My relationship with writing has changed a lot over the years. I remember spending a lot of time writing as a kid. It paired well with my interest in art. I loved being able to write down an idea and draw an image to go alongside it. However, as time went on and assignments became more and more specific about what to write, I began to fall out of love with it. The assignments I enjoyed most were the ones where I could choose my own topics, often things like fantasy and other forms of fiction.
When my college courses started becoming more focused on math, writing in any capacity began to feel like a chore. However, this short semester taking ENC 2135 felt like a breath of fresh air. In previous classes, I was required to write rhetorical analyses of texts like Emily Dickinson, but in this class, I got to choose a topic I was personally passionate about. Writing and researching something related to my dreams and interest in motorsports actually made the process enjoyable.
Another thing I really enjoyed about this class was how deeply we explored topics during lessons. One lesson that stood out to me was the one on citations, especially what makes a citation correct in MLA or APA format. It was something I had always been required to do but never really understood. Learning the details, like which parts to italicize or put in quotation marks and how to format dates correctly, was surprisingly interesting. I especially liked working on the class document to fix incorrect citations and translate between MLA and APA.
Another favorite lesson of mine was the one on genres. It did not even feel like an English class. It felt more like a marketing or psychology lesson. While writing my draft, I was proud of the explanations I came up with for my choice of shapes, colors, and words. Understanding your audience allows you to think about the psychology behind how to best persuade them, which is the kind of critical thinking I enjoy.
I had taken this class once before but had to withdraw before finishing it due to outside circumstances. That left a bad taste in my mouth. I went into this semester with the mindset that writing was no longer for me, and at the time, the withdrawal seemed to prove it. But I am very glad I came back. The writing I did in this class is some of my favorite work ever. This class helped me break the negative thoughts I had built around writing. I have actually come to enjoy the feeling of getting stuck and then working through writer's block.
I honestly cannot think of a time I have enjoyed writing this much since middle school, and it really made me passionate about finishing my work the way I wanted to. Even if it took extra time. I believe this is my last required English course, which is a strange thought. There are courses I have completed like history which now that I am done, am okay leaving in my past. Writing is such a personal skill though, I really hope now that I am done with classes I never do stop writing. Since most of my electives are already done, if I ever need to fill a future schedule, a continuation of this class would be high on my list.
-Chase Cureau