At the midway point in the semester I have developed a stronger understanding of my writing; what I do well and what I need to improve upon. Each FYS class shares the common purpose of improving students writing and reading ability. Therefore, we have done a lot of reading and writing in this class. Personally, I feel like I have not made significant improvements in my writing ability yet. The first large paper we wrote on Plato’s Republic was difficult for me. The prompt was challenging and required more critical thinking than any assignment I have done before. What happened was I failed to organize my thoughts under a strong central argument. The result was a paper which I believe had many strong points and arguments but lacked focus and clarity. After meeting with my teacher and writing assistant I am more aware of what I need to improve on. I plan on spending more time constructing a thesis and an outline for my next big writing assignment before I begin to write. In my first essay I did not know my thesis until I was halfway done with the paper. Because of this my paper was unorganized. By making an outline I can create a main argument before I begin to writing so I stick to one main idea. I have a tendency to digress from the central argument of my essay, which can be confusing for somone who reads it. I believe this will immensely improve my next argumentative essay adding more strength and clarity. Despite failing to make significant strides in my writing I am now more aware of my writing habits thanks to the constructive criticism I have received from my teacher and writing assistant. I plan to use this new found awareness on my future assignments to make my writing is more persuasive and focused.
Along with an awareness of my writing this class has helped to expand my awareness of the world in which we live. From studying both Plato and Moore there is a focus on the problems we face as a society. This theme surfaced in our visit to Chat where we saw an effort to improve an impoverished society. This experience along with the reading assignments we’ve had have forced me to think about the many problems in our society today and how they can be fixed. By studying utopia, there is a visual goal to strive toward. This has allowed me to find a more profound meaning for taking this course aside from just reading and writing. I can say that I don’t look at the world the same way. I have a better understanding of the problems that occur in a society and where they are caused from. For example, in Plato’s republic a lot of time is spent discussing temperance and its importance in combating greed. The issue of greed is still just a much of a problem today as it was in the past. These are problems that I never devoted much thinking to but I am now starting to understand their importance. This class examines the true issues within a society as we read from people who provide possible solutions to these issues. From this I have thought a lot more about this and have a better understanding of the many problems in our world and more resolve to make the world a better place.