Mid-Session Check In

October 13, 2010

Dear Mrs. Darrow:

            In English 102 I felt that my biggest challenge was the essay on poetry. Poetry is not one of my strong suits nor do I really care for it. So I found it really hard to give it more full effort and attention. On the other hand my biggest success so far has been the readings. I can really get into them and understand them. I feel like I can grasp the concept of what the author is saying and give a detailed response to what our assignment is.

           I have found the readings to be very interesting so far. They are easy to follow and you can get into the story fairly easy. Reading The Sand Storm by Sean Huze and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien has opened my eyes to what really happens in war. I felt that both authors did a good job of letting the reader into what a soldier goes through. However, when reading the poems I found myself having to concentrate harder but the poems opened my eyes to realize that I actually enjoy different types of literature.

            Literary analysis is something that I have never done before until this class. I found it to be very challenging for me. I think it is different because it seems like it takes more concentration. You actually have to think about what you read and how you are writing about it. Unlike other writing styles where you write your opinion and your paper is strictly about how you interpreted the story and your feelings on it. In English 101 I concentrated on persuasive, narrative, and research essays, literary analysis is totally different from all of those. In literary analysis there is a lot less of your opinion, it is more of your interpretation which has to be backed up with facts.    

            For the second part of this class I hope to improve my writing skills even more. My goal is to do my best and try to understand what I’ am reading and writing the best I can. I have already learned so much from this class in terms of writing. I can only hope that during the second part I will learn more and be able to apply my abilities to my assignments in and outside of this class as I have done so far.

Thank you

Sincerely,

Brandy Bigler