Dear Laura Cline,
This semester has been a great pleasure of mine to participate in your course. The last couple of months have really taught me about the differences in writing a good paper versus a bad one. It has been tough to keep up with all the reading and writing due to my other classes but I’m still hanging in there and keeping my head up. I feel I have learned a lot this semester with things like analysis compared to summary. I wasn’t very clear at the beginning of the semester on analysis but you have made me understand it and how to use it effectively. There are still plenty of challenges I face which I plan to improve throughout the rest of the semester.
I would have to say that the one thing holding me back from creating my most successful work is the fact that I am busy with other classes. I still find myself struggling a bit because of the type of essays we have been writing as well though. I am not use to the types of assignments we have had with having to really read hard in poems and stories to figure them out then put it in our own words. Putting all those skills to the test has really opened my eyes and helped me out a lot this semester. I feel my work would not have been as strong as it has been if you had not shown me all those great techniques and skills. I feel I am progressing in my writing which was one of my hopes and goals for this semester. I think my biggest success was sticking with everything and not letting all the work get to my head. I have found that trying really does get you where you want to be if you keep pursuing it.
Reading has helped a lot with getting me where I want to be in addition to everything else. The stories we have read are much different than any reading I have done in my past. I have never been too much into war stories but Tim O’Brien’s book was very interesting and opened my eyes to see just what war is really like and how it can affect someone for the worst. Sean Huze’s play was a bit more difficult for me to keep up with because of the shift in characters but was still interesting to read. Both Tim O’Brien and Sean Huze have great styles of writing that were interesting to read all the way through which is a hard thing to accomplish. I hope to achieve that kind of writing skill by the end of this semester as well as to keep improving my work every day.
Sincerely,
Doug Perry
