My My teacher for my western civ class only gives out three tests a semester, so you have to do good on all of these tests to be able to pass the class. He also does powerpoint slides, with very little information. You have to listen to him and write down the key points, and decide what you think is important. If you miss something, your screwed. Well, over the past 6 weeks I had taken 23 pages of notes in his class. A week and a half ago my computer decided to crash, which means I lost everything. My music, my pictures, my files, my english documents, and of course my 23 pages of notes.
Now, my main concern isn't that the notes are gone, or that I am not going to remember the material. The test is tomorrow, Wednesday. My main concern is that 80% of his test is essay questions. I thought this would be a good topic to write about for my blog because what history class makes you write essays for your test? He wants 3 complete essays, 4 paragraphs each, and he also has short answer questions(a paragraph each, which isn't too bad).
So as I sit here and freak out about my essays and my paragraphs, I recall everything we have talked about in the past few weeks in english. How everything about writing essays is bull shit. But I have to wonder, Does my history teacher think that everything about writing essays is bull? Or how I choose to write going to be a problem, or will it fit up to his standards? Aren't we supposed to take what we learn from our english classes and apply it to every aspect of our writing? But that poses my question, What if my history professor doesn't like how I go about my writing?
What if I fail because of how I choose to write, or how I choose to organize my information.
What if..
I agree with you. I feel I learned alot from this english and from On Writing but I'm still worried about writing and that the new techniques I were taught will not be approved of by everyone. So I'm hoping for the best and that Stephen King will lead me to the right direction
ReplyDeleteI really hate that your computer crashed, but I understand what you saying. I think we have learned a lot in this english class. But everyone might not like the new techiques that we have learned in class, but we have to write the best way that fits us.
ReplyDeleteHistory has been my strong point through my life. I have had many teachers who could of been history professors, and NONE of them required essays. That is bullshit mainly because history is facts. You shouldn't have to write a damn page essay on each topic. Do not worry Simone I know that you are smart and will pass his class. I'm sorry for ranting:/
ReplyDeleteI think that Simone's experience shows how important writing is going to be in college. You may even have math teachers who require you to write :-P Seriously, there reason why professors have you write, even in classes like history, is that writing is the best way to learn and to show what you've learned. Remember that research study I told you about that found that the more students write, the smarter they are when they graduate and the more prepared for the job market they are? Obviously, not all of your professors are going to let you blog. But what I hope this class will teach you are the basics of all good writing: a clearly stated and well-supported thesis, clearly-constructed sentences, logically organized ideas, and good proofreading skills. Those skills apply to any type of writing you do. It is impossible for me to teach you how to write for every type of college class you'll ever take. For one thing, we only have 13 weeks and for another, every discipline requires different styles and forms of writing. One of the most important skills you need to learn as a writer is flexibility and a willingness to try new ways of writing. If I accomplish one thing in this course, I hope that it's teaching you this.
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