HELP! Writing 37 or 39A at UC Irvine????

ynthis
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 01:55:42 +0000

I always thought I was an okey dokey writer.
Until I found out that I didn’t pass the AWPE.
Then I felt stupid because I found out that some of my friends, who I thought were stupider than me, had passed it.

I totally lacked confidence in my writing after the AWPE but I decided to take Writing 37 because I didn’t want to take 39A, B AND C. I took 37 fall quarter and then 39C spring quarter because 37 knocks out 39 A and B.

Writing 37 is called “intensive writing.” And for me, it really was. My teacher assigned us many assignments and I was forced to write a lot CONSTANTLY. It sucked because I’m an extremely slow writer. I remember staring at my laptop screen at 3 a.m. trying to quickly form 500 words into coherent sentences that reflected an intelligent analysis of the assigned text. Man, it was frustrating. Especially when I had writing at 9 a.m. that day.

My teacher was a tough grader but she really focused on helping us improve our writing. Looking back on my first year of college, I’m glad I took 37. I don’t regret it at all. It made me a better writer and that definitely helped when I wrote essays for later classes. Yeah, it required me to work hard and to sacrifice sleep but I learned so much in that class. In my class, there were some dumb kids who made me wonder “How in the world did they get accepted into college?!” and there were some smart kids who made me wonder “How in the world did they end up in this class?!” I later discovered that writing is not a measure of one’s intelligence. It’s a skill and skills can be honed.

I’m sorry if this has scared you but I have some reassurance. A good friend of mine from high school also took 37 at the same time that I did. But he ended up with an easy teacher who barely assigned any work. My friend never stressed out over essays and homework like I did and he got an A- whereas I got a B.

So… it’s your choice. You can go the long way by taking 39A, B and C but B and C fill up pretty quickly. (Well, the ones at the good times.) Or you can take 37 and then take poetry, fiction, or 39C (research) to fulfill lower-division writing. I strongly advise you to refer to ratemyprofs if you decide on 37. You can choose a teacher who will actually help you improve your writing or who will make life easy. Since tuition fees have been increased, don’t you want to learn as much as possible and get the most bang out of your buck? =)