Dear Future APELC Student,
Well,
welcome to APELC! All I knew entering this class was that I genuinely enjoyed
writing, and that I was known to be quite good at it as well. Through my summer
work for this class, I was pushed to exceed different levels of writing and
develop a new basis of skill building for writing. Mr. Yost assures you early
on that this class is a marathon and that grades will not come easily. In prior
years, I was generally a student who had little to no trouble formulating a
well-written essay that would receive a high grade. Little did I know that I
had much more to learn and improve on. The year started off with a summer essay
rewrite, which at the time was the worst news I could have ever received. How
was I going to survive in a class where the first assignment I turn in I
bombed? To my surprise, not as bad as I had expected
coming in. Something Mr. Yost said in the beginning that I will never
forget was that, the essay grading scale does not go to 10, and he rarely would
ever give out that high of a grade because “no essay is ever 100% perfect, you
can always improve it in some aspect.” Throughout the year, I was able to
improve on my writing abilities in multiple aspects; however, their was always
something that could have been executed in a different, and sometimes more
effective way. With the bad grade I received on my summer essay, I was able to
meet with Mr. Yost and Ms. Pronko and formulate a new, better essay. Through
this process, I began to build upon the skills that I was lacking, and
ultimately become a better writer. During my time in APELC, I was exposed to
many new things that I had not been extremely familiar with in past classes.
Symposiums, in-class essays, and long, in depth text analysis were not always
ideal, and sometimes very stressful. Many of these tasks actually contributed
greatly to my understanding of the concepts put forth in the class, as well as
my personal success. As the year went on, I saw my essay scores begin to
improve, and my ability to produce a well-written essay was becoming easier.
The way I approached essays was completely altered this year as well. The class
exposed me to different ways to analyze text, format essays, and concisely tie
all my thoughts together. Whenever I struggled with an essay, I was able to
begin with one of the many outlines discussed in class, and then meet with one
of the teachers to get more ideas flowing and start to develop a final draft.
My essay scores and final products eventually flourished into what I had been working
for all along. On another note, while a lot of the work presented in class may
seem grueling and unnecessary in regards to all the other work you have to do,
a majority of the homework and class work actually greatly contributed to my
understanding and the improvement of my skills. Socrates, Thoreau, and a ton of
other passages that take hours to read and even longer to actually comprehend
were horrible at the time, but in the grand scheme of things they really helped
to broaden my learning experience. Another thing that will probably drive you
crazy, but did contribute to my ability to analyze any text, was TOWs (which
are blog posts due every Sunday). At the beginning of the year, I was on top of
my TOWs. They were always in on time; they were long and in depth, and
basically amazing. Towards the middle to the end of the year though, I would
find myself remembering about my TOWs 5 minutes before they were due, or even
the next day. While sometimes my best work was not always contributed to my
blog posts, they kept refreshing my mind on how to pick out rhetorical devices
and strategies and analyze texts. It is true that going into APELC you probably
won’t receive the grades that you want and are used to, and that work will be
long and annoying at times, but the skills you acquire will benefit you in many
aspects of your life outside of APELC. Due to APELC my essays for other classes
thrived and the skills and lessons will also greatly aid my college essays and
other essays to come. With hard work and effort this class is fully manageable,
trust me if I can do it, you probably can too! P.S. Participate in Toga Day!! It goes a lot faster than it feels, good
luck!
Mady Foglia
