Jabari Stafford
English 111
Professor Brandon
12/4/12
English 111 Class Evaluation
In Dr. Brandon’s English 111 my classmates and I have learned many new things. Our minds have also been refreshed by many old lessons. We have an awesome teacher who would do make sure we are capable of receiving a passing grade. My teacher is an extremely concerned and helpful teacher. Although he was not perfect, he still made sure all of his instructions were understandable. English 111 will definitely have a great impact in my future career.
The lessons we have learned were all vital and come week by week. The very first lesson we learned was about rhetoric. It is the study on how to become a better communicator. Such as what the author does when he delivers that message to the audience as they receive the author’s crafted messages. The rhetorical triangle was also introduced to us to explain the cycle. This is the first and one of the most valuable lessons in the classroom this semester. While learning more on rhetoric we also learned about the three rhetoric appeals. There is “pathos” which means emotion, and how the author causes the reader to agree by showing his or her feelings toward the article. The second appeal is “logos” which shows the author’s knowledge of the article and the facts he has about it. Usually when an author has facts the reader will agree with him or her. The last appeal is called “ethos.” This appeal is mainly based on credibility, reputation, honesty, and identification which is pretty much experience. People sometimes will trust an article based on a person’s wisdom. These appeals are used while writing a rhetorical analysis. A rhetorical analysis is one’s opinion on another person’s point of view. The study of rhetoric is an extremely important part of my English 111 class.
The next lesson I would like to discuss is learning how to construct a review. When you write a review, you are telling the audience your opinion or experience with an activity. For example, in English 111 my class wrote reviews on activities we were in. The first review was supposed to be based on how you feel towards a movie, a restaurant, an athletic activity, or any other activity. A review does not have to be positive. If you did not enjoy an activity then be truthful to the audience. My movie review was definitely a positive review because I really enjoyed the action and suspense in the movie. But my math tutoring activity assignment for Dr. Brandon was a negative review because the tutoring was not an effective session. It was somewhat a waste of my time. I wrote about how it occurred and what I did and did not like about it. This is an important lesson because my career as a sports journalist will be working with reviews and opinions on activities. Many lessons were important, but this one was a great part of our English 111 class.
Another lesson which was learned is how to do a research paper. The research paper I was to complete in class was about our career choices. While doing a research paper the internet is the main source. First, you research information from various websites. Make sure they are websites that are trusted by many others because if not then the information from that website is possibly not true. Then you have to cite sources where you received the information to not be accused of plagiarism or cheating. Lastly, you will have to just organize the paper in the best possible way you can. This is an effective way to become a talented writer.
All of the assignments will be completed much faster utilizing the writing process. It contains six steps in the process. These six steps are prewriting, drafting, revision, proofreading, publishing, and reviewing. Without the writing process it would be a little more complicated to complete evaluations, reviews, essays, and many more. The six steps of the writing process are all vital steps and are made to create successful papers.
Also, I have more about independent clauses, dependent clauses, subject phrases and much more. Sentences are built up from independent clauses, which is also called a simple sentence and contains a subject and a predicate. For example “The cat is very mean.” The cat is obviously the subject and the predicate is mean. These are all used in the six sentence forms. If you know about independent clauses and all that it is associated with then writing sentences and paragraphs will not take too much effort.
In addition to all the lessons learned in class, I have also learned many simple lessons. One, I was taught to make sure to write my notes the correct way. If the professor writes it on the board, repeats it twice, or simply instructs you to write it on the paper then do so. This will make sure you have all the important notes you need to study for any class. As a student, everyone needs notes to go over for a certain class. Second of all, the art of conversation, which is not as difficult, was also taught to the class. It was simply just talking with a large amount confidence, while at the same time not dominating the entire conversation. He taught us many details, like a stance during the conversation, how to leave a conversation, how to make others feel comfortable and much more. I thought even though the art of conversation was not a challenge, the details he shared with us really help everyone in my class. These lessons will always be kept in mind for my future classes.
English class has already made a big impact in my education, and taught me a great amount of lessons that give me much more knowledge. The class was great although I was late at times. The reason for my tardiness was my bad sleeping pattern. My work schedule did not have a huge effect on my timeliness, but it did take a small toll of my time. I would end up sleeping late every night whether it was because of being at work late, going out with friends, coming home late, or just simply completing homework very late at night. My class started at 11:00 a.m. Sometimes I would come in 5 minutes late between 11:05-11:10, or I would be even later and arrive between 11:22-11:27. I have definitely learned to keep a decent sleeping pattern throughout the semester. If I were to practice resting earlier then I will receive a better outcome for next semester and be on time for every class session.
In conclusion, I will sum it all up with saying I would definitely bring forth these tools of knowledge along with me. In the future, I plan on enrolling in Professor Brandon’s English 112 class for the spring semester. It is fantastic being that I learned the study of rhetoric, writing reviews, analysis, evaluations, and research papers. Next semester’s English 112 should most likely be a breeze, I would recommend Dr. Brandon’s class to anyone because it will have them prepared to be independent and successful in their career choice, and most importantly their lives. This English 111 class helped me to make decisions concerning my future, and I believe I have picked the correct path. I thank my instructor Professor Brandon for all the knowledge he has shared with my class and I.
