Coming into this class I thought that it was just going to be just like the English classes I took in high school. Boy was I wrong. A lot of stuff that was being taught in this class was new to me. The first day when we were breaking down the rubric and I heard that we each had to do a research paper I was lost. I have never done a research paper before so I didn’t know what to expect. The whole time I was thinking to myself how does one even write a research paper but slowly as the class progressed I learned how to write one. From the first lesson of how to create a website to the last lesson about how to include graphs into a paper. I learned how to write the research paper. They all helped me tremendously. I never really knew how to create a website before because I have never created one before so when I heard that I had to make a website as my first assignment I got so nervous. But then professor Nick showed me how to create one by writing down the steps which made it ten times easier to create a website. Then shortly after I was able to create another website for fun which I used for my streaming channel. It turned out really great but is still a work in progress. Then after that I learned about rhetoric through the reading and assignment that we had though it’s still a bit shaky. I know the basics of rhetoric now but I do think that I could still improve on my rhetoric and understanding of rhetoric. Soon after that I learned about style and mindset. I never really knew about these two in terms of writing so this was a completely new concept to me. I didn’t really understand it too well but I was able to understand it more in depth when I asked my previous English teachers and my cousins about this. They explained it to me which really helped me out a lot. Then I went back after they explained it to me and read one of the previous articles that professor Nick assigned, “The Marginal World” and tried to see how the author implemented style and mindset. Although it was hard for me to find it I figured as I practice more I’ll get better at it. Next I had to write my very first narrative essay ever. When professor Nick gave me suggestions on how to improve from my draft it helped me out a lot. I was able to develop my introduction more and was able to take the essay from a C- to a B in my opinion. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do better because I drifted away from the topic that I was supposed to write about but it was a great and helpful experience for me. Now I know what narrative essays are and how to write them. Then we went over ethos, logos, and pathos which wasn’t really taught to me. I had to learn this on my own in high school and it turns out they play a huge role in writing. The next thing that we did was another big paper which was the exploratory paper which was a bit interesting. Throughout this process I had to conduct research which I sort of knew how to do. It was pretty new to me since I never had to do research. This helped me prepare for my final research paper by teaching me how to do research especially the library sessions that we had. We had a peer review session in which I got some tips for improving it. Then I was able to make some changes and got an A- which was really shocking to me. After that I did my very first bibliography and after talking to many of my classmates and seeing multiple examples I feel like I was able to make a good bibliography. This was a great lesson for me because now I know how to cite sources properly I guess. Lastly was my final research paper. My attempt at a cover page was horrible. After I made one and saw other people’s cover paper I instantly went back and changed mines. However I feel like in the end I did good. This class has taught me a lot and I feel like this will help me become a better writer in the future. I really enjoyed learning all of this and I hope that in the future I learn more types of writings and get better at writing.  

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