Vincent: Thoughts at Midterm

Important concepts I have learned:

1.) When writing, you must follow the Five C’s of writing, which include being: clear, concise, compelling, consistent, and correct. These aspects of writing are very important, and must be followed directly. If you are able to follow these guidelines, you should be able to do great things with your work.

2.) Always be aware of your audience. When writing a paper, you must know who you are writing for. You must write your paper or any other work so that it is understood and taken seriously by anybody who is reading it. You would write a paper on nuclear physics and hand it into a British Literature competition. Simply put, know who your audience is.

3.) When critiquing someone, the most effective way to critique their work is using the sandwich critique. The sandwich critique is when you state how you felt about the work, what they can improve on, and end off with an inspirational word of advice. This is the most basic and effective method in critiquing someone.

Activities I liked/disliked:

1.) I have enjoyed the discussion forums. From what I have seen throughout the course thus far, the discussion forums has been the best. The reason being is because everyone in the class gets together to write and critique each others papers. It is like a tiny community of writers helping each other to succeed.

2.) I enjoyed the journal entries. Even though we have only done four of them, I have been greatly impressed with the videos and the outcomes of my journal entries. I enjoy watching the videos and having a short time to write my feelings on it. I liked being able to express myself under pressure, it seems to me, at least, that the purest of thoughts come out when you have a time restriction. The first thoughts that come to mind are the purest and these are the ones that are placed in the journal entries.

3.) I enjoyed looking through the newspaper for words that could be placed together to form a poem. I liked it how you could pick one article in the news paper and create it into something totally different using the words to create a poem. I loved this transformation. I also liked how everyone read their poems in front of the class. Even though it was a bit frustrating, you begin to learn how to handle public speaking. It is all done in preparation for the TA for the day assignment.

Thoughts on what I have learned:

I am really happy with what I have learned throughout the semester. I honestly believe I have met some great people and worked with the brightest minds at Florida Gulf Coast University. I have also learned quit a bit from everyone through their sandwich critiques towards my writing, it was very helpful to get advice from a student for a change. Everyone has been very nice, I really enjoyed the time I have spent in this class thus far. I have learned quit a bit and I am very happy with what my writing has come out to be. It has improved and I am satisfied. The great thing is that we are only half way through the semester, which means my writing can improve that much more.

Work Cited:

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/8701848/2/istockphoto_8701848-still-life-by-the-fire.jpg. Stock.xchng. Web. October 7,2009.