Final Post (my final draft is the previous post)

Unlike history classes where one learns facts, dates, and events; or math classes where one learns about logically solving problems, English classes are inherently a different animal. So to pick one specific thing that I learned is rather difficult. Being forced to pick something, however, I would say that I have a much greater understanding of the trajectory of a news story. Prior to this class, I considered myself to be rather well-informed about current events relative to my peers, and I would say that I was mostly aware of the general life of a news story. But by examining the news ecology over the last half of the semester, my knowledge of the logistics of the media has very much increased.

This class has also helped my writing ability greatly. In this class, I learned that writing, like every other skill, requires repetitions and practice, and this class has allowed me to practice my writing through repetition. By simply writing blog posts, I’d have to formulate an idea and organize it in a way that wouldn’t be embarrassing for the class (and potentially the world) to see. By posting over 20 blog posts, I have become a better writer simply by writing a lot. To use an athletics analogy, I previously believed writing to be like speed: you either are fast or you’re not. Instead, writing is more like endurance, while some may be able to run longer than others, you can still get in shape and improve your endurance. I used to think that good writers were better than me because they had the writing gene and I didn’t. This class, however, has taught me that regardless of my ability as a writer, I can always improve.

My writing practices have changed because my ability to come to terms with, forward, and counter other’s ideas in order to take my own approach has increased. This has manifested itself in my writing, as I have used Harris’ methods to improve my writing for other classes as well. When critiquing a scholarly article for my humanities class, I found myself using Harris’ tips on forwarding and countering, and the quality of my paper benefitted from it.