Write Or Die

This semester of English 111 has been an experience to say the least. There were lots of papers to be written. I am not too sure if I really became a better writer because of this class. I like to think that I am already a pretty good writer and I just do not feel that it has gotten any better. For those of you that are thinking of having Mr. Gasparo for your teacher you may want to think again. Don’t get me wrong, he is a very good instructor it is just a lot of work. The problem is this. You begin working on a paper, and before you have finished with the one you are working on he is throwing another assignment your way. You don’t really get time to focus all of your energy on one paper because you are always getting another on top of it. Doing it this way makes it very stressful.

We as a class discussed this with him and hopefully he will change this about his teachings. It just really makes it difficult to be able to fully understand the assignment you are working on when you get another one thrown at you at the same time. Something else that is quite difficult is trying to make the word count. Sometimes, you just dont have enough to say to make your essay 1200 words and you have to really try to add words. This is something you get used to prety quick though, and you learn how to stretch out your words. The other difficult thing with him would be the way he grades. A lot of us think his grading is quite anal. Some of the things he grades us on are a little ridiculous but perhaps it has made us better writers. Something else that I didn’t like very much about this class is the fact that everything is online. I just feel that if I wanted to take an online course then that is what I would have done. I guess once you get used to it though it’s not too bad, just more irritating than anything.

One thing I can say that I have taken away from this class is the fact that I have learned how to use some computer programs that I have never used before, and I know that will help me in the future. Also, I will be taking away the knowledge that I can perform pretty well under extreme pressure and deadlines. When you are a single parent trying to do the right thing to make a better life for your kids you have it rough. Having to do paper after paper made me realize that although it was extremely difficult to try and concentrate on it all, it is possible. For that, I thank Mr. Gasparo. I hope those of you reading this thinks long and hard before you decide weather or not you would like this workload. I’ll tell you what, before this class, English was my favorite subject, but after this class I am seriously re-thinking that one.