This blog is a culmination of all the work I have completed throughout the course of the Fall 2014 semester in Dr. Wielgos' College Writing 2 class. Way back in August I was relatively weary of where this class because my teacher had changed after registration because of changes in the English department. Little did I know that the smallest scheduling changes would turn out to be so... awesome (for lack of any other expressive word). I have never blogged or thought about blogging even though writing is in my genes and my dad blogs avidly, but after this class and seeing what the fuss is about I can totally consider blogging to be a part of my future. Multimedia and the way we are all constantly connected is something that even a 22 year old in 2014 still needs to adjust to, and this class was an extreme help in opening my eyes and making me realize that you can connect yourself to an entire world by simply putting your thoughts out there for other people.
At the beginning of the semester we were told that it would be best for us if we thought of a subject matter or topic that we could carry with us for the rest of the semester. At first this idea absolutely terrified me because I thought "there is no way that I am going to be able to pick something that I can talk about for an entire semester." Then it hit me that it doesn't have to be anything specific, it could be something that you find interesting or something that means a lot to you. I am still on the fence as to what my major is going to be so I thought that this class could be a good opportunity to see how much I actually care about researching the environment and animals and things that relate to those ideas. I've always had a love for them, but science isn't my strong suit, so the thought of going into Biology or Environmental Science is kind of terrifying even though I know it would bring a lot of fulfillment to my life. Taking this class and having an opportunity to develop an argument around anything I wanted was pretty much exactly what I needed.
This semester I had an opportunity to develop my writing skills while looking into a subject I really care about. It started with the photo essay where I looked at the beauty that we can see in every day around us, then I took it into my rhetorical analysis essay where I examined World Wildlife Fund posters and their effects and purposes, and I carried it all the way through to our final paper which, our research synthesis where I talked about nuclear energy.
Besides our papers that we structured ourselves, we had an argument synthesis where I talked about the different adaptations that need to be made when young people are thinking about entering the working world. We also had written assignments here and there, one of which being our first blog post which I couldn't help but include in our final portfolio. Along with all the papers and written assignments, included in the portfolio are also purpose statements and design plans, along with reflections, for every paper.