I never thought I would experience so much in the one simple
class I decided to take for fun! English 2035, Writing for Public Forums, has
truly been one of the most rewarding courses I have taken. On the first day I
was a little terrified with how intense this class would be, but the terror was
backed with even more excitement. Although a quick thought to drop the class
crossed my mind, I pushed through my fears and continued with the course – and I
am so glad that I did.
At the beginning of the semester the class was assigned a
blog post narrative and I was mortified with the word count! How would I ever
write a narrative in under 300 words?! I just did not think it was possible.
But after reading and discussing the reasoning behind keeping it short and
sweet, I was able to applying what we learned and complete the blog post. In a
way, this assignment paved the way for this course, even though it seemed impertinent
to the project.
After the blog post the class was split into three groups
that would meet for the rest of the semester. The idea of only being with one
group for a whole semester made me a little nauseous but as far as the team
work, I have definitely gained the most out of this experience. It was very
tough to get five people together at a time, stay on task while we were
together, and then agree on writing methods while we completed our assignments.
Luckily, everyone in my group was willing to hear each other out and to
compromise. While writing our first email to Rachel Watson – our community
partner – we all seemed to care too much about little things that did not
matter to the point that it was wasting our time. Afterward we learned to be
more cautious of our time and less worried about unnecessary changes.
I had a great time learning how to write a proposal and then
writing them with my group. Before this class I did not know much about
proposals and had maybe only read one. I was so worried that I was not prepared
enough to write one, but after the readings I felt much more confident.
Although it was hard to write as a group, I was so glad we were able to write
it together. Writing with five people to sound like one is a difficult feat! It
was a little rocky, but we scraped our knees enough to push us forward.
After presenting our proposal and meeting with Rachel to
decide what action we would take, the rest of the semester seemed to zoom by. Although
we were still working together, delegating became crucial and we worked on
separate projects to save on time. As the semester came to an end it felt like
crunch time was upon our group. Small things seemed like they would never come
together, but everything worked out just great in the end.
Handing our work over to Rachel was so satisfying! To look
back and see how far we had come was simply remarkable. I can personally say
that I will use this experience to mold future projects. I will be more confident
in working with a client, I will know how it feels to provide a service with my
writing skills, and I specifically plan on using the writing skills we learned
to compose more successful blog posts as well as social media posts.
Although this was a pioneer course, I am confident in saying
that I cannot think of anything else that I needed during this class. There
were points during the semester that I felt unprepared and uninformed – which cause
some minor ‘heart attacks’ – but in the
end, those moments helped shape the work that our group did, so I cannot
honestly complain about those times. Overall, I feel like this course was set
up very well. There were applicable readings, great discussions, and the
perfect amount of direction when needed. I have learned many valuable skills including
how to work with a team, how to write different documents, and how to frontload
as I write.
I am sad to see the semester come to an end, but I am so
grateful for all that I have learned – for developing great teamwork skills,
learning how to shape my writing with frontloading and word usage, and working
with a client. All of these tasks will carry me forward into the future and if
you get a chance to do something like this, jump on board! The whole experience
will be more rewarding than you can ever imagine!
