Tim Krueger

18 May 2011

Composition 102

Mr. Neuburger

Final

Reflection of the Year

Mass murdering and the extermination of people not of German decent to the point of

view of someone who lives and survives on the streets could cover some of what I learned in the

class. Researching in such depth and finding only certain types of sources were once a challenge,

but now is a skill I have managed to accumulate while in this class.

Researching was one of the main skills that the class focused on. Everything and

anything was researched many times. Being assigned large writing projects helped with the fine

tuning of the skill. Who would have thought the Nazis were even more sick and twisted than

what most assume from the start. Reading much more into the whole situation showed a

devastating and inhumane way to deal with the being of someone they looked down upon. Even

researching the history of my own home town helped me learn much more about the area I lived

and the incredible story that made it all possible.

However, not everything we learned was all research related. Reading stories and seeing

the point of views of others was a different way of looking and learning of a situation. A story

we read was The Scavenger. It involved a man who had made many mistakes throughout his life

that led him to living on the streets. As most would find the situation terrible, he saw it as a

different way to live. He found that when the time is dire, you can’t your dignity stop you from

making the best of the situation at hand. The man took note of different parts of the city he was
from and figured where the best places for different items were. He knew college kids or

restaurants would throw out things he could easily use, such as food or clothes, while other

places may have other essentials. Another story we read around that time was Sophie’s Choice.

When I read it, I interpreted it as a young girl finding out the value of a dollar and the differences

in social classes. Both books showed different points of view that can really open one’s eyes and

see a different way of life than what they thought before.

Even towards the end of the semester, we learned a different way to tell a story. Digital

stories were fun to make. I liked being able to see different backgrounds of other students or

places that I wouldn’t have known otherwise. Putting pictures and videos together with a nice

narration and soft background music is a little more entertaining than reading and writing. The

use of technology was a nice change from pencil and paper. Storage was much more convenient

and filing and keeping track of everything I had was much easier. Also, I am partially a nerd so

naturally being on the computer was a better way of keeping my attention. Using technology also

helped the research portions of assignments. It helped cut back a lot of time that would have been

spent finding and looking through books or other sources of information. Instead, the magic of

the internet helped get information in seconds.

Overall, this class really expanded the way I looked at how to write a paper from creating

an outline to the actual research and then writing the paper. I choose words much differently now

and have a better grasp of flowing paragraphs and sentences together than I once did.

Researching, writing, and reading have all improved with this class as well as my creativity for

ideas or assignments.