Course Reflection: Eng 111

English 111, or more commonly known as Eng 111, had its ups and downs. I felt that my professor, Paul Gasparo, was very clear in explaining his expectations from day one. Coming straight from high school to my first college English class, I did not realize how important it was to follow his course expectations until the middle of the semester. If I had kept slacking off and continued to fall behind I would have failed his class outright. I appreciate that he would stay up late online to assist us and answer any questions we had. Instead of failing us on the spot for turning in an assignment incorrectly, Mr. Gasparo would send emails warning us to correct the mistake and to resend the file the way he wanted. He would try to lighten the learning environment by starting off a few of the days with humorous YouTube videos (and yes, even though the videos were meant to make us laugh and feel that his class was not an “all serious and no fun” type of course, the videos were relevant to what we were learning at the time.)

However, I hated the word counts; for example this blog has to be 600 to 900 words. To me, that can be counterproductive. An old English teacher I had back at Floyd E. Kellam High School, warned us about a strict English professor who teaches at Tidewater Community College and uses word counts instead of other methods for his assignments. She was not keen on that particular method. She preferred a number of pages or paragraphs for essays because she believed that students would put more effort into actually writing the essay instead of just throwing in as many words as it would take to meet the number of words required. Of course, I cannot quote her exact words, but it was basically what she tried to tell us. I agree with my old high school English teacher’s opinion regarding this method. I believe that if a student is told to write an assignment by page length rather than a certain number of words they will be more expressive and put more meaning into their essay. For example, when we had to put together a rhetorical analysis in exactly 900 words, no longer and no shorter, I felt as if I had to stretch out or shorten statements to reach the exact 900 words required. However, the purpose of using word counts taught us how to be disciplined in presenting our thoughts through limiting or expanding the number of words we use.

I also did not enjoy having to turn everything in on time (I was not the best at doing so.) If we sent in an assignment late, we would receive a “1” no matter how hard we worked on the assignment or what grade the assignment would have received had it been on time. Such a policy on late assignments discouraged me from finishing any incomplete work. Unfortunately, even one incomplete assignment would result in failure in his class. However, getting in the habit of turning assignments in on time would be beneficial in preparing us for the real world. In his class, if we procrastinate and not meet the deadline, we fail the course; in the real world, if we do not meet our boss’s deadline, we can lose our jobs.

My advice for those who plan on attending Mr. Gasparo’s Eng 111 class is to learn how to manage time wisely. Time management is invaluable in his class, plan ahead and stay on task. Take it from me, I learned the hard way.