Frady Lady

     This class has been a whirlwind. We started off the year with around five student and ended up with a full class! Imagine that. All jokes aside, I really found that I learned a lot. In high school I was only briefly taught about the format of research papers. I was never taught in depth about citations or how to research. The ENC2135 gave me the tools I need to successfully research and analyze a topic. I also feel that I have an Understanding of genre, community, and text. Though the blogs tended to be tedious and feel unnecessary at times, I found that I actually thoroughly enjoyed blogging. I liked the idea that people were reading what I had to say.

     Project one was actually my hardest project to tackle. My final product turned out to be dry. However, I learned almost as much as my paper improved from my first shitty draft. I’d rarely ever received as much freedom as we were given for this first project. Genre was never anything other than what categorized my movies, books, and Netflix series before taking ENC2135. After a ton of revising, project one gave me a broader understanding of genre and what it entails. I also learned about community and how genre can play a role within community. It was a struggle just finding any community I wanted when I was still gaining a grasp on what community really was. The only community I could think of that fit the guidelines was my high school yearbook class. That class was one of the communities I was most familiar and most comfortable with. I chose to focus on my publisher’s website as my community’s text. After deciding on the text I picked apart the components of my community by analyzing the tabs of the website. I made it clear how my community actually communicated and what being a member of the yearbook class entitled. Even though it proved to be boring structuring the essay the way I did, I did a good job of hitting the right points. If I had another chance, I would have picked something more creative. But I find it hard to be creative with a topic when I don’t have a concrete understanding. After writing this paper I feel confident that I could be more creative.

     Project two was another essay type that I found myself to be unfamiliar with; it also happened to be my first official college research paper. I received the same grade on project two as I did on project one, but for different reasons. I felt that I used more creativity and emotion in my second paper but lacked some organization. I noticed that many others used communities for their paper that they were completely unattached with. I chose FSU’s Children’s Learning center.  My passion for teaching and children helped me to connect with the community on an emotional level but caused me to over-analyze. Instead of stating what was on the surface I found myself looking too deep in the community for answers. I let the guidelines guide me a little too much again. I learned a lot about my community and about what I believe as an individual. I think this was the true purpose of project two; learning about the world outside of ourselves, forming an opinion, and applying it to the class objectives.  By interviewing and analyzing within the learning center I formed a strong opinion on teaching style. The stations I analyzed in my research paper are something I hope to use in the future. I also learned more about structuring a research paper. My model paper was Consider the Lobster. Though my paper was no Consider the Lobster, I feel that I took huge strides in the right direction. At first I found the annotated bibliography to be nothing more than busy work; but soon found that it helped me immensely when trying to find an angle for what I was going to analyze in my community. The more research the better when it comes to forming an opinion or theory. I might have picked a community I was less familiar with if I were to do this project again to be more objective. However, I’m thrilled with all that I learned.

     Project three was by far the easiest project for me. I consider myself to be a very creative person and found myself to be very frustrated with the first two projects. Project one and project two had room for creativity but were expected to be very structured/organized. There were also many unknown components to me in the first two projects. I found them to be more learning experiences than creative projects; my 89s reflected that. If I were taking the class again I would find it much easier to be creative with the projects. For project three I used my community from project two (the FSU’s Children’s Learning Center). I made another Wix site that I linked above this reflection. Within my Wix site I had three tabs. My first tab was a webpage for my community. I used vibrant colors and fonts that I would consider used for children. The center’s special qualities, academic standing, and contact information are all listed on the web page. My second theme was an open letter. The letter was directed towards parents from a college observer (me). My third theme was a twitter page for the learning center. I obtained a schedule from the learning center and tweeted what the kids partook in each hour throughout the day. While the design aspects and general concept of my project were on point, I accidentally included one extra theme. I assume that the fourth them would be the Wix site. It was not my intention to address four themes. I thought the Wix site was just a way to present my information, but I guess that does make it a theme. It felt surreal to put together all that I’d learned into one presentation. Overall, I feel that this class has allowed me to look deeper in a more structured way; project three confirmed that.