me how important planning is and how planning things ahead of time can create ease in the future.

         After all of the brainstorming that goes into writing, sometimes writing can get boring, monotonous and just flat out frustrating.  I feel like frustration comes to me so much quicker than anyone else when I am writing. When I spend hours and hours sitting on the computer, typing in words and hoping that I find something worth while to write about, I get sick of English class altogether. I will admit, this class gave me plenty of opportunities of frustration and boredom, but I never gave up. I was fortunate enough to have found a topic of research that interested me greatly. In my first project, Robots Vs. Humans: Who does the future belong to?, I wrote about robotics and their influence on the world. I researched this topic in great detail and had a decently enjoyable time doing it. Although I spent hours trying to find out that Miguel Valez, a student from the University of St. Thomas, said that “Robots are certain to become an ever-increasingly important part of daily life, but it will be up to society to determine the degree of acceptability of robots in the workplace and in our personal lives,” I enjoyed learning a lot about the topic (Valez 7).  Because of all of this searching and writing, I learned that I need to find something worth writing about. I think I hated writing sometimes because what I was writing about was not interesting to me. Since I found something that I actually cared about and wanted to learn more, I was able to adequately research and learn about the topic without disliking it so much that I wanted to stop writing all of the time. Through my long hours of researching and writing, I have developed as a writer and I learned a lot about what I enjoy and that I find it easy to write about something that I actually enjoy.

         Similar to brainstorming, the importance of reviewing and revising was not very apparent to me until taking my first year composition courses. Obviously, throughout my English classes, I have revised and edited practically all of my papers, but I never really thought that it was too important. This course especially made me realize the value of revising and editing. As I stated in Reflection on Project 3, “The main thing that I learned from this reflection is how mistakes can be made very easy, and thus, it is important to get editing done by someone else, along with multiple times yourself.” This was true for just about every one of my works of writing throughout this course. When I wrote a paper for the first time, even though I was careful, there was always something that sounds right or looks correct that really isn’t.  Reviewing big projects as well as smaller assignments allowed me to see my writing with fresh eyes and try to put a new perspective on the way I was viewing a word, sentence, or paragraph. There were many times that I would find little mistakes in my writing when I went back through and re-read and revised my writing. Revising and editing developed me as a writer because it made me understand the importance of double checking and making sure that you know exactly what you are saying/writing and also exactly what you mean by it.

         Since my early years of reading and writing, I have significantly developed as a reader and also as a writer. I have learned to be more careful, more evaluative, but also quicker in my thinking and my writing. I hope to continue this trend in the future so that my writing can be well above par when I begin my career and I go off into the real world. English, LIterature, and Composition are an important part of everyone's lives. Words are all around us and it is helpful to be able to read, understand, and interpret the words that we are saying. My English class experience has taught me a lot about myself in terms of my writing, but also in terms of who I am as a person. I see things differently (in a good way) than I used to, and I hope to continue to develop as a person so that I can see things in an even better and more evaluative way.

Sincerly,

Jake H. Glatting

    

Sources Cited

Glatting, Jake (2015). Robots Vs. Humans: Who does the future belong to? The Gladiator Blog. University of Arizona.

Velez, Miguel (2015). Current and Future Relationships Between Humans and Robots. 1-9.  University of St. Thomas.

Glatting, Jake (2015).  Cluster of Robots Vs Humans Controversy.  The Gladiator Blog. University of Arizona.

Glatting, Jake (2015). Reflection on Project 3. The Gladiator Blog. University of Arizona.