Reflection

My name is Britney Collver. I am 18 years old, and graduated from Arlington High School in 2008. Currently I'm working full time for Volt Services Group in Bothell, and therefore only taking classes part time. I plan to get a transferable associates in business, and deciding at that point which path is best for me. I have been taking courses at Everett Community College since 2006, while attending High School. I have actually already taken English 101, spring of last year. Unfortunately, I received an incomplete. I had an A in the class, but failed to complete my last essay, not realizing I would flunk the class without it. So here I am, for my second attempt and this time I will finish.

When I signed up, I didn’t realize the difference between 101 and 101D. Having taken both now I can without a doubt say there is a vast difference. Personally, I liked 101 better, and that shows as I did much better in that class. The reason for this is that this class didn't really open my mind to new views on diversity. It most definitely made me think a bit deeper about the subject, but it was really nothing new. Because of this, I had a hard time focusing and forcing my mind to read and write about the subjects. In 101, there was much more variety and potential views on subjects.

Aside from that, I also think I struggled with it being online. I took 101 in person, and I have found that I learn much better this way. Online just feels a bit incomplete to me, and I don't feel as though I come out of the class much stronger than I did prior to taking this class. It is always useful to get the feedback from the classmates, and the corrections from the teacher, but I struggled with the void in personal contact. Of course, this class has helped improve my writing skills, just not in the way I had hoped.

For the piece of writing which demonstrates my critical thinking, I chose the essay I wrote on non-conformity in response to Fight Club. I chose this piece because I really took time to think deep into this movie, and came up which a conclusion which may not be viewed the same by others, but I was able to show and support through my writing. To demonstrate my skills at revision and reseeing my work, I chose my essay on Identity versus Personal choices. I decided that this was a good piece, due to the fact that I overlooked many basic rules and there was much that I need to correct. My response to "Struggling against tradition" is what I chose to show my awareness of audience, because I took two stories and wrote of both sides to the struggle, allowing all classmates to relate to their views as well as be shown the opposing side.
Finally, I chose my response to the movie Freedom Writers and the term "Outsiders" as my writer’s choice. This essay could use some work, as it was a timed write and not my best quality, but I really liked the content throughout the paper.

Although I have a bit of a negative outlook on my time spent in English 101D, I do have many pieces of work which have forced me to think deeper than I would normally, and focus on my writing skills through content and editing. This would not be the case without the class, so all in all, it was time well spent.