Outside English Composition
I have used what I have learned in English Composition outside of the class several times now, in various other classes. The most obvious way that my knowledge has transferred over is through the proper use of the MLA format. Before I started English Composition, I had a fairly accurate understanding of MLA format and my headings were already correct in appearance. My Works Cited pages however, needed work. Another thing that I do now because of English is have multiple drafts of assigned papers. I always start with a first draft and will review that draft for grammatical mistakes and other things that I can improve on for the second draft. This may seem like an elementary thing, but before college I never really wrote multiple drafts of papers. I would write a single draft, revise it a little, and then call it ready to be turned in. It sounds like a horrible practice, and really it was, but at the time I could still maintain good grades while doing it. It did not seem too important. The third thing that I have carried over is writing notes or comments on my paper. Just like with drafts, I never did any of this beforehand. Now when I write a paper for another class adding notes can significantly improve the different areas of my paper because they allow me to see what needs to be fixed and how I should go about doing it. They make the final product less choppy and easier to understand in context. What I have not truly done in any other class is write about Discourse like I have done in English Composition. Other classes don’t really care about what the definition of a Discourse is. I have however, thought about how each class is its own Discourse; something that you need to learn the ins and outs of in order to properly belong.
