Throughout the FIQWS American Musical Theater course, I have further learned exactly what is necessary in maintaining a good grade point average. Previously I would do all the work that was necessary in doing so, but I learned that much revision and analysis was needed as well in order to go beyond what was expected. I came across many obstacles through the assignments and essays that I had to complete, like using MLA format and analysis/revision when reflecting on my musical, West Side Story, rather than focusing on the plot of the musical. I found it easier to start off some of my essays with drafts rather than jumping into it in one sitting because it allowed me to look over my work and add some changes that needed to be made to compile a more knowledgeable piece of writing. I also read and annotated multiple academic sources in order to gain more insight about my topic and how I could expand my ideas. Then, after having more than enough sources, I narrowed it done to a select few that I felt related more to my thesis and could help me in my future writings.  

The first major piece of writing that I came across was the Aesthetic Experience Essay, which I had a little difficulty with due to not having written all summer and forgetting how to use MLA format properly. I failed to write my last name as the header on every page, but quickly fixed this problem in my writings that followed. I also feel that I did not focus as much on analysis as a should’ve and wrote too much about the plot of the musical that I was relating to my personal struggles. “After hurting her only sister Anna, with a frozen blast to her face in an attempt to save her fall, Elsa had become isolated from her and everyone else. This made me realize that hiding your feelings goes against human nature” (Miller). Putting aside the poor grammar (some commas are needed in these sentences), I think that I could’ve dug a little deeper by expanding my thought process and not stating things that were in plain sight. I also should have done more research on the musical for my writing so that I could’ve incorporated some sources and gathered more insight on the subject to help expand my ideas. This essay taught me how important it is to use proper formatting so that my paper appears more sophisticated and that I should do more research on essays to come to help provide more analysis on the subject at hand. 

The next essay that I was assigned was the Pre-Annotated Bibliography, which definitely helped me write the Final Documented Essay because it allowed me to gather the sources that I felt could improve my writing and give me more ideas to ponder upon. Previously writing longer essays, I never used this method because I felt that it was just more work to have to do but seeing how much it helped me write that essay proved to me how influential and necessary it was. “This source shows how the forbidden love between Maria and Tony symbolizes the same issues that were symbolized in the Shakespearean play “Romeo and Juliet.” They both symbolize the inequality between two opposing groups in the same society and want to portray the idea that these two groups should be equal and live amongst one another in peace” (Miller). Again, looking past the poor grammar (Romeo and Juliet should be italicized, not put in quotations), this essay made my Final Documented Essay a lot more manageable because it was far easier to connect my thesis to the ideas that I had already gathered from the academic sources than having to create my ideas from the top of my head. I learned how important it is to read and analyze academic sources when writing a large paper, and I never did that previous to taking this class.  

Two smaller assignments that made me a better writer were the group presentation for West Side Story and the Precís worksheets. The group presentation allowed me to express my ideas to other people and receive new ideas that I hadn’t thought of before. It made me realize how much other people’s feedback can help when you are unsure about certain aspects of your writing. The Precís worksheets helped me summarize my academic sources so that when it came to writing the Pre-Annotated Bibliography I just had to provide analysis. Then, when I had to write the Final Documented Essay all I had to do was expand those ideas that I conjured up from my analysis. This showed me how much it helps to write a little at a time when writing a major piece of writing because you have so much more time to look over ideas and will be able to expand them more easily. It also taught me how important it is to pay attention to every aspect of an essay; you must focus on your academic sources, analysis on the song and scenes from the musical, the plot of the musical, and the year of the musical. Of course, these examples only pertain to the Final Documented Essay, but the fact is that most essays do require you to touch upon several different aspects in order to get your point across. 

One essay that taught me quite a lot was the Final Documented Essay because it showed me how to connect my research to my thesis statement while expanding several of my ideas in order to touch upon each sub-category. It also helped me learn how to focus more on analysis in connection to critical sources rather than focusing too much on the summary of my musical. “Rather than helping fellow citizens of America by fixing the issue and upholding the recent law that was passed, the government still withheld prejudices themselves and chose to do nothing about it just as the police officers in West Side Story did nothing to settle the dispute between the two opposing gangs when they clearly saw the violence that they inflicted on one another. Officer Krupke repeatedly told the two gangs to get off the streets, but never actually held them accountable for their actions, which shows how they thought of it as “out of sight, out of mind.” This makes it even more difficult for these outsiders to assimilate into American society because not even the law would help protect them and grant them the rights that they swore to uphold” (Miller). When I initially wrote the draft for this essay, I only had the first sentence from this quotation and failed to put enough analysis, so I went deeper into detail in order to make it more comprehensive. I also failed to italicize the title of the play, West Side Story, and instead put it in quotes, but after taking this course I learned how to properly cite a film or musical production. This piece of writing taught me how to use proper grammar and showed me that I should provide as little amount of summary as possible while providing as much analysis as I can.  

Throughout the FIQWS American Musical theater course, I have become a far better writer than I have ever been in the past. Previously, I would do my work the night before because I never felt like putting in the work for my assignments until I really had to, but I realized that being in college is much different; you have to start your work ahead of time in order to have the time necessary to finish it all and obtain a good grade. When writing an essay, you have to do a lot of research and analysis to start off and then you have to revise everything when you have finished. Starting an assignment the day before will not give you enough time to do all of those things accurately and efficiently. This class also taught me how important it is to synthesize and annotate academic sources before even starting your essay because you need to have a clear-cut idea on where and how you can connect those sources to your thesis statements. I also learned and developed my grammar skills and acquired more techniques on using proper MLA formatting when writing an essay.  

This course has helped me find my passion in writing more so than any class I have taken in the past. When I used to write essays in high school, they were never really topics that I enjoyed, but I did always feel that I was good at writing them. After writing essays on musical theater, a topic that is one of the most interesting to me, I’ve realized how much I love to write about things that have more significance to me personally. In the future, I hope to become an even better writer than I am now, and I think that after learning valuable techniques on how to do so from this class I will have a greater chance at achieving that. This course also made me realize that I can find passion in subjects that weren’t amongst my favorite by going deeper into categories. I don’t love English class, but when it’s an English class on musical theater I enjoy it way more. I want to expand my horizons as a student by taking many different courses because you’ll never know what you like until you try it.