The Journey Past and The Future Ahead

Tyler Benson
12/3/09
Dr. Hughes
English 1101

At the beginning of the semester I struggled with integrating quotes and I had a good bit of grammar based issues. My arguing skills lacked the acknowledgment of the other side and their views along with a scholarly tone rather than an emotional one which I use to have. I have come a long way from these problems and I believe I have conquered some of them thanks to this class, my instructor, and my classmates. Some of the latter problems I am still struggling a bit, but I have improved and I am still trying to improve upon the base I was given due to this class.
Integrating quotes was always a major problem in my research papers in the past and my high school English teachers never really explained it very well to me. Thanks to this class I was able to understand what “dropping a quote” was and how to fix that by introducing an author of a book or work or the company where the work is associated with before quoting that source. I believe I have improved greatly and if I have not completely conquered this problem I am very close and I have improved tenfold.
My grammar was never good in high school and I believe that it is still not all that great right now, but I am striving to fix it. This class helped me with a lot of these grammar issues and my instructor helped me to improve in a number of grammar related issues such as quote grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and punctuation. My grammar has shown improvement over the class and I am excited to take what I have learned and improve on my grammar further to where it is nearly perfect.
My debate skills have reached an entirely new level as well and it is a level I am very proud of and I could not have done it without my instructor or classmates. In high school I loved to listen to other people and take what they thought, that I agreed with, and molded it into my own understanding on the topic. This ability has travelled to college with me and I have enjoyed listening to everyone’s stance on issues that are present in the world today. I am thrilled to say that I have taken at least one or two things from everyone in the class and I have applied it to my beliefs and thoughts. If not for my classmates and my instructor I would not be able to access this knowledge. I have also learned how to acknowledge the credible arguments of the other side of a debate and give credit where credit is due. In the past I was stubborn and refused to even acknowledge any of the opposite side’s thoughts even if they were good.
This class has established a base that I will always cherish and use in my classes to come. I want to thank my classmates and instructor for giving me this opportunity to better myself in my academics and my thought process. It is because of you that I am that much more empowered than I was walking into the class. Knowledge is power and I hope I get to keep sharing my knowledge and yours in the future as more than classmates, as friends. Thank you again to you all and I truly appreciate everything the class has taught me.