Harrison Pauer

Professor Linda Haas

Writing 39B
8 June 2014
Writing 39B: A Class About More Than Just Writing
At the beginning of my spring quarter, my ability to critically read was
shabby at best, and my writing was even poorer. In high school, the only writing
that I learned how to do was the very basic five-paragraph essay format that
included a introduction, three body paragraphs, and conclusion, which worked very
well for a high school class, but I am no longer in high school. I am now a college
student, and my classes are much more academically challenging. Now, my classes
require presentations, academic writing, critical thinking, and much more.
However, I never learned how to give a proper presentation, or write for an
academic audience, or even critically read text to understand the full point a scholar
would try to make. Luckily, Dr. Haas has created a class that does not just focus on
how to write essays, but she created a class that covers several different academic
topics that a student will need in his or her future college career. Dr. Haass class
has taught me more than just writing; she has taught me how to communicate
effectively.
After reviewing my blog, I noticed how bad my writing was. My writing
seemed very patchy, and it appears that I would write one sentence then I would
write another sentence without being able to connect it to the last sentence. My
writing seemed to jump from topic to topic, and it had a very bad flow to it. Then, I
reviewed one of my most recent blogs, and the quality of writing is far superior to
the first blog I wrote. My overall content is much more descriptive, and the flow
from sentence to sentence is significantly smoother. I am much more capable at
connecting one thought to the next, and the reason for my transformation is the
habits of mind curiosity and engagement. One of the main reasons that I was
able to succeed in this class was my curiosity about Sherlock Holmes. Every since I
watched the first film by Guy Ritchie, I wanted to learn more about Sherlock Holmes,
so I treated my writing as more of an opportunity to learn about Sherlock Holmes
rather than busy work. My desire to learn more about Sherlock Holmes made it
much easier to be engaged throughout the quarter, which helped me learn more
effectively. However, I have to thank Dr. Haass class unique structure, which
focused on the habit of mind openness. Most teachers focus on just writing and
reading, but Dr. Haas focuses on communication.
Dr. Haass class format is very similar to an athletes workout plan. For
example, if an athlete wanted a stronger chest, he or she would not do the same
chest exercise over and over; instead, the athlete would focus on several different
small exercises that help build the overall strength of his or her chest. Dr. Haas
follows this same formula of variety by assigning work in all forms of
communication. This format of variety helped me engage the habits of mind
engagement, and responsibility. For example, we were given the responsibility
of having biweekly presentations, and after giving several presentations in this
class, I discovered that it was very difficult to give a presentation without being
engaged in the material that you are presenting. When you are engaged in youre
the subject you are presenting, you learn more about the subject, which makes
presenting significantly easier. I learned a lot about collaboration through our many
group presentations. In my first group, I learn about delegation and how to
properly prioritize. I learned that quickest way to get a job done is to find out the
strengths and weaknesses of your group. In my second presentation, I learned on
how to gather information for a presentation. In my third presentation, I learned
how to summarize and present a subject in an interesting manner. In my nest
presentation, I was switched into a new group, which helped me learn how to be
very adaptive when switching into new groups. Dr. Haass class also focused being
able to critically read a scholar text then summarize the text, which required the
habit of mind, persistence and engagement. By having to summarize the text, I
not only had to read the text, but I would have understand it. Whenever I was
reading a text, I had to myself engaged and constantly keep questioning, what is the
main message the author is trying to give here? This continuous act of critical
reading and reviewing took a great amount of persistence especially for the more
complex texts. However, I soon learned that ability to summarize really helped me
in all my classes, but I found summarization particularly useful in my physics
classes. In physics, it can be very difficult to figure out what you are trying to solve,
but if you critically read the question and summarize what is asking, you soon find
out that the problem is just a series of math calculations. This ability to critically
read not only helped me in my other classes, but it helped me when I was revising
my papers.
When revising my papers, I was able to critically read my paper and
determine the main idea behind each one of my paragraphs. I was able to tell which
paragraphs were strong and which paragraphs were weak, and I was able to tell
which sentences connected well and which ones did not. Being able to revise my
essays properly really helped me when with my full essay revision of my Literature
Review essay, and I wanted to revise my Literature Review Essay for two main
reasons. First, this essay was one of the first writing assignments, so I thought by
revising it I could show how much I have improved as a writer. Second, I was very
dedicated to the topic of this paper, so it would be very easy to stay engaged when
revising my essay. The overall structure of this essay is very strong, but there are a
significant amount of flaws, so I had to be very flexible when I went to rewrite this
essay. I am going to have to rearrange my paragraphs for my paper, so the
paragraphs can connect more efficiently. My writing is a very patch, and I am going
to have to rewrite several very large chunks of each paragraph. If I had more time, I
would reread the scholarly texts a few more times to get a better understand of the
scholars opinions. My Rhetorical Analysis Essay had one of the strongest
paragraphs that I had written, so I wanted to show the capabilities of my writing.
However, there are a few flaws; for example, my writing is a little patchy in some
parts. Also, I have a few unnecessary details that distract the reader from my main
purpose. Revising my two essays will take a lot of responsibility and
engagement, but nowhere near on the scale that our classs RIP seminar required.
In our classs final project, the RIP seminar, I learned the most out of any
presentation that I presented. I was the group leader for the performance part of
our classs RIP, so I followed the habit of mind, responsibility and engagement,
and flexibility. I had never been in charge of a group as large as this one, so I faced
a lot of new experiences. I had to delegate responsibility throughout the entire
group, and I did not know most of the people in my group. I had to be consistently
engaged with my group, so I would know when there was a problem or confusion. I
had to continuously make sure my group was on the right track, and if there was a
problem, I would have to figure out a way to solve it. However, most of the time, I
followed the habit of mind, openness, and I let my group express their ideas, which
actually went really well. One of the main reasons for my groups success is
everyone in my group followed the habit of mind, creativity. Everyone was able to
add a part to our presentation that improved it in some creative way, which helped
make our presentation very unique. One of the main problems that I faced was
collaboration with other groups because it is harder for an entire group to change
their presentation than to get one person to change what they are presenting. Also,
some people are more responsible than others, so I had to adapt to the
responsibility of each person as we worked on our RIP project.
After reviewing everything I have done in this class, I am following the habit
of mind, metacognition, and I am realizing that I become a significantly better
communicator. I have learned more about how to lead a group, which will help me
in every part of my life in the future. I learned about how people interact with each
other, which is crucial if I ever want to be in charge of a group again. This class did
not just improve my writing; it improved my ability to communicate.