When I first registered for ENG 371, little did I know what I was getting into.  I figured that we would, of course, look at parts-of-speech and dicuss the English Language in general, but I had no idea exactly how involved this all would be.  From the very first class meeting I could see just how passionate Dr. Canada was about Grammar, and this was reassuring for the students.  It was a breath of fresh air to see a professor bring magic to the subject that he taught.  At first I thought that it was a little silly to be so fascinated by morphemes, direct-objects, sentence patterns, and more.  But as I progressed through the course I became just as fascinated my self.  I came to  learn that grammar is just like a huge jigsaw puzzle. It takes lots of fouces and attention to make it work.  And when you become frustrated, you can just put it down for a while and come back to it again later. That is what I have done many, many times. In the process I have learned why people say that English is the most complicated language with all of it’s rules and exceptions.  I can see how difficult the language must be for someone who is learning it as a second.
    Something else that I have learned in general is that most of what we say and the reasons for saying these things, we don’t even think about.  How many times when you get ready to speak do you say to your self, “Should I use the active or passive voice?”  In reality, I think that the majority of us just say whatever “sounds good”.  We don’t take the time to really think about whether or not we are using Standard American English.
I have learned to understand what the reasons are for saying some of the things that we say.  One thing that I, personally have always had trouble with is the debate of who vs. whom.  Although I do feel more comfortable about this subject, I still feel that it sometimes throws me for a loop.  In general, Englsh Grammar has been fascinating.  I should say that it has really been a challenge for me, but I feel that I am walking away from this course with knowledge that was not there when I entered.
     Something else that I have gained from ENG 371 is the technology aspect of the course.  I must say, walking into the course I felt confident about my computer skills, but after about a week or so I learned that I had a lot to learn.  I have really benefited from the use of technology in this course.  I have built a web page for the first time and have learned all sorts of things along the way about links, targets, URLS, and etc.  I have learned things that I will continue to apply throughout my college career and beyond