Reflections on UWP 101

With the end of Summer Session I in sight, the curtain will soon close on this UWP 101 course. As I look back on the memories of this course, I cannot help but chuckle at some very comical moments and conversations during class. Like everyone else in the class, I am taking this class to fulfill a graduation requirement. I had originally signed up for a UWP 101 class for Summer Session II but I decided to switch to this one because I could take it with my roommate Truman. When I first read the general guidelines for the class, I was completely startled and surprised. I expected that we would be forced to churn out four page long papers about some ridiculously boring topic. Instead, I found out that we would be blogging. I felt elated yet skeptical at the same time. I HATE writing long papers. I hate having to fluff a paper with random bullshit. You cannot imagine how thrilled I was when I learned I did not have to write papers like that. However, that delight was shrouded with skepticism as I was completely unsure how we would be able to make the class work utilizing blogs.

As each class passed, I found myself enjoying the class more and more. It was an odd source of entertainment as some of our conversations were among the most random I have ever heard. The most entertaining for me was no doubt the conversation regarding online relationships. The best part?
Student: “You can’t have sex with yourself forever!!”
Chris: “Why not?!”
It does not get any better than that. The entire class just burst in laughter. Chris’s response was just hilarious. However, this type of conversation also demonstrated how open and easygoing our class was.

Writing these blog posts allowed me to view writing in a different sense that I had never thought about. Whenever I wrote papers, they always needed to be in some formal manner. However, with these blog entries, I was given more freedom to express myself without feeling the constraint of formal guidelines. Sure, we had to follow a topic and a minimum word count, but those essentially were the only rules. No ASA, APA, cow manure guideline. We were free to write what was on our mind without having to write about anything in specific detail. Good writing is not restricted to just “formal” writing by famous authors. Good writing can be found in something as simple as an everyday blog kept by regular people like you and me.

While I enjoyed the class for the most part, I did not like having to speak up in class or comment on another blog to earn your participation grade. I have never been someone who likes speaking up in class. I am one of the students who enjoys sitting in class and listening to the conversations rather than initiating them. As for commenting, I found it somewhat difficult as I did not really know how to respond to people’s posts. I read everyone’s posts and everyone articulated what they wanted to say so clearly that I could not think of a comment that does not start with “this is a really good post!” and have it end there. However, these are just small issues that do not take away from how enjoyable the class was.

I am quite surprised to find myself feeling bittersweet at the end of this class. I am very happy that I will not have to be up at 4 or 5 in the morning trying to finish a post before the deadline. I am also ecstatic that I will actually have some time off since I am not taking Summer Session II. However, I will miss coming in to class everyday not knowing where our random conversation may lead, not to mention the spontaneous comments that Chris comes up with that generates laughter from the entire class.