Final Reflection

I have started to notice that the majority of my Math and Science professors struggled with proper grammar and punctuation. Being a Biology major, I did not want that for myself. I always enjoyed English and writing papers, so I was determined to be a great writer. Last semester I took English 101 and I passed with a high “A”.  I knew English 102 was my last English class I ever had to take and I could not wait to receive an “A” and get the class over with. I assumed that English 102 would be just as simple as 101, boy, was I wrong. This class challenged me in so many ways. Fun challenges and challenges that made me want to pull out my hair.

            Research papers are not my favorite and when I found out that all of the essays I had to write were about a specific research topic, I was a little less than thrilled. My chosen topic was AIDS. The only thing I knew about AIDS was that I never wanted to “get” it. Having to do hours and hours of research on AIDS was actually something I quite enjoyed. I learned how to properly make a works cited page, and to also look for credible sources. Until English 102 I never used a scholarly article, but I have to admit that the articles are now my favorite sources. When I wrote my first paper, I had my works cited page all wrong, I had no idea that my references had to be in alphabetical order. That was an easy fix. One of my bigger challenges was using first and third person a lot in my papers. I would say things such as “you could contract AIDS from…” when it should have probably been stated such as “one might contract AIDS from…” This was not as easy of a fix as my work cited page. I usually had to type out the incorrect way, then delete the sentence and think of something more professional sounding which would qualify for an “A” paper. My biggest and most fun challenge was not being able to use contractions. On the list of “Do Not’s” the class received it seemed that all the words and phrases I previously used in my writings were all listed on there. Before submitting a final copy of a paper I would find myself rereading my paper over and over to make sure I had all the “don’t” into “do not’s.” While it was difficult to not use contractions, it does make the paper sound more professional and I hardly ever use contractions anymore.

            Even though I do not plan on being the next William Shakespeare, I’m happy that I have taken numerous English classes. English 102 was the right amount of challenging and fun. I love everything I have learned and I do not have to worry about being one of those people that either knows Math or English.