Arguing for My Grade

Although I do not feel that I learned a great deal in my English 111 class, I feel that the grade I deserve is an A. Any professor would feel comfortable passing me with the knowledge that I have on speaking and “building my ethos” daily. Compared to many students, I can compose comprehensive (and even witty) sentences. I stepped out of the box with the class assignments by writing them in blogs, which I would have never thought I would do for a class. I did (regrettably) purchase the books, and I showed up to mostly all of the classes. Thus, the shell of an enriching learning experience was present; however, I felt that there should have been more information to base the class upon.
One thing I did benefit from by taking English 111 is making a conscious effort to spend less money. This is not something that I would have expected to learn from an English class, and I still can’t figure out if that’s a good or bad thing. Why would English have anything to do with making a budget? It seems more like an enrichment class’ subject, but I suppose there is nothing to complain about really. A minimum wage income does not go far at all, which I knew before; however, my eyes were opened to the severity of that situation by this class. I make close to no money and need to learn how to save, even if it is by simply turning off the lights in my house.
In this class, the writing process was discussed numerous times. Though it is important, I resent learning about the writing process year after year. Yes, we have all seen this before and it is just as obnoxious as it was in fifth grade. I could recite to someone a million times “pre-writing, drafting, revision, proofreading/editing, publishing, and review” and it would not mean a thing. First of all, I do not abide by the writing process…ever. Not when I won a savings bond in eighth grade for my writing SOL, not when I annoyed my high school teachers with my clever remarks, not when I passed my eleventh grade writing SOL with an advanced score and hung-over, and not now. Does that mean that I’m a bad student? Does it mean that my writing isn’t compelling to my audience? That’s for you to decide. Second of all, (besides this assignment) there was barely anything with which to practice the tedious arts of pre-writing and proofreading. The actual assignments we had were few and far between, to the point where I could not even begin to guess what my grade is right now. Though, again, I am certainly shooting for that A.
I cannot say that I am particularly disappointed that the text books were not used, but I am annoyed that I had to buy them in the first place. I believe it is the professor’s duty to include the book in the curriculum (in some way). This isn’t high school, where the forgotten books stay in a locker for months until they are turned back in. I must add that my mother was not pleased when I asked to borrow all that money for my books. Allow me to revisit the minimum wage bit: I’m poor, so at least make me use the money in a way that makes sense (because I know you are required to make us get the damn things). To be fair, I believe we began a chapter but none of that ever really followed through so I just stopped bringing my books (or even looking at them) altogether. Though, if the books were going to demonstrate to me the writing process and what a sentence fragment is, I would rather just not bother.
I did learn a few things (mostly new terms) this semester. By attending English 111, I can now use the word “Kaizen” in a sentence. Kaizen is actually something that everyone should appreciate and live by. We must all “pick the lowest hanging fruit”. Every journey begins with a single step, no matter if you are going to the bathroom or going to the moon. It just makes sense for human beings to take everything one day at a time, rather than attacking something all at once. By using Kaizen, we make the small, manageable changes that get us where we need to be. The small change I decided to make was to have all of my school-related websites more accessible to me on my computer. That way, I would not forget to do things when my professors do not feel the need to use Blackboard.
“Rhetoric” is another interesting word I learned about. In my notes, I have written “The art or craft of effective communication”. I think that just by being a woman, I can understand what this means. After all, in a woman’s brain, the corpus callosum is thicker, thus allowing a better flow of understanding between the left and right hemispheres (Does that sentence make my ethos look big?). Rhetoric is being able to convey exactly what you want to say, and anything that prevents the audience from understanding the message is called “noise”. With rhetoric, the author crafts a message by using their goals, and the message must meet the audience’s expectations. By the end of this paper, I hope that my audience has a strong understanding of what I was meaning to tell them. The art of rhetoric should be strived for in everyday communication, whether one is arguing with a spouse or arguing for a grade.
In the class, I wrote notes on verbs and nouns. Besides the writing process, this is one of the most tedious subjects one can discuss in an English class. I remember being in third grade and reciting “a noun is a person, place, or thing” and even back then it was forced. To be fair though, verbs were more exciting. If someone does not understand what a verb or a noun is, they should not be enrolled in English 111. A way to avoid disgruntled and bored students in this matter may be to post a few notes online and have a quick introduction quiz within the first week or two of classes. That way, there is a definite starting point to the class and it may efficiently get the ball rolling, since no one actually had to learn what nouns and verbs are.
Genres were briefly discussed at the beginning of the semester, which is something I do not mind revisiting and going more in-depth with. However, the only type of genre I actually can recall talking about was a review. The blog assignment that the class had was to write a review on either a restaurant or a movie, which I actually enjoyed because it gave me a chance to be creative. That was the only assignment I felt that way about. Clearly, I am not going to be like every student in a sense that I genuinely enjoy expressing myself through writing, but it is English class after all.
Among other things, I am disappointed that we did not read anything in this class. I suppose that English 111 is not really the place for much literature. It is rather a starting point and a guide for the rest of college. However, there are some very good, shorter reads that have simple messages which could easily be discussed. I’m not asking for Mark Twain, but please no Twilight either. It just would have been nice to revisit the days where one could read something such as The Giver and finish with a better understanding of oneself. I feel that figuring out oneself is exactly what many college students must do, and I do not think I conquered any step in that journey by taking English 111.
I did not have any expectations or pre-conceived notions upon taking this class, and I’m glad. I am not sure what every other English 111 class is like, and I do not care to find out. I am just ready to move on to the next semester and hopefully be prepared for it.