Hi! My name is Ryan Hossain and I’m currently a freshman attending the University of New Mexico. My major is Computer Science and I was born in Durango, Colorado, but moved to Albuquerque, NM when I was fairly young so I’ve lived in Albuquerque most of my life. Most of my extended family lives north in New York and Michigan so I’ve been there a couple of times as well, and I also have a few family friends in Durango so my family has gone there just about every year.
Throughout the semester I’ve learned a lot about myself and about other things related to my academics. For example, I learned how to more effectively argue and present a position, or how to use a website while incorporating various media and text. It was also the first time I’d done a recorded video argument about a topic. I also found it interesting about the debate between museums and whether or not they should return artifacts within their collections to their rightful owners. I briefly knew of that argument, but we went more in-depth about it this semester and I learned more things about it that I didn’t know beforehand. Also, the This I Do Believe project also exposed me to a lot of other modern controversies I didn’t even know existed or went more in-depth about things I only vaguely knew which also helped increase my worldview and general perspective. I hope to learn more about modern debates going forward because it’s something that will one day probably affect me or someone I know. It’s also just interesting to know more about current events. One thing that will especially help me is learning how to use a research database to gather information about a particular topic. The MAP exposed me to a lot of different cultures and their practices and through that, I’ve learned I like to write more about objects/people or moments in history rather than myself or conceptual pieces.
Overall I really enjoyed this course because it allowed me to explore my writing skills in a friendlier and laxer environment. I really enjoyed this class and the assignments within it. Additionally, it served as a wake-up call about my horrible work ethic. For almost every major writing assignment I would do it the night before or the day it was due. That proved to be the main challenege I faced this semester. I think going forward I’ll have to adjust my work ethic to avoid unneeded stress in future courses. However, my experience doing every assignment was generally good and I had no major complaints. Each of them was very unique as well which also meant they didn’t seem boring or repetitive. Additionally, the peer reviews helped me a lot because I was able to get good feedback on my website and writing. In my previous English classes in high school, peer reviews weren’t required for a grade so naturally, I didn’t ask anyone to review my work but seeing how helpful it was here definitely changed my opinion.
I would like to think that my writing is somewhat decent but regardless, I definitely think this class has benefitted me for the future because it helped solidify writing concepts I already know and I was able to practice with literary pieces I didn’t have as much experience with such as research or argumentative papers. It helped form a foundation for those types of pieces and will improve my writing about those later on. Additionally, it gave me a reality check in terms of my work ethic and I’ll have to fix that for later classes, especially for even longer homework assignments where doing it the night before isn’t realistically possible. Also, learning how to use a research database will be extremely beneficial not just in college, but likely outside of it too.
Overall I really enjoyed this semester and I’m happy I was able to experience it in a super fun environment!
I enjoyed my time in this class and over the course of this semester I was able to learn a lot of new things such as how to use a website or how to effectively use a research database. Both will help me in the future and increase the extent of my skills. I liked how for each of the major writing assignments they were unique and different from the last one meaning I didn’t get bored/uninterested in them due to repetitiveness. They also were types of writing I didn’t have as much experience with and hadn’t done any of them all that much before. It was good to solidify these concepts so that in the future, I may perform just as well (if not better) for later assignments in later classes or in the workforce. These projects also exposed me to a lot of different modern controversies and debates in the world such as museums returning their artifacts to their rightful owners or in the This I Do Believe project seeing the different arguments of my classmates. My general worldview and perspectives increased as a result and I feel more knowledgeable on a variety of different topics.
I also discovered a lot about myself as well. I found out what types of writing I like to do (and don’t) and I also got a reality check in terms of my work ethic. In the future, I will definitely have to fix how much time I give and when I work on assignments because the current process I have right now is unmaintainable for the next couple of years (especially for even bigger assignments with shorter deadlines). In terms of deadlines for these assignments though I really liked them. Having a few weeks to work on a project with no real deadlines to ensure accountability worked best for me because it meant I could manage my time in this class compared to others and was able to be less stressed overall.
I didn’t have very many revisions within my other project reflections. I did, however, revise multiple aspects of my website such as making sure fonts and text sizes were consistent, text and images lined up, and various links worked.