When I first decided to commit to Florida State University, the first thought in my mind was how great it was going to be getting a head start with AP credits that transferred over. Within those credits included AP English Composition and AP English Literature, which I worked hard to pass and earn. To my dismay though, my excitement had been extinguished when I caught wind of a new class being added to FSU for students who had already received credit for English courses going into college. The course that I began to rue was titled ENC2135, and I would be taking it in the second semester of my first year. I spoke to my advisor to see if there was any way around the course, but after much deliberation I had to sign up for the class and decided to go with Mat Wenzel as my teacher for the time 8AM. I went into the first few classes with not an eager mentality, but rather a bit of disdain in the back of my mind for the course time and purpose of having to take it. As the classes carried on though, I found that Mat knew as students we weren’t thrilled to be forced into the course, so he worked to not only be an attentive teacher but also to make the course enjoyable.

As we worked towards understanding the importance of “research, context, and genres” Mat informed us that the year would primarily consist of taking what we learn from him and using it to complete three projects. The first project was supposed to be a smooth transition into the material, the second one would be the brunt of the year and an effective use of our research skills, and the final would be a culmination of our skills into a multi genre presentation. While my mind circled around what I would be doing for each of my projects, I had to project the majority of my focus onto the upcoming first project. The introductory work of the course was supposed to be a typed one-thousand-word essay on a community that we first felt welcome in. It had to include one “genre or text” to be analyzed from the community. It was initially hard for me to think of a topic to write about and I felt as if I was going into this project blind without enough information. During our first conference though, Mat assured me that the first project was about showing the ability to do the work and that I should worry about the refinement of my skills in the class for my later projects. With this now in mind, I got to work on my project and felt stronger about the projects yet to come.

After the first project was out of the way and I received my satisfactory grade, we started to move into learning how to work on project two. This project was much harder in its construction, as it involved an interview, a bibliography, and two and a half times the words required. The topic for this project was supposed to be centered around a community in our life that we were trying to get into or better acclimated to. I had chosen to write about my experiences in the film club and how it affected my perception on my ability to work on my passion of script writing and film making. Similar to project one, I found myself nervous and feeling unexperienced about project two. I had taken the opportunity to have two meetings with Mat to refine my work. My first draft of the project was subpar in almost every way, but Mat made sure to take the time to walk we through on how to format and complete each step of the project. Once I felt that my best work had been derived into the project, I submitted my work an moved onto the final part of the semester.

Now that I had learned more about genres over the course of the semester, I had to take my new-found skills and create a three-genre presentation. I found this to be the most enjoyable work of the entire semester. I chose the idea of influencing younger generations to flourish their creativity as the main point of my presentation. I made a Prezi, lead an interactive speech, and even created an Instagram account to inspire others to put creativity into their work. Overall, I would consider ENC2135 as a success, most certainly on the part of Mr. Mat Wenzel. He made the course informative, fun and worthwhile. If you were to tell me a year ago that there would be something to gather from this class I would have not believed you. I thank FSU and Mat Wenzel for giving my college career more than just a required course.