Prompt 5 - Steven Scherer

I really had no idea what I was getting myself into when I signed up for English 110.01. Others had told me that it was easy and required little effort. I don’t think I took it quite as seriously in the first two weeks because of what peers had told me. In fact, I resented the fact I even had to sign up. Coming into the Honors program here at OSU, most students have AP credit for English. Unfortunately, my high school was so small that we had essentially no college credit options of any kind. After basically having completed the class, I can now look back and say that others were right; it wasn’t too bad. This class did, however, take more thinking than I had expected. I must admit I was skeptical of the idea of any sort of themed college English class, but I’m a firm believer that it’s one of the few ways it can be made appealing to a wide variety of students.

When I consider what I have learned in English 110.01, I feel the most interesting thing I have gained an insight into is analyzing a fictional animated film for very much nonfictional examples. I have rarely considered examples of gender and sexuality in any sort of film before, but I now find myself picking things out here and there as I watch cartoon and non-cartoon media. Before English 110.01, I had never written a literary analysis over and media except novels. While in high school I authored a decent amount of informational reports and thesis papers that were often about nonfictional material. Never was I asked to analyze videos in a well-thought out manner, so I consider that as my area that has most improved.

Realistically, I don’t feel that English 110.01 has changed the style of my writing too much, but it has given me more analytical skills to put in my toolbox. While I could just ignore these skills, as a studying engineer I feel it is my duty to apply them to each and every situation they could be used in. There’s nothing wrong with being able to write a better technical document because I have gained analytical skills from thinking about animated films.

I have also come to appreciate the Commonplace component of English 110.01. Serious persuasive writing (other than straight-up thesis supporting) is something I haven’t done in quite awhile. It felt good to come up with an argument based on my beliefs and values and then support it with facts. Additionally, Commonplace has given me a chance to provide real feedback to a peer. I have always enjoyed giving well-thought out feedback when someone actually asked for it. I have never been asked to critique someone’s essay in such a professional and well thought-out manner, so this was a new experience for me as well.

All in all, I feel that English 110.01 has given me better analytical skills more than anything else. I consider myself to be a decent writer already, but the way I go about analyzing topics has definitely seen some sort of improvement.