This class was a lot different than any other writing class I had taken before. Project one seemed informal, and it took me a while to understand how to write in a way that didn't start the essay with "For my essay, I would like to…" That was one of the hardest parts of this class for me. I had the freedom to write about whatever I wanted; there wasn't a prompt that gave the illusion of choice. The narrative allowed me to be candid yet funny at the same time, and it was acceptable. Earlier classes would've shut that down before I even wrote it. Also being able to use the words "me" and "I" felt like such a foreign concept to me. I don't think I've ever had a class where ideas came so quickly to me; I didn't need to block out every other thing I thought of because it wasn't appropriate. This class never made me feel like I had to delete an entire paragraph because it was too "real life," as being "real life" was encouraged.
Continuing on to project two, I felt that it was a little more like what I had been taught in earlier ENC classes I have taken, in the sense that it was a little more formal, we had to have sources, an annotated bib, and overall it was more scholarly, yet it was still different as it felt more personable. I felt like it wasn't just a dull research paper; it was a paper about something I was passionate about. I still had to fit a specific format, but it felt looser and less restrictive. I could turn anything I found in the group I would join into a text and then write about that, the only thing holding me back was how in-depth I could go with the text I chose. It was similar to other research papers I've written in the past, but with a creative aspect that made writing so much easier. This class never gave me writers' block; I never sat at my computer for hours with nothing in mind; I could just type and type and be original.
Project three was unlike anything I have ever done in any ENC class before. Everything in those past classes had to be so formal and professional, but with this project, it wasn't like that. I had the freedom to do what I wanted, as long as I met the goals for the assignment. Making a twitter and putting memes on it felt wrong, even though it wasn't. My idea behind using memes was that real business use the same approach to get their products out there and I could too. All I had to do for the project was to follow the basic guidelines, and everything else was up to me. I could be super professional, basic, funny, or witty, it was my decision, and that made it so much easier. This project allowed me to do whatever I wanted, and while I may have gone a little of the deep end, I still did what I had to and met the guidelines.
With my podcasts, I didn't really get into the groove until the final one, where I finally understood that it is supposed to be "real life." People don't talk like that in their actual podcasts, and I feel like I had been misled in earlier classes. I feel like this class was a "real life" ENC class. We had to write the way people write, with more emotion/feeling, and our podcasts had to sound like real podcasts sounded. Other courses made me feel like I had to restrict free-thinking into a small box, while this class was a little more all over the place. I felt like free-thinking was encouraged, and we were allowed to have a personality in our writing, something condemned in earlier classes. Even writing this reflection, I don't feel like I am doing it wrong because I'm writing a little bit more casually or not using a specific format. This class taught me how creative writing could work in an academic setting for the first time.