What I Wish I Would Have Known...

Hello!

This blog is meant to track student opinions on English 101-11 at UW-Milwaukee, taught in the spring semester of 2009 by Trent Hergenrader.

For students in this section, please post your comments responding to the questions "What do you wish you would have known coming into English 101?" and/or "What advice would you give students taking English 101 next year, 2009-10?"

Below are the comments made by students from Fall 2008.

• Coming into 101 I wish I would have known to take the essay writing seriously. I could’ve shaved a lot of time off finishing my final portfolio if I would’ve tried harder from the beginning. (I also would’ve loved to know about Trent’s artwork!)

• I wish I would have known a little better how important portfolio was. Overall the class was good.

• Rule #1: Trent is the shit. Rule #2: DO NOT Question Trent! Really try on your assignments the first time. It makes revisions a lot easier.

• I wish I would have known how much freedom I was going to expect when entering 101. You aren’t told one specific way to write a paper, it’s all up to you. You can go in any direction you please. Also Trent, you are by far the best English TA in the world. No joke, if you ended up having Trent as your TA, you’re in great hands, and you will improve as a writer!

• Do all your assignments to the best of your ability when they are due. This will make life so much easier when it comes to doing your portfolio.

• Coming into English 101, I wish would have known how long it takes to actually revise papers for portfolio. I thought at most 15 minutes per paper. But, I soon found out that it was more like three plus hours per paper. Overall, it was a great learning experience and I’ve become a better writer because of it.

• I would have liked to know that the class is expected to think at 8 in the morning.

• Something I wish I would have known coming into English 101 is that it is not as hard as you think it is. Also, you should expect to seek help instead of the help coming to you.

• One thing I would have known before coming into English 101 is that you are encouraged to write how you feel and for the most part there is no right or wrong answers. A lot of freshmen come in shy and soft spoken with their formal writing habits. Now is the time where you are encouraged to voice opinions and to be outgoing in your writing!

• Your portfolio is everything! Keep reviewing the course objectives for the portfolio. Seriously, go buy the two manila folders now! They’ll be all out at the bookstore by the end of the semester.

• If I would recommend something for future students I would tell them to expect the opposite of what you thought the class would be. Also I would tell people to take every assignment seriously for that is the way you will improve your writing practices. The last thing is to realize your portfolio is everything. It makes or breaks you. In other words it determines if you pass or fail.

• I wish that I would’ve known that we had papers every other day, and that our papers had to be at least pages to be decent.

• What I wish I would have known coming into Eng 101 is how great the teacher was and how lively I would need to be. This class is interesting and fun. But you need to be awake and alert! It was hard to achieve this at 8 in the morning. Otherwise, best of luck in 101—remember to keep all your assignments together—you will need all of them at the end of the semester

• One thing I wish I had’ve known going into English 101 is that Trent isn’t a good drawer (Ha, ha) But I always understood what he meant. You’re awesome.

• You must be at almost all the classes. Out of the 27 classes you can only miss 4 classes. Plus you many want to do every assignment every day. Most importantly you should save all your work then at the end you can save your classmates ideas!!