The first point on the list is focus on a purpose. At some point in this class, whether it is the hyperessay or the ethnography, every student had focused on a single purpose; their topic, their interviews, etc. Next is to respond to different audiences, another factor that each and every student in this class should have done; maybe even without realizing it. In that regard, this list is more to see how a student stands amongst his or her peers rather than a list of requirements to complete within a certain time period.
Most of these bullet points are tasks that most, if not all Emory Students have completed upon taking their first writing course at the College. The professors do not prepare assignments solely to fulfill these prerequisites, but rather create assignments that happen to encompass multiple of them. In our first hyperessay, we accomplished multiple different bullet points, but beyond that, it made us think critically and gave us the freedom to choose a topic that was important to us. Also, publishing these works online gave us a huge audience to write to, not just a professor, and not just one class. By writing under such conditions, I passively completed statements without actively seeking to complete them.
Furthermore, our group work allowed us to share ideas with one another as a class. Personally, these kinds of informal group meetings with my peers greatly allowed me to improve my writing because by looking at their work I was able to incorporate some writing techniques that I liked into my own writing, but put my own personal twist on it.
Overall, I believe that this class greatly improved my writing skills by introducing assignments that were outside of the norm (at least what I consider to be the norm) and forcing me to think for myself rather than write according to a rubric or how a specific professor wants me to write. Before this course, I never realized that I had my own sense of writing style, but by being given freedom on assignments and viewing my classmate’s work, I think I was able to find my own style of writing that I am comfortable with.