During my time here at Johnson and Wales University for the Summer Bridge Program in English 1020 with Professor Harmon, it has been quite a ride and a great learning experience away from home. I have enjoyed my time here although I do miss home a little bit of course. This is technically the first time I’ve been moved away from home especially for this long. I have been on vacations and other things by myself but those have been about three to four weeks away from home so five weeks is kind of a drag. The first day of English 1020 wasn’t too bad. I thought Professor Harmon was pretty cool and laid back, but I could tell he was also pretty structured as well.
When I first started the class I had a pretty positive mindset about getting through the class as I’m usually good in my English classes. I was in Honors English throughout my high school career. So when classes first started I was more worried about the math class than English because that’s the topic I normally struggle in. I was mistaken about this idea, however. It caught me off guard when Professor Harmon told us all to forget everything that we had learned in English over the years in high school. Every teacher in high school had been drilling us about these things and now my Professor is telling me doesn’t matter and that they are incorrect so that threw me for a loop at first.
As the class progressed, I started to understand what he meant when he said that everything was wrong, because all the formatting he started to teach us was different than what I thought I had already known. I guess you could say that my writing has been influenced a bit by the professionals and my peers that were around me throughout these past weeks. I wanted my work not to be just like theirs but I did want my work to improve.
I believe out of all my writing this essay I am currently writing is my best work honestly.
I say this now because I know that when I first got here I wasn’t doing my best work since I kept getting overwhelmed and stressed out by all the work we were doing every day. Then we also had daily workshops and activities so most of my previous writing isn’t of the highest quality. Now I feel like my work ethic has improved because I know how important it is for me to pass my classes or else it’ll just be a waste of my time and money. Since I have changed my mindset I feel like I can put in my best work. In this paper, I can include everything I learned about properly writing and formatting essays which I why I feel like this essay will be my best work. I can execute everything I have learned over the past five weeks. My weakest writing I feel would be my research paper to be honest because honestly I was frustrated trying not to turn it into a biography considering it was about Michael Jackson. It was hard not adding too much background. I wasn’t putting in too much effort just that whole week wasn’t a good week for me so I know it showed throughout my work ethic that week.
A strength I would say I have as a writer would be great time management skills and giving myself the appropriate amount of time to complete all my assignments on time. Whereas most people just wait until the last minute because of procrastination. Some weaknesses I know I have as a writer are, not being able to stretch my essays to the length they need to be most of the time. Sometimes it’s hard for me to elaborate on the topic we may be writing about. I know I also struggle with grammar and punctuation, I know I shouldn’t but I do.
I can trace my development as a writer throughout this term, I know I wasn’t one of the strongest writers when I first arrived. I have made some changes and I still have a lot to improve on but I feel like I can see the difference in my work lately. Lately, I have learned that I need time to do my work. I’m not one of those people who can just procrastinate and at the last minute just come through with my best work because of the pressure of it being last minute. With that being said I have also learned how to plan my schedule better and manage my time around my school work before making time to just hang out with friends. Before I got here I already knew most things about English but I was never held to such a high standard with such strict boundaries, deadlines, and consequences. This all corresponds because now I know better. If you know better you can do better.
At the beginning of the term if anyone was to ask me to define the terms, audience, purpose, and voice. I would have said an audience is just a crowd of people, the purpose would be just a reason for someone to do or say something and voice is just how people express themselves. If someone were to ask me to define these terms right now since I have been in this program. I would define them like so; An audience is who the author is directing his conversation towards, whoever may be listening and his or her readers. As a writer, you should know who your audience is. So your tone and style would be different depending on who you’re directing your message towards. The purpose would be why a writer chooses to write. Whether it would be entertaining, express their personal feelings or to inform others about a topic or situation. Far as the term voice, voice is how the author or narrator portrays themselves while telling a story. In a way, this is how the author makes the reader feel as if they are there and apart of the story. Also, it’s the tone the author chooses to tell the story in.
This class has given me a better perspective on the world, it’s allowed me to understand English and writing through a different set of eyes. I say this because of all the different stories throughout the reader’s responses we read and all the videos and ted talks we watched. They all showed examples of how everyone may go through the same things, but not everyone’s reactions or experiences may be the same. Just like in the Ted talk about “Loss and Desire” She talked about how most writers are stereotyped and portrayed as all being addicts and emotionally unstable. Due to the stress, they are put under for being creative and just overall authors. Although these cases may be true for most writers. Some of them know how to control it and how to live with their conditions, so even though they all may experience similar situations. That doesn’t mean every time one of them goes through something they’ll go pick up a drink. Some may go get a drink but then some of them may just choose to write about their issues. It all depends on the person’s perspective. This class has shown me that this technique can be used throughout my life in different situations, it’s all about perspective.
While away from home, I have learned how to be more independent. Even with simple things such as making sure I wake myself up on time to get to class. I have also learned how to open up, begin to network and start branding myself. This program has given me a boost in confidence because if I don’t believe in myself no one will. I’m thankful for all the opportunities for Bank of America has provided for me. I’m happy that I have these couple of classes out of the way and already started racking up some college credits. I was also able to get to learn my way around campus and uptown charlotte. So overall I’m grateful I got to get here before the fall semester, everything has given me a better perspective about independence and just life.
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