English 1010 Reflection Paper

Kristina Alviar

Before I started this course I was actually quite scared of writing in general. I always
thought that writing was very intimidating and complex. I was actually nervous about
taking this class because of those thoughts I had. When I first started the class I liked
the idea of threshold concepts. After reading up about what they are and how they’re
presented I began to gain some confidence in this course. I liked that my professor was
able to present reading and writing in a different way than teachers I’ve had in the past.

Our first project in particular is what gave me the confidence in writing. One of the
threshold concepts for that unit was “Language and writing are resources we use to do
things, be things, and make things in the world.” The project was about a writing
situation within our lives that we could write about in an essay. I chose my job which is
one of the biggest passions I have. Since I have such a passion it wasn’t very hard to
write a ton of words. After writing the words all I had to do was get a peer review and
edit my essay. I felt proud of myself and I truly believe that it’s one of the best pieces of
writing I’ve ever done. That put me in a good mindset for the rest of the semester.

The last project we did in this course was about the threshold concept, “The meanings
and the effects of writing are contingent on situation, on readers, and on a text’s
purposes/uses.” It took me a while to think about what I was going to write about but
then it became clear. I wanted to bring attention to childhood cancer patients. Childhood
cancer awareness is so important because it is underfunded and therefore, under
researched. I thought bringing some positivity to the thought of cancer would be
effective for this project.

I really did enjoy this course. It gave me confidence in something that I didn’t think I’d
ever feel confident in and that’s so important to me. This course gave me the
opportunity through free writes to really write about what I’m feeling in the moment. It’s
crazy to think that a free write prompt can prompt an entire unit project.