Essay 1

All through high school I thought I had a plan of exactly what I wanted to do with my life. Freshman year it was physical therapy which then changed to cardiology. Sophomore and junior year I was dead set on optometry. Somehow my senior year of high school, my interests did a complete 180 and I decided on english teaching. My decision did not come very quickly, but as I reflected on my past english classes and the one I was currently taking, my love for the subject was too strong to not pursue it in college.

When I first signed up for English 251, I was ecstatic. My path to becoming an english teacher had begun. Throughout high school, english, grammar, poetry, analysis, all of that came extremely easy to me. When I came to BYU and took my first english class, that easiness was thrown out the window. When we were assigned to do a formal literary analysis,  I thought I was going to be able to plow through that essay. I was wrong.

The analysis I had learned in high school somewhat applied to this essay, but was no where near college level. I had to put in a large amount of work to fully understand how to formally analyze a piece of poetry.

The first blog post I made about my essay really helped me to refine what I was writing. I was not sure about my thesis statement and was hoping for feedback on what I could do better. Luckily, my amazing team members granted my wish. They suggested I try and re-word my thesis so it was not something that was obvious to the reader. One person suggested I put a "new spin" on my thesis. As I did so, my essay was able to connect better and I could make a more clear and accurate claim.

The index card activity was a bit challenging for me. It was something I had never done before. This activity proved to be very beneficial to me because it helped me to see my claim in a new light and to narrow down exactly what point I was making.

I think the biggest thing that helped me in completing this analysis was feedback from my peers. As I listened in class to what other people were asking, I tried to apply it to my own essay, even if it was not the same poem. Hearing what other people had to say helped me to tweak my own essay based off of the advice that they gave. Peer feedback is always a good thing because others see what you are saying from a different perspective and can give you the help that you need.

I have loved being in English 251. The witty lectures, blog posts, and people have helped me to love english even more, which I did not think was possible. I am grateful for the experience and knowledge I have gained in this class and cannot wait to continue to pursue my path of education.