My semester of English 131 was an exciting and interesting journey. I learned many things from learning to craft a resume all the way to dissecting a peer’s essay. I learned the best in English 131 by putting away my phone and long writing. My thoughts would wander in complete different directions that would open new doors for many different topics for writing. I would also catch more mistakes as I would write in free hand because I have to read it when I go to type in. I can also get more details when I long hand since I use bullet points then I can expand into larger sentences when I type the essay. Lastly having assigned readings would also help me put my phone down because I knew if I didn’t read then I wouldn’t be able to do good if we had a random quiz. Some might say using electronics is better than using other techniques but it really just opens your mind up to other things rather than a 6” screen.
In English 131 this semester writing long hand has helped me start to become a better writer. I’ve never been well at writing throughout my life but I know for a fact that the course has made me better. Writing long hand has helped be able to correct my work, think faster in a shorter amount of time, and not get as frustrated when writing papers as much. When I’m writing rather than typing it’s at a slower pace so therefore I have to go slower and will catch more errors when I’m writing. Also, I feel like when it’s on a screen my brain actually skips over it and corrects it without me even thinking about it. With long hand, I can catch the mistakes rather quickly and easily. When we write long hand, it takes a lot more time and we have a shorter amount of time. A huge part of my problem was not thinking fast enough. I would think and think then I would realize that I’m thinking of a completely different topic and would have to re think it all again. The beginning of the semester was a below average thinker. I don’t have ADHD, it’s just I couldn’t concentrate and never wrote long hand much so I never did a lot of thinking in a short amount of time. I would say near the end of the semester of writing long hand, writing monthly letters, and planning drafts it has truly helped me become a faster thinker. In the article of Have smartphones destroyed a generation, Jean Twenge says “Around 2012, I noticed abrupt shifts in teen behaviors and emotional states” (Twenge.) I think that phones and electronics can be some of the aggravating and frustrating things and I could actually see why Twenge said that about behaviors getting worse. My most happy times are when im not near my phone and I’m hunting or fishing. It feels like you can just escape from the world and nothing can go wrong. Being on electronics makes me super frustrated. When I’m typing papers, I get extremely frustrated because of all the errors I can catch when I’m typing.
Wring long hand has opened up many ways to expand my work into a longer essay because of detail. I like to use bullet points when I’m writing long hand so I can put down one word and then have a few bullet points underneath and that can quickly turn into a large essay. I love excerpt one from The Blind Sidebecause Michael Lewis goes into such great detail about how a lineman has to protect his man from getting sacked. He makes three seconds seem like an eternity. “Two Mississippi: Theismann searches for a receiver but instead sees Harry Carson coming straight at him. It’s a running down—the start of the second quarter, first and 10 at midfield, with the score tied 7–7—and the New York Giants’ linebacker has been so completely suckered by the fake that he’s deep in the Redskins’ backfield. Carson thinks he’s come to tackle Riggins but Riggins is long gone, so Carson just keeps running, toward Theismann. Three Mississippi:” (Lewis chapter one.) English 131 has taught me that writing like this will expand my one page decent essay into an excellent three-page essay. If I can think of more bullets just like an annotated bibliography, I can create a larger essay even if I don’t use all the points.
Lastly, the readings in English 131 of Serafina and the Black Cloak and Swing Timehelped me get away from the screen and helped me start reading. I didn’t enjoy Swing Time as much but I really like the Black Cloak. I like the Black Cloak better because it had a lot of suspense and action based chapters. It sent a mystery the whole time if Serafina was ever going to get caught or not. Reading helped learn new ways of reading and studying as well.
Screen time is not always useful and English 131 has truly taught me that. I always thought that being behind the screen was always the answer and the best way to do things. However, long hand helped me become a better thinker, better writer with detail, and a better reader. I will carry the skills and traits that I learned in English 131 for the rest of my life.
Work Cited
Beatty, Robert. Serafina and the Black Cloak. Disney/Hyperion, 2015.
“EXCERPT: ‘The Blind Side,’ by Michael Lewis.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 24 Dec. 2009, abcnews.go.com/2020/BlindSide/excerpt-blind-side-michael-lewis/story?id=9418563.
Smith, Zadie. Swing Time. Penguin Books, 2017.
Twenge, Jean M. “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 19 Mar. 2018, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/.
Annotated Bibliography
Beatty, Robert. Serafina and the Black Cloak. Disney/Hyperion, 2015.
Robert Beatty’s fictional Disney novel, has in fact historical figures throughout the book that includes the Biltmore house, the Vanderbilt’s, the French broad river, etc. Serafina the main character of the novel is on a quest to find and defeat the man in the black cloak but at the same time not be found by other humans.
Collins, Billy. “Snow Day by Billy Collins.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46707/snow-day.
Snow day written by Billy Collins offers a wide variety of options to choose from. It shows the life of a little kid waking up to look outside and see snow covering the ground. As he looks out the window he sees the children playing but couldn’t this just be a parent looking outside imagining the were a kid again?
“EXCERPT: ‘The Blind Side,’ by Michael Lewis.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 24 Dec. 2009, abcnews.go.com/2020/BlindSide/excerpt-blind-side-michael-lewis/story?id=9418563.
Michael Lewis’s chapter one excert from the blind side shows how a lineman on the blind side of the quarterback has to react fast to protect his main priority. The detail of the paragraph goes into 3 seconds of the play. He shows how 3 seconds can be so intense.
Richtel, Matt. “Blogs vs. Term Papers.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Jan. 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/muscling-in-on-the-term-paper-tradition.html.
Matt Richtel writes is his article that some professors are taking actions to having the students write more blog post. Blog posts are easier and shorter both the student and professor rather than getting a long drawn out paper like an end of the year term paper. These professors come to believe that students will give better effort if it is shorter than a so called 5-page paper.
Smith, Zadie. Swing Time. Penguin Books, 2017.
Zadie Smith’s novel, is a 1stperson narrative about a young enthusiastic dance girl and her journey growing up throughout the book. The book jumps from adult hood to child hood but quickly opens up to a drama filled novel. The 2 friends that the narrator have is the source of the drama with one of which being the boss.
Twenge, Jean M. “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 19 Mar. 2018, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/.
Jean Twenge’s article about smart phones talks about how kids just don’t go outside like the used to anymore. They stay on their phones all day and many of us honestly do the same thing. It’s easier to look play on our phones and watch a video all day rather than going outside and enjoying the outdoors.
Preston Herman 