Final Reflection

I was not thrilled to take this class. I always hated writing because I was never really good at it. When I transferred to Florida State from Auburn University, you could only imagine my frustration when they did not accept twelve classes I had already taken and knowing I had to take an additional writing class pushed me over the edge. I came and unenthusiastically sat down on first day of class and listening to Mat telling us about our daily notecards to keep track of attendance. He asked us to write something about us so he can get to know us a little better. I remember writing “I am a transfer student and I am not particularly excited to start over again, but I will do it enthusiastically.” Through the summer, I held that statement true. I actually loved this class. I loved being involved with discussions and learning about different genres. I learned a lot about myself through expressive writing and conquering fears of public speaking through mini-text presentations and lead discussion.

My favorite and probably the most difficult assignment this semester was the personal narrative for project one. I wrote about my battle with eating disorders and self-loathing. I never really talked about it not to mention annotate my entire life and the reasons behind my struggle. It was very hard for me to share my personal narrative with three complete strangers in my project group too and reading aloud somethings that never even my lips before. When I met with mat for our first conference, I was so nervous. My old professor used to take a bright red sharpie and cross out paragraphs and I would walk out of the meeting feeling deflated. That wasn’t the case with Mat. I was not using enough passive voice in the beginning of my paper and instead of attacking it with a red pen, he gave me alternative means to fixing it.

Project two was a breeze for me. I have written so many research papers in past English classes and my upper division psychology classes, when it came to writing a two-thousand-word essay I said “bring it on.” It was easy too because my topic was social media on body dissatisfaction, which I not only have a library databases filled with journals and articles to my disposal, but I also had two of my closest friends and my own personal struggles as a frame of my research. I actually love reading about experimental data and procedures so finding seven sources did not take me long at all. My conference with Mat went well but he told me that my draft sounded too formal and academic. When I went to revise my draft I kept referencing Wallace’s style of writing in Consider the Lobster, which helped me make my research paper, more enjoyable to read.

As I am working through project three, it is almost a breath a fresh air because all of the hard work is done. Since I am so passionate about my research question I am finding myself put in more effort than necessary. I am creating a blog for people to submit their personal stories with a gallery of body positive pictures. With that, I am making a flyer to promote body positivity with a link to my site and I am also making a snapchat filter so people can apply it to their pictures for a confidence boost. I have seen past student’s genres for their project three and it seems almost as if they have done it five minutes before the deadline. I can see myself maintaining this blog and I find it quite useful myself for an extra pick me up when I need it.

I learned a lot from this class. I found the blog posts bothersome just because I could not figure out how to work the Wix interface. Once I got the hang of it, I loved it and spent the extra time and effort organizing my page. All in all, these six weeks taught me how to be a different writer than I am comfortable with. I used to never write in first person, it makes my skin crawl, but once I came around to trying it, I felt almost more human because of it.