Over the semester, I have learned a lot new tactical skills from taking part in English 105i. Before, I go into the technicalities and takeaways I gathered from each unit, I would like to mention that the involvement of peer feedback really helped to propel my writing skills. It was both interesting and impactful to see what my peers had to say regarding my given literature. I also enjoyed have the ability to give feedback to my surrounding peers. However, I believe my most important takeaway from this is being able to conform my writing in a way that anyone can read it fluently. I think a lot of the times we focus on writing our papers just so our professors can read it, and therefore we may leave out some major facts or details because we assume our professor already knows. Though, being able to write for any given audience and so that the majority of readers have a clear view of the points that you are trying to make, is a true writing skill that I have tried to aim towards this semester.
Going into the first unit of English 105i, we were to compose a video essay. My initial response to this was, “This is a lot for an English class.” However, while I began completing the project, I began to understand the number of skills that it provided for me and my peers. I had never used any Adobe products before, though now I am familiar with a few, due to completing the video editing process of this assignment. I also enjoyed how we were able to present our newfound information, into this unique formatting. It allowed us to become more invested in our topic and better understand it, in regards to what clips to include, information surrounding our topic, and mediums our topic appeared it, rather than we would when writing a paper.
In unit two, we prepared a research paper and a script to share at our research symposium. I think it was interesting to see how our presentation style was different from unit one. Skills that we learned in this lesson were solely pertaining towards understanding how to write a two-to-three-minute script that engages our audience about our topic and persuades them to want to indulge more in our research. I believe this is a skill that we can use in any public speaking forum. In regards to our actual research paper, I think we learned that our writing has different formats that subsequently go along with a specific citation style. Lastly, an additional important skill that I learned, was gathering a list of sources to refer back to before fully starting the project. This prevented my peers and I from scrambling to look for more than one or two sources in the midst of writing our papers. It also gave a sense of foundation and ideas to begin with.
Within unit three, we presented an illness narrative on someone who was close to us that was diagnosed with an illness, and asked them questions regarding how this made them feel and how they overcome the obstacles it provides. This unit was probably the hardest for me because I am so accustomed to the scientific paper writing styles. Therefore, when having to take a more personable approach, I struggled, but I greatly appreciate all the feedback that was given throughout this project.
Overall, this course provided a variety of opportunities and skills that we can use when writing any given literature. I appreciate having the chance to aim towards new goals and develop new writing skills that I had not experienced any other English class. I hope to continue to refer back to these techniques as I progress throughout the interdisciplinary field of medicine.
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“3 Non-English Words Now English.” ITC Canada, ITC Traductions Https://Www.itctraductionscanada.ca/Wp-Content/Uploads/Sites/2/2020/08/Logo-Itc-Us.png, 13 Aug. 2020, https://www.itctraductionscanada.ca/en/blog/3-non-english-words-now-english/.