Brain Gain

In Ben Paine’s blog entitled “Brain Gain” he describes the valuable writing tools he learned throughout the semester and shares the readings he enjoyed. Reading critically was an important skill that he needed to work on and he felt this course was effective in increasing his skills in this department. After reading through many, many articles for his research paper he was able to pick out articles of substance within a couple of minutes without having to read an entire paper that either didn’t cover what he needed, or wasn’t credible enough. Confidence in his writing was another skill he gained throughout English 150. Previously Ben didn’t trust his writing and would often edit sentences multiple times before finally being happy with it and moving on to the next. Planning was another skill Ben learned which was in big part thanks to the research paper. He used to just charge at writing assignments head first with empty barrels, often writing himself into corners or hitting a wall. With the research paper, he wrote several notes, rough draft, and zero draft and when he finally got to writing the actual paper he was able to write 2200 words in roughly 3-4 hours.

                Ben enjoyed a majority of the pieces he read from the text; however one stood apart from the rest. “Pandemic: My Country Is on Its Knees” was an intimate look into the real Africa that we rarely hear from. He wouldn’t say he enjoyed this article as it was tragic at times; however he appreciated that the writer chose to use anecdotes of his experiences in Africa rather than shower the reader with numbers and stats. The other essay he liked was “There Are No Lessons to Be Learned from Littleton” which mirrored Ben’s take on the subject of the high school shootings. The essay’s position was that there is no way to predict or curtail events such as the Columbine school shooting. Such extreme circumstances cannot be foreseen and there’s no amount of preventative measures such as gun control that will curtail such an event.

                All in all Ben is thankful to have taken this course, his writing was a skill he believed he needed to work on and he hopes to continue blogging to maintain and even improve the skill further.