Week 1_1/14/16_ Previous Writing Experience and

First off, I want to admit that any form of English class/writing class is not my forte. Any sort of argumental or persuasive type of class was not my favorite. I never felt comfortable arguing, simply because I feared being wrong. I try to steer clear of arguments because 1.) if I do not know much about the topic, then I do not want to say anything incorrect and 2.) most of the time arguments are with opinionated people, and they do not want to hear your argument because they think they are right.

            I have always had some sort of English/writing class throughout grade school and high school. Eighth grade English class was my favorite class. Most people think the easiest thing to write about is yourself, but sometimes, it is not. We had a binder, A-Z and had a project about ourselves for each letter. Writing about topics you know are the best and the worst. Because you may know a lot about the topic, it will be easy. Not the case. Trying to process all these thoughts and ideas is hard, at least for me it is. When writing a paper, I normally like to have a topic I know of, but not a lot about.

            Being in my writing classes always allowed me to work on my skills, and become a better writer. Throughout high school, I wrote many papers (average 5-7 pages), and gave some speeches. It was not until college when I gave a lot of speeches. I took public speaking at Missouri State, and surprisingly, it was not scary like most people would think. I gave persuasive speeches, and that is where I really struggled. Trying to pick a topic, and making it appropriate for your audience was hard, but delivering the speech was not scary.  

            In every high school class, the teacher always said “this will prepare you for college,” or “this is what college will be like.” Frankly, I would have to disagree with those teachers. In high school, they always accepted late work, in a timely matter. I was never really pushed in high school. Here at Saint Louis University, they want to push you to the limit, they want you to do more than just average. Late work is not accepted, and that is that. You actually get in trouble for missing class.

My only concern for this class is getting all my work done, and turning it in on time. I would hate to lose any points simply because I did not print something out or I forgot to read 2 chapters of They Say, I Say. I fear that my papers may not be written very well, and I’m just not a good writer. However, I do have goals for this class. My goal for this class is to better my writing skills, and to become more confident talking in class, or arguing about a topic for Fight Club. I think this class will push me to really understand the meaning of a word, and push me to get all my work done in a timely manner.