Syllabus Day

So this is my required journal for Mrs. Kolb's CompII class. Here it goes...
First day of class... to be honest the people in CompII seem much more quiet than those who were in HonorsComp. We had a good group then, I am sort of worried that this semester won't prove as interesting as a result. I hope I am wrong. I was definitely excited to see The Tell-Tale Heart on this semester's reading list. It is my favorite Poe piece. ^.^ And I am looking forward to the Shakespeare section as well in hopes we cover Hamlet. I am a huge fan of the Opheliac concept and the influence it had on the Victorian era as a whole, so fingers crossed.
The only class assignment was a personal review of what was taken from last semester. My writing was as follows:
In HonorsCompI I learned writing from an objective view is much more difficult than it originally appears. I enjoy writing but it is from a more fictitious or narrative perspective and to be honest I had previously avoided research based essays unless the subject truly called to me. As my papers always warranted high marks my teachers were always alright with this in High School. The last few semesters of college have definitely proven that I should have honed that skill earlier. While my marks have been fine, it takes more effort to turn out a good paper due to my lack of familiarity with the writing style. However, I think by semester's end I had gotten pretty good at it so I suppose that is the most evident skill that I took from the course. That, and proper MLA format for in-text citations as it appears the previous manner I was taught to do so wasn't truly proper. I am not sure how I had gotten through multiple semesters requiring essays without someone correcting me prior to this course! I am just lucky no one was deducting for it. I also learned that balancing personal health problems and a full college load and two children is not the easiest task and should be avoided if at all possible.
Now off to read Chapter One! For three different classes.... and so the homework avalanche begins.