I knew almost nothing about AWD until mere days before I signed up for it for this summer. I’ll be honest, writing was not one of my strong suits and I constantly considered that I had severe writer’s bloc. I spoke to a couple of friends regarding class choices for a summer semester and nearly all of them told me that I should take a class that I didn’t like. Why? Apparently, the pain is easier to get through over 2 months rather than the regular 4 months. After confirming that my friends were actually serious about it, I decided to to choose two classes that I didn’t favor and prepared myself for a heavy 2 months, to say the least.
Two things caught me by surprise in the course description on myNEU. Not having read this before choosing the class, I couldn’t blame anyone but myself. Firstly, AWD was a 3000 level class, and the name of the class itself started with the word ‘Advanced’. Truthfully, this scared me. Another important thing I got out of the description is that it described the class to be in a “workshop setting”. I don’t mean to sound like a lazy rebel or anything but the first thing that came to mind while reading that was: “participation”. A workshop setting at 10:00 am...this posed a second mighty hurdle for me to pass.
As clichéd as it sounds, AWD so far has turned out to be of the most interesting and engaging classes I have taken - voluntarily or forcefully - in my entire academic career. I think the last time I was so active and psychologically consumed by a class was probably in my second grade painting class. From in-class discussions to the flexibility of the projects, I felt that AWD was a very open-ended class where we, as students, were allowed to write about almost anything we chose with just one category to fill: our discipline. I don’t know about other students but I chose my discipline in college based on an academic idea that interests me the most. If I find my discipline interesting, no matter how long the assignment or how complex, I believe I would still be able to conjure ideas and put them on paper.
My favorite part of AWD so far has been the in-class discussions. From dissecting Lil Wayne lyrics to breaking down every detail of stop sign, every discussion we’ve had has been free of any political, social or cultural bias. It has been a place where I feel I can easily and comfortable discuss any ideas or theories I deem relevant. I know this isn’t the focus of this class, but I consider these discussions to play a key role in coming up with ideas for nearly all the projects.
From here on, I don’t hope that the projects will be ‘easier’ or less time-consuming. I hope that the projects continue to be as open and flexible as they have been. I hope that the in-class discussions continue to be powerful and dynamic as always. I hope that this workshop-like class allows me to continually attain the high quality of academic concepts and techniques, as it has done so for the past five weeks.
I totally agree with your reasoning for this class. A 10am class, mandatory participation, and writing is a handful and not what most students look forward to, including me. However, this class has taken a turn as you said with the flexibility of the projects and the use of in class discussions to lead up to the prompt for the next assignment. I like how you chose your discipline in college "based on an academic idea that interests you the most." I feel like that plays a big role in English because if you are interested in a specific discipline you are able to come up with ideas and use them in your papers. Like you, I hope that this class will keeps teaching me the interpretation of ideas and use of language in ours and others disciplines.
ReplyDeleteI believe we have very similar views, as do many of the students in this class, about the surprising success of the course. I have talked to many people who have had very different experiences with AWD, ranging from horrible to extremely easy. There are very few, if none, that I have talked to that said the course was both challenging and successful. As I understand it, as a summer course, AWD tends to be taken because students just want to get it over with. I was one of these people and clearly so were you. Despite this I think we both feel that this class has helped us to see our respective fields from a new perspective which can only help in future projects.
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