Assignments: ENC 2135 Final Reflection
Did I know what genre was in January? I thought I did. Do I know what genre is now? It’s debatable.
One of the main things ENC 2135 has taught me is everything I was taught in high school was wrong and pretty much pointless. I have learned more about genre and my personal writing style in 16 weeks than I did in the four years of high school English. I’ve always considered myself a good writer. I’ve always excelled in English, and I enjoy most writing assignment that are given to me; however, I learned there’s more to writing than the 5 paragraph essay, and research papers don’t have to be boring and slam full of redundant facts to hit a word count. This semester I was able to expand my knowledge of how an essay can be written. Project one was a great first step away from the 5 paragraph essay I had become so accustomed to writing. With this personal narrative I feel I was able to illustrate what it is like to go to a school where high school athletics, especially high school football, is more important than school itself. The addition of images at the conclusion of my essay, which would have normally been frowned upon, helped me illustrate my thoughts even more. For project two, I was able to give a new meaning to the term Research Paper. I wrote about FSU’s Dance Marathon, and instead of filling the 3000-word essay with a bunch of boring facts no one would want to read I was able to give my paper a more personal feel by describing my experience with the event on top of informing the audience of the benefits of it. Project three was the most difficult for me because it wasn’t a “black and white” kind of assignment. It was this project that really made me question my high school knowledge on what a genre really is which apparently is more than fiction/nonfiction or types of movies and music. I wasn’t a fan of presenting my third project because I don’t like pubic speaking, but I was interesting to be able to hear all of the other ways the class remixed their genres proving to me everyone can have a different perspective and it still be considered a genre.