Gaby Schank

Prof Goffman
ENG 101
Empowered
Although this class was just a few short months, English 101 had a strong influence on
me as a student and a writer. My background as a writer began in middle and high school, where
a majority of my writing tasks were literary-based essays. In English 101 I was able to try many
different kinds of writing including poetry, research, argumentative, and descriptive. As a reader,
my background is comprised of doing class-assigned book or tedious textbook reading. I had not
been motivated to read books for pleasure since I was a child. In this class, however, we were
assigned extremely diverse, interesting, and short written pieces that inspired me to get back into
reading. This course allowed me to become a more creative and well-rounded writer, in addition
to a more engrossed reader.
My first semester at Montgomery College was full of new experiences. As I was entering,
I did not expect to have much of an impact from an English class. However, I became a stronger
reader and writer, as well as a more creative and versatile individual . In terms of technical effect
on my writing, I learned some major notes on writing improvement. First, I learned what a
comma splice was and how to fix it. I was aware of run on sentences, but I had never heard of
comma splices before this course. Secondly, I was informed about wordiness. This encouraged
me to use more precise vocabulary in my essays. Lastly, I learned about the importance of
transitions in writing. Although I am still developing this skill, my transitions are beginning to
improve, making my pieces more cohesive. The use of these technical skills aided my pieces in

becoming more clear and unified-- resulting in my meaning becoming easier for a reader to
understand. In addition to technical skills, English 101 inspired my creativity.
Being an artist, creativity is something that is a major part of who I am. When it came to
writing, however, I had always stuck to the simple essay formula and stayed away from any
expressive writing. That was until we got our second class assignment: descriptive writing. I sat
there completely clueless of what to write about. I knew I had to make this piece personal so I
wanted to pick something that I had a visual and emotional attachment to. This ended up being
one of my proudest works; it was one of the only pieces I had written that had a real meaning to
me. It was personal, and more stylistically written than a typical essay. This had less of an
impact, but I feel it is important to mention that we also touched on writing poetry. We began
with a warm-up and then tried writing our own poems. Despite being a quick, ungraded
assignment, it once again gave me a taste of using my creativity in writing. The next two
assignments allowed for me to have a different kind of creativity.
Our third assignment, cause and effect, allowed me to explore an idea and how it affects
us and the world around us. With this I was able to choose my own idea and investigate its
effects. This was a different kind of writing than I was used to, but it was enjoyable to do
something different, and in a sense, create my own prompt of what to write. On the following
assignment we took it to the next level; we did an argumentative paper using research. This
enabled me to express my opinions using real facts and statistics to aid me. Although this
involved less personal creativity, it allowed me to share my ideas and opinions through my
writing, which is extremely relevant to me as an artist. As a fine artist I need the ability to create
a visual expression of these ideas, as well as writing a statement about my works. As someone
who wants to make a difference in our world, it is necessary for me to develop my persuasive

writing. This class gave me some of the experience I needed to begin being a persuasive writer,
in addition to making me more fascinated and engaged in my writing.
This course also reminded me of the love I had for reading. The short stories and essays
we read and discussed in class, for the most part, attracted my interest and attention completely.
For example, Fishing on the Susquehanna in July by Billy Collins is an ironic and humorous
poem. This was a huge contrast to the more tedious Shakespearean poems I had read last year in
my English class. Brooke Gladstones The Influencing Machines was an essay written in the
form of a comic. This was completely out of the norm of essay pieces, and the writing itself was
original and engaging. As someone who was unmotivated and often too busy to read, it was quite
refreshing to feel amused and satisfied by the content I was reading. Now, I have begun reading
for my own pleasure when I have the free time. And, as I learned in class, reading can help
improve your own writing, too!
As I reflect on my essays and time in class, I realized how much I truly absorbed as both
a reader and writer. English 101 has empowered me to be more creative and motivated as a
writer, as well as a more capable artist.