Being a part of this English class has been a positive experience. I don’t enjoy writing and I still don’t enjoy writing now, however; that’s just my personal preference. Thanks to Mr. Wenzel’s class, I do have more respect and understanding for people who do enjoy writing.
At the start of the semester, I was intimidated at first to hear that for two of our main projects, we had to write a thousand words or higher. I had never written more than six hundred on one topic before. I also wasn’t used to writing non-structured essay papers either. In high school, my English classes always stuck to the basic essay format; Four paragraphs, two main points, and details in-between. My first college English class, ENC 1101, had the same type of formats except we had to research and use APA style rather than MLA. When I read that the rubric called for at least a thousand words on Project 1, I thought I wasn’t going to be able to make it through the semester. However, Mr. Wenzel’s method of teaching gave me enough comfort and confidence to help me push through getting the assignments done.
Some of our first assignments for the class were to design a personal website and create blog posts about the topic of the week. I really appreciated that Mr. Wenzel gave us assignments where we had to use the textbook. Personally, I bought a text book for all five of my classes and Bedford Book of Genres was the only one I used. The only textbook where I felt it was worth the buy. I didn’t enjoy doing to the blog posts, because of my own particular issues with writing, however; I did enjoy reading other students blogs and their perspectives of how they interpreted the assignments. I put a lot of effort into my website and I learned quite a few writing techniques through my research.
While we prepared for our first project, Mr. Wenzel instructed us to attempt a free-write. Meaning, for ten-minutes write down anything that comes to your mind about the assignment topic. Don’t worry about mistakes or grammar, just write down anything you want. It was the first time I looked at writing as something I could express meaningful thoughts and not just the appropriate topic to have down in order to pass. Another method I learned was that your writing does not have to be perfect on your first revision. No writer is perfect and as soon as I realized this, the stress of writing fell a little.
Mr. Wenzel cared about every one of his students, even if he had a hard time remembering our names. He was always thoughtful in making sure that not a single person felt left out. Thanks to him, I was able to remind myself that I don’t have to apologize (most) of my actions. Mr. Wenzel made me safe, I was in a place of comfort and I didn’t have to worry about judgement.
Every class day, someone would have to present a mini genre presentation that was unique to the typical social world. Seeing what all my classmates presented was my favorite part of class. I thoroughly enjoyed watching how different every single presentation was. Mr. Wenzel did his own presentation as well, showing us that just because a video is funny, doesn’t mean that it’s not offending someone. For example, Shit Miami Girls Say at first watch is very humorous, however; Mr. Wenzel pointed out how that could offensive to Miami women, women from Miami who aren’t Hispanic, Hispanic women, transgender women, etc. I had never opened my eyes to that possibility before.
Mr. Wenzel’s personality was the reason the class could be as fun as it was. He was always so cheerful and ready to work. Even when he seemed a little slow or tired, he was always able to get a laugh from the class. He showed actual interest in his students. Sometimes, the teacher can make or break your opinion about the subject of the class and I don’t believe I would’ve been able to enjoy what I was writing about in his class if it weren’t for his commitment to his students.
I don’t like to write. If it were my decision, I wouldn’t do anything with writing ever again. Be that as it may, I enjoyed writing while I was in Mr. Wenzel’s class and I understand why people write now. I have a greater respect for writers and for Mr. Wenzel.
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