English has never been a strong subject for me. My grammar is not the best. I always have run ons and fragments. I have never been able to figure out all of the little parts and how to dissect a sentence. The teacher who attempted to teach me grammar was okay but we did not get along very well. So I was really scared that in college I would fail because I do not have great grammar skills. I assumed that since this is one of the first English courses it would be learning all of the basics and that it would be really difficult for me. I did not have any friends talk to me about this English class so I only had my own thoughts to use for what to expect from this class. Once I read the yellow book I realized that I was very wrong. This class will be teaching me useful skills not asking me to use straight memorization for rules I do not care about. Interpretation of the text through organization, visual cues, and context cues are all important skills to have as a writer.
The only concern I have is passing portfolio. Everything else makes sense and the syllabus that you handed out covered everything that I need to know. It is just scary thinking that we are graded on our portfolios by complete strangers who have not had the ability to watch us work on the writings we are submitting. They have not seen the effort we are putting into our writings or how much we have improved from the start.
The only concern I have is passing portfolio. Everything else makes sense and the syllabus that you handed out covered everything that I need to know. It is just scary thinking that we are graded on our portfolios by complete strangers who have not had the ability to watch us work on the writings we are submitting. They have not seen the effort we are putting into our writings or how much we have improved from the start.
Grammar is important--it can make or break your ethos. But writing is more than just grammar. Writing is about expressing your ideas in an effective way. This class is focused more on the ideas that you have than the grammar of your writing.
ReplyDeletePortfolio seems sketchy when you think about it being "complete strangers" who don't know you or your writing. But that is why we work with the course goals and outcomes. The people reading your portfolio are also teaching 101 and are familiar with the various ways students will write/work with the course goals and outcomes.