Sometimes even an English class can be shocking and create a fun outlet in your life that’s still productive. Towards the beginning of the semester, I didn’t really expect much other than completing credit and hopefully improving my writing skills. Starting a new blog was of course another excitement for me, a new door to open and a new outlet to let thoughts and opinions out into the world. I of course had to personal goals of earning an A and doing work that I’m proud of, and surely there are still pieces I need to work on.
A struggle of mine has always been finding a great topic that brings me great inspiration and allows for passion behind what I am writing. Often, I will pick a topic that I’m interested in and want to know more about, but that almost leads me down the road of losing interest. I also need to work on my revision process and tightening the whole way I get papers to a place of showing others. Once learning the theme of innovation and creativity I was actually much more excited since those are two traits I strongly believe in.
I discovered especially while doing research, commenting on innovation and creativity is intangible and it’s hard to have concrete ideas surrounding them. I was able to learn a lot of new information about the World Trade Center, 9/11, and what structural design looks like, but also found it difficult to compare it to other places of innovation because it is unique and structure is all around us. Going through resources on the internet especially I was surprised how many online sites work for New York and comment on the city itself. Understandably, a large city will have a decent amount of attention, but still was shocking.
The best parts of my paper are probably around the structural elements, since that is what I was truly surprised by. I was enthusiastic writing that portion since I had learned so much about it and the structural portion of the new tower construction being such a large innovation. When I learned the difficulty of the underground working with concrete I was so shocked because it wasn’t even something I had considered before.
Since my job involves technology not much has changed, since I have always been really knowledgeable. The one improvement that I have noticed is better ability to find good sources that are reputable and often peer reviewed. Before this class I had knowledge of where these sources existed but not a great way to narrow down the results and find the good additions for an argument. I’m pretty happy with what I have learned so far since it really is catching up finding good information and creating a great argument.
I have found throughout the process that I enjoy actually finding pieces to the puzzle of my essay. Shortly after finding sources I lose interest in putting them together and adding my own opinion. I actually find it difficult to add pieces of my feelings mixed with what actually quotes I had found. I had just enough time even with falling a little behind, that being said, there could still be some adjustments. In the future, I could plan out what I want to write about before that way I have better structure.
In the future, I want to make sure to plan my writing better. As far as instruction has gone, the class worked well teaching me and dragging me through the process. I would like to learn to make sure my steps are all substantial and show significant improvements each time. There has really been a lot I have improved on, especially forming sentences and arguments – and surely there is a lot I need to work on for the future also.
Steamboat Willie Nelson Mandella 