Final Reflections

sondrajones@mycwi.cc

English 102 034W

Final Reflections

5 December 2011

The end of a semester, a light through the darkness, an oasis in the desert, an end to a war! Well, it is possible that I am over dramatizing this a bit, but the knowledge that the end of a semester is near and that classes will be ending is a wonderful feeling. After working so hard all year just to get a grade higher than an “F” so that you will never have to take this class again, looking back can be an unhappy idea for a student. “Move forward!” “Get out!” “Run for your life and never look back!” are the thoughts that may be running through the minds of many students, however, it is important that we collaborate all the information, facts and knowledge we have gained and see what we have truly learned.

Personally, this class has been a trial and at times a reckless adversity. Balancing home, work, school and a small social life, there are times when school did not seem to be high on the priority list. There were many nights where I was up into the wee hours of the morning just trying to perfect a paper, finish proper documentation or ask the professor a question on the discussion board. In fact, Ms. Jewkes after answering my question posted at 3:03 AM stated, “And Sondra...GET SOME SLEEP - 3 am is a crazy hour to be working on your paper. :D.” (Jewkes) Yet this was a common occurrence. Time management was something that I had to work on. For the majority of the semester I was determined give myself Sunday’s off from both work and school but that required me to be finished with all my assignments by Saturday night. I made this a high priority because I needed a day free from worry and activity. On the weeks I did not get this accomplished I deeply regretted it. I was forced to learn to say no to things during the week so that I was able to do as God did while creating the earth, “he rested…from all His work”. (Life Application Study Bible, Gen. 2.2) This is a skill I can carry on to both my work and future schooling. A day off is important for my body to rest and recover and I need to set my priorities so that I am able to give myself the rest and rejuvenation I need.

Choosing a topic is a difficult and incredibly important which is something I was forced to learn in a difficult manner. Once finding something interesting to write about narrowing your topic can be difficult patricianly if not much is known about your topic. In the final paper “A Midwifes Impact on the Millennial Development Goals in India” it was discovered while amidst research that at first not much information was available. However, once an interview was conducted information was overflowing and had to be limited. Choosing a topic is something I will continue to work on in my future writing.

One large item that was discovered in the actual structure of the papers was ending paragraphs with quotations. In the first paper written there were 3 instances of paragraphs ending with quotations. In the final paper quotation placement was thoughtfully considered and there were 0 paragraphs that ended in quotations. Each quotation was thoughtfully examined.

Another interesting aspect to this course was learning to write to your instructor’s preferences. While my teacher was wonderful and graded very fairly she had, like every instructor, certain preferences and criteria that had to be met. Things such as ending paragraphs with quotations I had never heard that that was not acceptable. I absolutely appreciated the fact that she prepared us for this by incorporating an incredibly arrogant professors article about grading papers into the syllabus. (Michael Berube, Analyze, Don’t Summarize)

All of the information collected over the semester will help in my dream of becoming a midwife. Through the papers I have learned about how midwifes can emotionally support women and their families. I also discovered that midwifes must know a great deal about women’s lives and previous emotional status coming into pregnancy and how it relates as the pregnancy develops.

 Fast writing is also an amazing technique I have picked up and learned to love. Allowing information that is coming from my head flow onto the paper and then putting together paragraphs makes writing much more interesting and less time consuming.

I would like to thank Ms. Leslie Jewkes for all that she has done in her attempt to develop both our writing and our character as students. It takes a special person to want to take English 102 over and over again. Not only attending classes but telling people how to make themselves better for their entire future is a wonderful passion and she does it so well. I have very much enjoyed you as my teacher Ms. Jewkes. 

Though I learned much more I also know that attempting to put too much information into a paper is foolish, and makes for your information to become dry and boring to the reader so I will end with this thought. No mater how non applicable a class may seem to your major, it will build inside yourself not only perseverance but other qualities that will strengthen you not only as a student but as a person. Regardless of how a person may feel about the class, always work hard and do best that is possible, because you never know what skills may be learned.