Final Essay-Emily Eyberg

Emily Eyberg
ENG-102-104
Mr. NEUBURGER
14 December 2011


Final Essay
By far this has been the best semester I have had in my entire college career. Numerous factors created such a wonderful semester; a supportive mathematics instructor, leaving behind friends which we’re never supportive in the first place, and this English composition course .Having a supportive and kind instructor helps a student in a variety of ways. Firstly, as Mr. Neuburger showed throughout the entire semester, if an instructor is willing to assist a student and help them throughout the steps of writing a research paper or exploring new technology, it allows a student to push themselves further.
Looking back on my English composition 101 course, I realize the instructor I had for that course was not used to a teaching environment nor was she anxious to help her students in the classroom. There were numerous things in which my 101 instructor left out during that semester, which I would need for 102 and simply future writing. One of the things which the instructor failed to teach was how to integrate sources properly in a paper, and to refer to the MLA documentation textbook rather than a random person.
In my writing, I much prefer to write a story rather than a research paper filled with citations and facts. However, I have learned it is crucial to buckle down and put myself in a research writing mode. Even just a few years ago when writing I would switch topics mid-sentence. A thought would form in my mind and I would have to write it down otherwise, who know what little bits of wisdom I would have lost. At the beginning of the semester when we were writing short essays and the criteria were given, strangely the word count was not much of an issue. I found myself able to zone in on the topic and write only about it, focusing on my citation and formatting. I am grateful for a word count limit on those essays, as they help one stay on track, and in the future if a company is in need of a document that must be concise and readable, I will refer back to my composition course with Mr. Neuburger. When it came time to begin the research paper, I was anxious to begin documenting my sources and pulling up files. My reasoning behind this was my visit to Israel while my father was in Seminary. I travelled to both Israel, Greece, and Turkey but I truly fell in love with Israel. The history, the pain and endurance of the people of Israel is an incredibly powerful thought.
Throughout the semester, Mr. Neuburger waked each student through the steps of researching and writing. I found this very formative and helpful, as many instructors fail to assist their students on topics which they struggle in. Technology in the classroom has turned away from a mere trend in the changing times to an essential tool in the classroom. Using the social networking site Twitter was a different experience in a classroom for me, but I loved how we were able to incorporate modern technology while still staying true to an English class. In particular I found the site Diigo to be extremely helpful. After writing numerous research papers and other essays throughout high school and college, finally having a place to store all of my sources in an easy to access place was a life-saver. I vividly remember numerous notebooks full of urls, notes about research tabs, and pages marked in encyclopedias. The encyclopedia pages are still marked throughout my house, but my tabs are now evenly sorted into Diigo.
A big factor most composition courses are missing in the college setting is an open discussion between students and instructor. Throughout the course of this semester, Mr. Neuburger frequently brought up discussions which invoked one to think outside of the box. Also, the quick responses via email and in person were incredibly helpful. I feel a research paper should be included in any class where it is possible. Not only is the ability to write a well formatted paper crucial to a college career but it is also useful in the business world.
As Mr.Neburger stated, his previous class worked on two research papers throughout one semester. Personally, I feel with a minimum of three other classes, to accurately and diligently work on a research paper, one paper a semester should suffice. However, there is nothing wrong with pushing a student to do their very best.
One of my favorite things from this semester was writing the ‘I am from’ poem. I absolutely loved the assignment and being able to receive feedback from Mr. Neuburger was helpful personally and academically. I hope this assignment will be used in future classes as well.
I feel this was by far one of the best classes I have had to date, honestly I cannot think of a single assignment or due date I would have changed.