Self-Reflective Essay
In the final months of 2020, I have never been more academically productive than ever. I can better grasp new topics and turn in assignments promptly, which has shown through my significant improvements in grades. Experiencing the new platform of online instruction has been advantageous to not only my grades but my health. Although it may not be beneficial long-term, knowing that my assignments are open-note relieves stress. I no longer have to worry as much about balancing my time with extracurriculars and memorizing derivative formulas. While enjoying the shift to online classes, I realized the difference between the past and current curriculums. To make sure students are continuously engaged in class, many assignments seemed to require me to understand topics thoroughly to complete them. Instead of just memorizing facts, I have to be able to apply concepts to real-life situations.
I considerably underestimated the difficulty of learning in a virtual environment. Although being at home comes with occasional distractions, I have felt the urge to be more integrated with school work. I have become more proactive in completing assignments and engaged in classroom discussions. Because of this new educational norm, I also had to adjust my approach to learning new topics. Rather than trying to ingrain the information in my head, I integrate it with real-life applications. I occasionally feel as if I am only keeping my brain rolling when I turn in assignments; the information I gain seems to go in one ear and out the other. But by attempting to analyze and understand topics fully, I realized that I had bettered myself as a student.
For this specific course, I have taken more steps to try and connect with the author to see how he or she portrays their intended message to the audience. Learning more in-depth about different views led me to think more from different perspectives in my daily life. But not only did I better understand different ways the author uses point of view, especially when working on Project 2, I also learned how point of view and structure of pieces of literature and art affected the audience. By breaking them down and rebuilding them back, I acquired valuable writing skills.
I enjoyed learning how authors utilize structure, context, diction, and point of view to illustrate their ideas. By analyzing components in pieces of literature and rewriting them, I improved my ability to communicate my thoughts and unique traits through different writing styles. Although it required more writing than my liking, Composition II has been the most enjoyable and useful English course I have taken thus far. Because of my engagement in the readings, assignments and willingness to understand and apply the topics I have learned to my writing, I would suggest an A letter grade. But no matter the letter, I know I will utilize the tools I have learned in this course towards my future writing.
