Mika+Course+Evaluation

I finally finished my first college class in English 1010. It feels good to know that as a high school senior I have already finished English 1010. I will already be one step ahead of other seniors as they graduate. I've learned a lot of lessons in this class, and partaking in a college course has made me respect the workload a lot more. It wasn't easy at times, but I was determined to finish this class with a good grade. Not only because I needed to pass this class to graduate high school, but also because it will show up on my college transcripts. Taking English 1010 has made me feel more comfortable about taking English 1020 in the spring semester. I also feel more confident in taking on more college classes next fall when I become a full time student. My favorite part about this class was writing the essay on my defining moment. I enjoyed this because my defining moment in my life was a big step that I took towards my future. I wrote about my experience joining the Mechanicsville Volunteer Fire Department. It is something I am proud of, and not everybody is willing to run into a burning building without pay. This essay also helped me to reflect on how important this decision to join the department was. I was able to speak from personal experience, and it was something I really enjoyed writing about. This can be seen in my grade on this essay, as I got and 83% on it. That was a huge jump up from the essay before where I only got a 73%. The more you enjoy writing about something, the better your grade and the results will be in the end. My biggest challenge of this class was the research paper that we had to right. I have had to write research papers in the past, but never one of this magnitude. Most of the research papers that I had to write in the past only had to be 4-5 pages long. Instead this research paper had to be 8-10 pages long. Writing this research paper was when it finally hit me that I was taking a College class. Luckily I found a topic that had a lot of information, and good arguments on it. Even with all the good information I struggled to make it to 8 pages. If it wasn't for Ms. Lowry explaining the use of the comma sandwhich, and showing me how to lenghten my paper, I never would have gotten there. I even went back to my AP US History teacher at my high school and told him all about the comma sandwhich and how it actually worked. My favorite lesson that I encountered while taking this class was what I just explained, the Quote Sandwhich. Hearing Ms. Lowry talking about the different layers made for a fun class that definately kept me awake. All the different layers of a sandwhich were incorporated into the lesson, and surprisingly it actually worked in lengthening my research paper. Another lesson was the comma splice, although, not as fun as the Quote Sandwhich, it definately bettered my skills as a writer. My problem with the comma splice lesson was afterwards I tended to use the comma more than I needed to. This created some errors on a few of my papers, but I still learned a great deal on how and when to use commas. Both of these lessons are something that I will use in the future. Taking this English 1010 class as a Senior in High School has been a great challenge, but also a great adventure. It's something that I am glad I did, and it will make life easier when I become a full time college student. Giving an Oral Report on my research paper was a big helper. I have always been afraid of getting up in front of people and speaking. Giving that Oral Report helped me to overcome my fear, and I actually got a 10 out of 10. Many of the lessons that I have learned in this class I will carry with me forever. I won't ever forget the Fall Semester that I took English 1010 with Ms. Lowry and her crazy quote sandwhiches.