From painful to thought-provoking

It wasn’t until May that I decided to take Summer II classes. As many others have stated, taking a class in summer can generally be less painful than taking it during a full spring or fall semester. While selecting the classes that I thought would be the most painful for me I saw English and Algorithms as two that fall into that category.
I did not know what to expect. As an international student without a very good knowledge of English I was always scared of these kinds of classes. My skills in creative thinking were bad and writing papers in English could be a long and exhausting process. One of the worst things I have seen professors do is forcing the discussion in a particular direction, following bullet points and not letting the conversation go in the direction where the class takes it.  What is so good about this class is that there is so much freedom. We discuss very serious and very fun ideas to prove the same point.

Doing a thin slice turned out to be a very fun experience. It was something new for me since my experience with writing papers was a bit different. We would get a topic to discuss and we would have to write a paper on it. This assignment turned out to be very fun because no one seemed to know what to expect as a result of thin slicing. It was like doing a lab report and then analyzing the results. It got us thinking in different kind of way.

The best way to see the success of this class is to look at the interest that students show in this class. There is always a discussion going on and everyone is eager to give his or her own opinion.  While working for the abstract assignment I learned more about English than I have in my previous studies. Sam really helped me expand my vocabulary and think in a different way about writing. I would often repeat myself and use words in wrong context and working with my partner gave me a very interesting insight into my writing. We carefully created each sentence and it was surprising to me how language could be used to make such strong impressions on a reader. While it was very helpful for my English skills, this assignment opened our minds on the way the disciplines work together and many realized that the best ideas come when we think outside of our fields. When I first met with my partner I was skeptical about what we could find in common within our disciplines but as we started working together, more and more ideas were created.

One of the effects that this class had on me is that I no longer see writing as a painful process. In general, I believe that everyone was pleasantly surprised with the diversity and atmosphere of this class. I hope that in the next couple of weeks we will continue with this pace.