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Ryan Blaine
Karen Tucker
ENC 2135
3 August 2016

Semester Reflection
This summer C semester has been one for the books, thats for sure. It may have
been my first summer semester at Florida State, but Im in my third year of collegiate
studies, funny right? ENC 2135 with Professor Tucker has been my favorite part by far. I
feel that I was able to learn a lot in the literary field in regards to voice, imagery,
structure, and the writing style(s) that work best for my voice. The works that we were
required to complete in this particular class wasnt so much to use the word challenging,
but I would say that I encountered challenges in the process. Overall, the works were
great and enjoyable to write, some more than others, but none were annoying or pushed
me to not want to give 100% to the research or writing. This class and these works helped
me to show, not tell when it came to the personal essay, along with teaching me to cut
out pieces of information that are more destructive and constructive to the purpose of the
piece. When it came to the research paper, I immediately knew my project idea and ran
with it, and ultimately feel like I produced a very solid piece. From that, I learned that
patience is necessary for a good paper, and extensive research is also needed which takes
time, in turn, needing patience. Then came project 3, remixes. Remix is a cool word, but
when it is used to describe an assignment it can throw people for a loop. I decided on a
how-to guide to get better sleep and a complaint letter to the editor of the New York

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Times regarding an article on sleep deprivation as torture and how graphic it was. This
course challenged me to become a better writer and learn about genre conventions
without making it obvious that I was being challenged. Through this class and Professor
Tucker, I learned a lot about my writing. I have learned that I have great voice and great
structure, but there are still a few kinks in the literary armor. These kinks include
unnecessary rambling, over citing the same source back to back, and a few others that can
be reworked to be an advantage instead of a disadvantage.