Assignment 2

          Up until this moment, writing was something that had been taught to students step by step with each detail explained to them. When looking deeper into this class, one will see that this is not the case. English 101 tries to make a student look into deeper details of their writings instead of just a paper to turn in for a grade. This course challenges students to push themselves outside of their comfort zones and work hard to achieve a paper that is much more thorough and detailed to hand in as a final draft. As stated before, most assignments before now had many details and step by step instructions while English 101 allows there to be more freedom in a student’s interpretation of the assignment by limiting the direction to a simple assignment. By doing so, this allows a student to take the assignment in any which direction they so choose. Now, this course can be difficult to some and easy to others, it just depends on if a student likes a challenge or can work hard to push themselves to increase their current knowledge. By taking this course, a student can do just that.

            Throughout high school, English papers were just assignments that were needed to complete the course. With this impression crammed into my mind, and I’m sure others too, it made it difficult to try and enjoy writing papers and to challenge myself. Now if someone were to be asked, “How would you write a paper or essay?” most would say the typical answer being a five paragraph paper. Up until about my sophomore year of high school would I have used that same answer because that is just what was pushed into my head year after year. After that, my teachers started pulling away from that format and asking students to focus on more of the arguments or points of a story rather than meeting the length requirements. By adopting this idea and using it for the rest of my English essay assignments, it began to push my mind to focus on more detailed elements of my papers which I feel prepared me for taking a class such as English 101.

            With every new class, a student is bound to have a concern or two and after looking over the Student’s Guide, the class started to look a bit overwhelming. The biggest concern, at least for me, is the working portfolio and the final portfolio. At a first glance, these two assignments can seem like an impossible task and a task that serves no purpose for a student later on in life when actually, this is one of the things that a student will need later on down the road. Another element that I feel will strongly affect the way a student works in the class is the student guide. Class goals, past student opinions, and rules and expectations will help students keep everything in check and help them as they progress through this class.