Strengths and Weaknesses
Overall ENGL 301 has been a fun but challenging course due to the unorthodox structure of the course. Unlike all the other courses or online courses I have taken, ENGL 301 has no lectures or video lectures and instead all of the information can be found through the weekly readings from the textbook as well as from the instructor blog. While this style was quite different I found it extremely effective as I was able to read through the textbook and learn all the material at my own despite the fact that there was no lectures. The textbook also did a very good job at explaining the technical skills through providing multiple examples per section.
One of the things I struggled most with during the course in regards to the assignments for the class was the overall structure of my writings. Formal pieces of writing such as professional emails, references, and etc all have extremely strict structures that must be followed closely. At the start of the course I would often make mistakes in regards to the structure of specific documents, especially with avoiding white spaces.
A second thing that I consistently struggled with was the overall tone in my writings. As a person who has never really written any formal documents before, it was difficult to always maintain a professional yet friendly tone during all of the written assignments.
FUTURE CAREER GOALS
Learning to write formal documents whether it is an email to a potential employer, a resume, or a cover letter are all fundamental skills a person must learn when they start looking for their first job. I thought this course did a great job in allowing us to practice practical skills that we will definitely use during our job search.
A second skill that I thought that this course taught me that will really help me when I pursue my first full time job is time management. Unlike a lot of other courses this course really requires you to have the self commitment to stick to a schedule or else you will start to really fall behind.
The third skill that I thought this class taught extremely well was working in a group environment. From almost the beginning of class we were assigned to specific writing teams and we often times have to lean on the advice of our team members in order to improve our writing skills. It was also super nice to have people to reach out to when we were stuck on a certain assignment.