ENG 328: Reflective Essay
8/22/21
This class has been a lot of fun for me and also difficult. It's taught me not just a new
method to communicate, but also how to properly provide feedback. I began at SNHU with the
goal of someday becoming a teacher. In the beginning, I wanted to learn everything I could about
how to read and write a well thought out poem and provide constructive feedback to the authors
whose work I read. I feel as if I have done that.
In truth, I was copying other poets' work. Even though I know it's the right thing to do, it
doesn't necessarily fit my own style. I was afraid when I first started this course, which made it
hard to organize the information in my head. Towards the middle of the course, I was convinced
that I should never compose any sentence of poetry in my lifetime. ever again.
In the eight weeks of taking this class the two poems I enjoyed the most were "Trapped
Things" from our line break project and Bruce Guernsey's "The Lady and the Tramp" and they
also had these poems and poets that had the biggest influence on me in this class. The methods I
gained from the line break assignment demonstrated how the location of a poem's break may
affect the poem's feel and meaning.
I found myself attempting to reduce the lines of my poems while learning about line
breaks in this course. Nonetheless, I discovered that poetry might be written to read like a tale. F
or Trapped Things was a fun approach to show how you can drastically alter the mood of a
scene. Only minor adjustments were done to the poem. After submitting my line breaks, I went
back and read the original.
My rhyming work was one of the approaches with which I had the greatest trouble. I
typically rhyme in just a single direction, with the same rhyme and end verse. I'd like to keep
practicing and utilizing rhyme in new ways especially in my classroom with my students.
I found myself incorporating some of my peer and instructor criticism into my work. I
examined my writing in the manner advised by my professor, giving close attention to how I
ended my pieces. I communicate in more of a serious language in the beginning and a much
more informal tone at the conclusion. My professor also pointed out how I should try and utilize
a variety of rhyming schemes.
The comments I received from the one peer review was even more difficult to draw from.
This was in direct opposition to my professor's reaction to the exact piece I had written.
Furthermore, I thought I was doing a great job. But as it turns out some of the approaches, I
utilized in my writing were incorrect. I had some positive remarks, but it was difficult to identify
what I might improve without altering my approach and style.
My approach to peer