English 100 has been the most useful course I’ve taken in university thus far. I am a firm believer that university writing should be implemented into high school english. Signal phrases, gist notes, and proper quotes will permanently improve my writing, not only in the following years of my academic journey, but in the future of my work as well. Writing has never been a strong suit of mine, but after this course, I can confidently say my writing skills have improved. The course readings were quite sentimental, as many of them taught about women’s rights, Indigenous peoples, and most frequently, public space. The course had such a loving and uplifting environment that felt judgement free, it was comforting to know I was accepted even if my writing skills were not as strong as my other classmates. Learning to be in touch with all my senses and putting them into a piece of writing was almost spiritual for me, our tracing the land assignment was by far my favourite of the course. The CGW book is beyond helpful with writing, the tips and tricks found there improved my writing and gave me confidence. I find university has a stigma, being mandatory to succeed in life, for a long time I felt “under the microscope” (Robinson, 2017) being pressured to find what career I wanted to pursue. In that I have come to realize that university is not the key to success, but if I could take one class that I could carry through any career or life path, it would be English 100. This course guarantees your writing skills will be improved and it doesn’t just apply to writing essays, it would be useful in cover letters or formal proposals as well. Creativity is encouraged through this course in our research papers, leaving us to write freely about a topic that we are passionate about. I find my writing usually earns better grades when I have a topic that I enjoy researching and learning about. I’m sure that is not unlikely for other students as well. Taking away from the course itself, I thank our lovely professor Alana Gerecke for being so welcoming and understanding, always complimenting our writing and giving us confidence when we may not be happy with the end result of our assignments.
