By: Heather Irwin

I thoroughly enjoyed my writing assignments this semester. My favorite is my first essay, Anti-Up, about my first poker game. The paper has a vengeful undertone because I am playing my cheating ex that night. One passage I really like is "He looked at me as if I was a parasite sucking all the fun and freedom out of his life one hand at a time." The paper also empowers and encourages women to play a "man’s game." I used my gender to my advantage, and I believe it gave me the push I needed to win.

The reading and writing assignment about the Martians being allowed or not allowed to set up a space travel agency on campus gave me the most difficulty. Although it was a simple assignment it was something out of the ordinary that required me to use my imagination and visualize. One of my downfalls is I cannot just turn on my imagination; it comes and goes as it pleases. I didn’t really understand the concept, and I did not allow myself to deeply think about the question. Next time I receive an assignment such as that one I will plan out my essay more. I will also give myself more time to contemplate my argument.

It has been over a year since I was enrolled in an English class. I missed it. It is the best feeling in the world to sit in front a computer and just type forever until everything is said. My writing skills were way above average in high school, and I have continued to develop them in this class. One thing I need to improve on is allotting myself more time to write my papers instead of waiting until the last minute.

Reading has always been a passion of mine. My vocabulary has definitely expanded as I continue to heighten my reading level. In the past couple months I finally finished a book, Amazing Grace, which my mother was assigned to read when she was taking classes. I tried to read the book when I was in the 8^th grade, but the reading level was a lot higher than mine. I couldn’t comprehend and understand the plot of the book. I tried to work on it off and on during my high school career. I was finally able to finish it and make sense of how the plot jumped around. Even with that being said, I will still crawl up with a romance novel any day.

One thing I can improve on would be my critical thinking. I have awesome common sense critical thinking, but like a stated earlier, my imagination doesn’t run wild. I need to find a happy medium. I usually do too much critical thinking and end up confusing myself. For the most part I feel as if I have improved as a reader, writer, and thinker.