Written Reflection

Written Reflection of English 102
Denise M. Augenstein

This summer in English 102 I learned to broaden my reading and thinking horizons. By this I mean that I have been a pretty narrow minded reader. This semester I was introduced to two new authors whom I probably never would have heard of. The first was Tim O’Brien; he is an author of war stories. Particularly stories about Vietnam and the Iraq wars. I can say that I’m haven’t been a fan of stories about war or conflict. During my high school life it was all I could do to stay awake in history class but the stories I read by O’Brien really took me by surprise. He told the tales of the soldiers and managed to incorporate that into the story of the conflict that was happening around the soldiers.

I also had a pleasant surprise by reading Margaret Atwood. Even though her story was a fictional work it was something that related to the world we live in. It got me thinking about the possibilities while not pleasant for women in the book could be very real. Another surprising thing was that Atwood took her story and managed to relate it to a few problems our society has today. Such as cult activity and brainwashing.

Another thing I learned in this class was to slow down sometimes and read some poetry. I will say right now I’m no poetry reader, but the authors presented at the start of this class were good. Most of poems seemed to have an underlying meaning and mystery to them. I do like to be challenged in this way because it causes me to think about what I’m reading. The poem I really looked at was by Sharon Olds “Rites of Passage.” This poem had so many different meanings and undertones, I keep wondering about other meanings every time I read it! Again I like the unexpected and surprising.

My writing has changed for the better I believe. I think that through this class and the blogging I have become more comfortable with my writing. I was actually looking forward to writing the research essay for Atwood’s book! This is very unusual for me, normally I think “Ugh! Another paper to write.” I found myself researching good books to reference and was disappointed that I couldn’t find more about my topic on the JSTOR site. I also very much enjoyed researching Vietnam for the final E-Portfolio.

I have never blogged before or read a blog. Another new experience! Even though I’m not quite sure what to think of it yet, I may keep it up for awhile. Seems to be a very easy way to share information and opinions with others.

I have taken internet classes before but I will say this is one of the most entertaining I have had so far. There was such a broad range of topics covered and also it helped me get a better hold on my writing style. This will help me in many ways at work and at school. I have to write many “stories” or reports on the people I treat medically, this has helped me organize my thoughts better before I start writing. In school I’m sure it will help me in my nursing classes and all of the papers I will have to write for that. This class has also given me new ideas for places to get reference material. Before this I didn’t know you could access certain materials from the YC library, including reserving books for later use.

So to Ms. Darrow I say thank you for teaching this class this summer, to my classmates’ thanks for not beating up my discussion board posts to bad. Just Kidding! It was great to have all of your opinions through the summer and you all did great work to!