Weekly Blog #15, Improvements

This semester has gone surprisingly well for me. I normally do not do well in writing classes. In the past, I would always find a way to botch up the good work I have turned in, by doing a horrible job on another assignment. This semester I am on the edge of an A, and at the top of a B. It has been that way the whole semester, I still have not messed it up, and I have no intention of being this close to an A, and not getting it. One thing I have definitely improved on is completing my writing assignments while doing the best I could. Sure, some of the sleepless nights could have been avoided if I didn't wait until the last second, but I learned to get my thoughts on paper, and have them make sense. Clearly stating your ideas at three in the morning is rather difficult. Sticking to the path, and completing all of my assignments is a huge improvement for me.

Something else I improved on is accepting criticism on my writing from others. In other writing classes when I never really made many improvements to my rough drafts. I always became angry with the teacher when she told me what I was doing wrong. I was and still am a teenager. "I don't want to listen to anyone", was my trademark characteristic. I thought my opinion was the best. This semester I took the professor's criticisms, or suggestions, and used those to make my writing better, and so far it has tremendously helped my grade. 

One thing I liked about this class (English 104), was that it was a casual atmosphere where students felt free to express their opinions and beliefs. One thing that could be done differently to make the class more efficient is the professor could speak a little slower at times. His voice sometimes was a blur, and this made activities difficult because we didn't hear the directions. I especially enjoyed the conferences. It gave the student a chance to meet one-on-one with the professor, and receive advice on his or her writing. I would rather have more conferences than class meetings, but it is especially important.