Angela Atwater
UNIV112-903
1. Although there are three distinct parts to the UNIV 112 course. I can honestly
say that there were never any harsh or blunt stops when we were transitioning
between the units. During the Experience/Culture/Text unit, unit 1, we were
first assigned to write a multimodal piece on an experience that affected our
personal lives in some way. During this process I was able to see how my
personal experienced had directly affected me. I was not aware that the doubt
that several people had pertaining my goals and aspirations, is what
motivated me to work harder in college. Due to the fact that most writing
assignments ask to leave first person opinions out of the papers. I found that it
was extremely helpful to use the essay, “Why Women Aren’t Welcome on
the Internet” by Amanda Hess, to help organize my thoughts and illustrate
them in a way in which the audience would be able to easily decipher why the
ideas that I selected were important to my writing. The second part of unit 1
included the group presentation, which I was not too thrilled about. I get
extremely nervous at random moments when I am presenting and I am not
really able to determine when this will happen. During the scheduled
rehearsal times I was able to build my confidence and become slightly more
comfortable with presenting. I also had to find a way to get to know my
group members since there was a moment of confusion of what group I
actually was supposed to present with. Because of this I had to manage my
time correctly and find ways to contribute my ideas. The second and third
units of this course were extremely heavy on research and being able to
effectively manage my time. For Unit two, the annotated bibliographies
allowed me to learn how to use a large database and pinpoint my searches in
order to get the information that I needed for my papers. With the help of my
writer’s reference, I was able to learn how to correctly cite and embed my
sources, and overall write a decent research paper.
2. Of all of the above skills, which ones were new for you? What
else surprised you about the course, and what about the course
actually fulfilled your expectations? The skills that were new to me
were learning how to properly cite in MLA and how to properly
times manage myself. Although I knew of time management before
this course, I was not always very good at it. There were times
when I would only put half of the work into my homework and
other assignments. However, this course showed me how important
it is to stay on task because once you fall behind, its hard to catch
back up. Also it was nice being able to work in large groups and be
able to present each members research and talent in the group
presentations.
3. I would tell them to always read the announcements and always
be ready for class. It is important to do all of the homework,
because it is very nice when you can contribute to all of the in class
discussions. I would also tell them that when writing the annotated
bibliographies to save their sources on the e-shelf and also save a
link to the documents in a separate word page. During the end of
my research paper I accidentally cleared my e-shelf and I was
forced to go back and find all of my sources by hand. It was not
too difficult of a task, but it was extremely tedious and took a lot of
time that could have been used for other purposes. I won’t say that
it is an easy course, because you do have to work hard for your
grade. However, it is manageable and can prove to be quite
interesting if you go to class everyday with a positive attitude.
4. I feel like the end of unit one and three are the most challenging
sections for me since I am still somewhat uncomfortable when
giving presentations. Although I have learned a lot of helpful skills
that help me interact with the audience, and clearly deliver my
message, I still sometimes worry that I will not have enough
information prepared of do an adequate job at explaining all of the
research that was recently done. As a way to try to calm my nerves,
I have practiced presenting in front of my friends and some of my
hall mates and taken their feedback. With all of these steps I feel
that I have become slightly more prepared than I was when
presenting at the beginning of they year.
5. In the future I am hoping to take away the amazing time
management skills that I have developed with the assistance of
UNIV112, and also the curiosity that developed when discussion
controversial topics. In computer science, I hope that I am able to
remember how to critically analyze sources and problems and come
up with an argumentative stance as to why I feel depending on the
topic. This will come in handy not only in this field, but in many
other classes that I will take during my college career. I feel that I
am able to work effectively with others on projects that cannot be
done solely by one person, and I have learned when it is important
to speak up and when I should let others lead in the discussion.