​
This experience involved writing three multi-page essays and one reflection essay to evaluate how we developed in our writing skills throughout the course. I believed my reading and writing skills wouldn’t get any better (I had always disliked English courses and never saw real improvement until my junior and senior year of high school) and that where I was at was perfectly satisfactory for my future career of being a high school math teacher. However, this course made me a scholarly reader, improved my articulation skills, and encouraged me to look at the world analytically, critically, and creatively.
​
In previous English classes I had practice reading one or two scholarly articles. We were always taught to annotate like our goal was to rid all of our pens of ink, something I hated because annotations neither helped nor hurt me. I just scribbled random words on the sides so I could satisfy the requirements. This class was almost entirely reading scholarly articles, but we didn’t have to annotate at all. The focus on the article itself and with more of them assigned greatly improved my understanding of how to read that genre. Furthermore, John Swales’ CARS model made research papers easier to understand because I knew what I was looking for. After this course I am more confident in reading and researching when it comes to scholarly articles. Being a teacher I won’t have to read scholarly articles that often, but I do plan on getting my masters a few years after I have a job. Graduate school will require me to read and understand various articles so I am glad I was able to better develop my skills and be more confident in reading research papers.
​
At the beginning of this semester, I wrote that my greatest strengths in writing were answering all parts of the prompt and keeping my writing concise. I also wrote that my greatest weaknesses were syntax and word choice -- I often end up repeating many words because I am bad at coming up with new words that would work well -- and that I often had short essays because I wasn’t very good at elaborating and going into details. My very first essay in this course, “Photography and Literacy: Seeing Baseball Through a New Lens,” was extremely enjoyable to write. I wrote about how being dragged to my little brother’s baseball games gave me an interest in photography which has only grown over the years. This essay reminded me that I often have a great voice in my writing, which I give credit to my English teacher in high school for. While I had great voice in that first essay, I missed points because of how short it was. However, I revised it and added more details and depth to my writing and got a much higher score. This first essay reminded me what my strengths are and how to tap into them while also highlighting my weaknesses and allowing me to correct and improve. My future career as a high school teacher involves a lot of writing. I must write lessons plans but more importantly, I may have to write recommendation letters for some of my students. I must be confident, meticulous, creative, and thorough when writing a recommendation letter because my student is depending on me to accurately depict them on the page. After this course I feel more confident in my abilities to articulate what I am truly thinking and better characterize a person, concept, or observation.
​
The second essay was about different genres. This essay opened my mind to think critically and analytically to my surroundings. We are all surrounded by different genres and groups, and each of these genres have their own ways of communicating to get their message across. Being a secondary education math major is like being in a weird limbo. On one hand we take simple and easy education courses where we learn how to use Google Classroom or have plenty of group work and group projects. On the other hand we take such higher up math courses that the only other people in our class are math majors. These polar opposite sides give us whiplash sometimes, we are part of two vastly different groups and we must be able to acclimate to both. This course has taught me about discourse communities and genres, which relates heavily to my situation. Applying critical and analytical thinking to the world around me allows me to better understand the different people and groups I am surrounded by. This mirrors my future as a teacher, as well. On one hand I will be surrounded by teenagers and on the other I will be surrounded by other teachers and administration and parents. These are all extremely different groups of people and I must be able to communicate effectively with each of them.
​
Finally, the last essay was about discourse communities themselves. As mentioned previously, understanding the different discourse communities I am a member of allows me to more effectively communicate to them. This course gave me an excellent understanding of discourse communities because I had to do my own research. Furthermore, the topic I wrote my essay on applies to my future career. I researched whether or not children can form discourse communities. I ended up concluding that they can and it is vital to understand how influential discourse communities can be on one’s identity because a child can be positively or negatively impacted. Being a teacher it will be important for me to be a positive role model for my students. After writing this essay, I now know that it is also important to provide my students with groups that would positively influence them. I now know how connected discourse communities are with identity, which is a powerful thing for children of all ages.
​
This course has encouraged me to think analytically about all of my surroundings, no matter how trivial or common. This will make me a more observant, creative, understanding, and articulate teacher, which will benefit my future students.
​
Below is one of the essays I wrote in this class. It is the last major essay we had to write and it took a lot of research and effort in order to complete. I think my writing skills had improved immensely by the time I had to complete this essay.
​
​