Final Reflections

Over the past 2 months, I have had my eyes opened to my countries history in ways they had never been before. The chosen reading materials were, it seems, strategically selected to give two very different versions of the turbulent founding decades our country saw. Eric Foner’s Give me Liberty I found to be your typical History text, offering the same, glossed over account of American History. Zinn’s A Peoples History however, displayed what many textbooks and historians hide in their closets. The travesties our country’s founding fathers inflicted on others, the corrupted governments designed to benefit a select part of society, and so on. It makes such a difference when I can am engaged and interested in the material I am studying. It makes it so much more natural to respond to topics that I can connect with. Over the course of this class, I never found myself disgruntled about my assigned work. I never sat for hours trying to figure out what in the world I was going to write about in this week’s blog. What I did struggle with, was breaking out the old writing skills. Although I have been enrolled in classes consistently now for over a year, I haven’t needed to write any sort of paper, or think critically outside of mathematics. This made completing the writing assignments a little challenging. But now, in the end, I feel much more comfortable tackling an essay, and analyzing concepts and putting my thoughts on paper.

As I go back and reread my first blog post on the Diamond Discussion, my writing seems a bit abrupt, and perhaps a little rushed. It seems that I sped through the points I was making. I did not offer any examples of the things I was speaking of. I wrote about how Diamond credited the lack of certain diseases among particular cultures, making them extremely susceptible to them when they came in contact with them. I didn’t explain what I was referring to. I could have inserted one of the many lines in the speech to prove my point, such as this one: “measles and TB evolved from diseases of our cattle, influenza from a disease of pigs, and smallpox possibly from a disease of camels. The Americas had very few native domesticated animal species from which humans could acquire such diseases.” (Diamond 3). I recalled his example of Tasmania, but why did I not quote his exact example, instead of rewording it? I don’t see that I interjected an opinion beyond the opening few lines. If I were to re write this, I would compare and contrast the opinions and research of Diamond to my own ideas and opinions.

In my second posting on American Indians, I seem to have made leaps and bounds from my first. I immediately get the sense that I was much more comfortable writing this piece. I was not rushed, and I fully expressed my thoughts. I made several references to the assigned texts, and supported them with lines from them. This blog felt much more personal and emotional. I let my feelings flow about terrible the treatment of the Indians was. “What sane person would think that stumbling upon an unknown land, claming it for themselves and ousting the native people of that land just because they are not of the same religion or social system is a just thing to do? “ I put much more of my personality into writing about this subject. Obviously, I wrote much more. I did not limit myself to doing the bare minimum. My vocabulary seemed to expand a bit too. Looks like the rust is coming off of the writing machine I can sometimes be!
My third post, at first glance, seems to be riddled with support from the text on my points. But with a closer look, I see that one of my quotes is extremely long. This was not necessary. I could have edited it a bit and explained a little more how this proves my point that the new country of America was “the pot calling the kettle black”. My writing was a little more stylish I think in this post, a little more colorful too.
My fourth post, one would immediately see that I went above and beyond the required writing. I picked a topic that I felt very strongly about. And when I have something to say on a matter, I will say every last word I have to say. So my blog ended up being over 500 words. Whoops. But I thoroughly presented and supported my views on the matter of racial inequality in early America. It angers me to think that someone sees another person as biologically inferior. This showed in my paragraph about the African Americans. It breaks my heart to learn that the Indians abandoned their way of life simply to survive in American society. But I presented my stance on these things eloquently and intelligently.
I can clearly see that my writings gradually improved each time. My paragraph structure improved each time. My supporting quotes improved with each posting. My ideas were more clearly expressed each time. One thing that I see that I am lacking, that I wish I would have noticed earlier, is the lack of citation works. I did not provided a works cited sections at the end of my postings, stating where I pulled my quotes from. I believe that my works became more sophisticated, yes, but with a light heartedness to them as well. My vocabulary expanded greatly allowing me to properly present my material. Although my postings have not been prefect, they show that I was very involved in the class. I took the time to do the readings, Gave the lessons serious thought, and show that I have a good understanding of the material taught. Yes I could have managed my time better. Yes I could have checked my work a little more thoroughly. But am I vastly more educated in American History? Yes. And I would award myself with a B.