I used to dread it when any teacher faced the class and told us that we were going to have to write an essay. I especially hated it when the essays were supposed to be in-class. To me, it was so unjust to only give us 50 minutes to try and write a coherent essay and make it worthwhile to read when it was finished. I don't know about you, but I love to be able to look over my work a few times and correct every little mistake and make sure it's up to par. In-class essays, I feel, were made to punish us. Of course I felt this way until I got into this English course.
In-class essays aren't as daunting now as they were before, I'm guessing it's probably because I actually prepare for them before I go to write them. In high school I used to go into the essay completely unprepared, I admit it, I never did any pre-writing for most stuff. So when I got into the classroom I'd be writing the whole period and I still wouldn't be finished because new ideas were constantly flowing in my head, and I felt that I had to write them down somewhere/somehow. Now I realize that when you have the outline and everything pretty much written out writing the essay is actually simple. When the paper is now placed in front of me I look at it as a challenge, not to write whatever flows into my head, but instead to write a good essay from the notes that I worked on the night before.
I would like to take a guess that I am not the only one that feels this way now. The CM1120 course has opened our eyes to new and more mature ways of going about an essay. We now have to prepare if we want to come out of the classroom with a good grade on our essays. So this has been my little, I shall call it a rant, on writing in-class essays.
I was exactly the same. I would dread knowing that i had to write an in class esasy . I could never understand how teachers' expected us to write an essay that would produce a good grade in such a short amount of time. I felt it was unfair and that we should have gotten time to write it at home instead.
ReplyDeleteNow however my opinion has changed after taking this course. I now feel more comfortable when i am told that i will be writing an in class essay. I am not totally at ease but at the same time i do not panic anymore. For me that is a major step. I feel like i am better prepared to write in class essay's now because i have been taught how to properly prepare to write them.
In high school i never took the time to do the pre-writing either. I think maybe that is why I found them so challenging. Being prepared for the essay really puts your mind at ease and allows you to focus on getting your thoughts down on paper without the struggle.
Kenzie Butt