LITR 4232 American Renaissance 2010
Student Midterm Samples

#5. (Optional): Describe & evaluate

your reading experiences with our online texts.

 

Eric Cherrie 5.                                               The Empty Screen

          Before I begin, I would like you know that I really like your class and your style of teaching. However, I am really not thrilled by online texts. In fact, I would venture to say that I categorically hate online texts. I understand and appreciate your use of them. I think that trying to save money and trees is important. Furthermore, you annotations are incredibly helpful; I get a lot more out of my reading with your insights. However, I simply cannot look at a screen to read long texts. I print out all of the poems and short essays. However, I do not like printing out long passages of texts. Therefore, I have bought three of the novels discussed in class: Last of the Mohicans, The Lamplighter, and Wide Wide World. I bought Last of the Mohicans for three dollars at Half Price Books. The Lamplighter was a penny, and Wide Wide World was 10 dollars on Amazon. I already own an anthology of Poe.

          I understand that lots of classes are starting to use online texts for economic reasons. Though, most literature classes use books that can be found relatively cheap. I have also read lots of research on online texts and reading comprehension (I am a literature and education major). The research is against the use of online texts. When people read a page by page text, they can use spatial memory, increasing comprehension; however, the online scroll does not allow for people to use spatial memory. Furthermore, people can make personalized annotations on the page. The online screen usually does not allow for any kind of annotation, and if it does, the annotation is not a highly personal one. I recommend that the use of online texts be kept to small poems or passages that must be printed out by the students. The student should be required to buy any long text. Besides, literature majors should be buying books for their libraries anyway. Furthermore, spending money on a text makes the person more willing to read it. They have made an investment in the book.

Amber Criswell 5. Personal Opinion

I absolutely love the online texts. Everything about this is practical. They are the exact passages, they save money, they can be copied and pasted directly for easy access, and if a person wants to print them out, they have the option. The highlights and annotations were wonderful, also. They helped because they were a quick reminder to analyze what you are reading while you read, and they also let you know when you have an example to better explain a term. So far, everything about the class has been great! The different texts are interesting and relevant, the use of online texts is accessible and easy, and the annotations provide good insight.

Brittany Fletcher

5. Study Habits in the American Renaissance

          My online reading experience has been very successful in the fact that there is such open access at your fingertips. In the text itself there are always definitions and bold highlights that help you focus on the important and crucial parts of the text. I really appreciated that we did not have to buy books and that all texts were available online. The website is reliable and organized very neatly so that it is never frustrating to go online to retrieve the texts.

          I usually print the texts out because I am on the go most of the time and I am more of a traditional “on paper” girl. With computers, you lose things and get distracted by e-mail or links to a new movie coming out. This way, by printing out, I can focus on the text we are supposed to read for the next class. I enjoy being able to do my own highlighting and make notes in the margins to revert back to when studying or preparing for an essay.

          The annotations and highlights are extremely helpful! They help me focus on the bold areas and the definitions really help me piece everything together. As I am reading the annotations help explain certain areas of the text to me and I stay on track easier.

          I could honestly use either the online texts or the normal anthologies. I believe both are very helpful in different areas. Online texts obviously save paper, have easy access to look terms up or definitions, but you lose the sense of having the entire story or novel. Standard anthologies come with critiques and critical histories that might help with the text. Either one is very helpful in their own way. I love using both actually, but for college courses I would rather use online texts because the highlights and annotations truly have helped me immensely.

Chelsea Hailey

Section 5

I really like the online texts. Not only does it save us money but it also saves us a lot of time, since we are only assigned certain sections of the text. I prefer to print out the assigned text for purposes of highlighting and taking notes. Also, The highlights and annotations that Dr. White provides are extremely helpful when skipping a few chapters. Overall, I think that the online texts are great!

Melissa King

5. E-Reading

          My experience with online texts began with the Tragedy class in the summer and continued with this class. Previously all of my professors required books to be purchased that had all of the texts we would be discussing and stressed the importance of obtaining the correct edition in order to follow along in class discussions. When taking four classes together that each require several books the expense becomes astronomical and can burn a hole through ones pocket very quickly. Upon learning that all of our texts for this course could be purchased online a huge smile landed on my face and I breathed a sigh of relief that I had a few bucks which I could save towards my tuition for future semesters.

          Not only do online texts save students money, it also helps to alleviate the massive load of books having to be carried around campus while walking from class to class. Piling textbook after textbook along with a laptop into a backpack and then carrying that backpack around for multiple hours can cause immense strain on one’s back. The texts for this class have been lifesavers because you can either just bring a laptop and view them online, or you can use the campus printer to print out the texts and put them in a folder which weighs a lot less than a textbook.

          Printing out the texts from online has proven very beneficial to me in this class. I am a very hands-on learner so I have to be able to highlight the information and make notes as we discuss the text in class. I have found it to be very easy to just go to the computer lab on the third floor and print out the texts needed for class so that they are right in front of me ready for my use. The annotations and highlights done by Dr. White are so beneficial during my reading process because I can use them to decipher the meaning of something I may not know as I am reading instead of having to wait until the next class meeting to ask. The annotations made to key us onto what is gothic or correspondence or sublime, etc . . . has really helped me to see the texts we have read in a new light than what I previously would have seen them in. I do not always pick up on the cues that would guide me to discovering the techniques or the functions that the passages can have and Dr. White’s annotations really help to bring those out.

          Having online texts is very beneficial and for the most part completely better than purchasing an anthology or book. The only complaint that I might put forward is that it is a little confusing reading the texts that have had certain chapters or sections omitted. I understand that this is done for time scheduling purposes and it has definitely been manageable, but some of the texts I have wanted to read what were left out. However, this debacle is very easily fixed because I can either check out the book from the library later to see what I missed in order to make it all come together or I can find the full text online. All in all I greatly appreciate the online texts and find it to be a very beneficial method for the students here at UHCL.

Jennifer Martin

1.     Online Texts:

I really appreciate the online texts. It has saved me a considerable amount of money. I usually print out the passages from the online site so I can bind them in a notebook. This makes it easier for me to collect the materials in an organized way. It also makes it easier for note taking.

Jonathan Nguyen

5.Don’t Change a Thing

The online texts are simply fantastic. I personally choose to bring my laptop and have them on screen while we’re talking about them in class. The ease of scrolling is so much better than flipping through page after page to find the passage the class is talking about. With the CTRL + F option, you can type in a couple of words and the computer will go straight to the area you’re looking for. Also, since the texts are online you can access them from any computer with internet or if you have a laptop, from any area with wifi such as most coffee shops. The best part about the online texts is absolutely the paper that is saved. I choose not to do print outs for this reason and I appreciate the strain you take off the environment by putting the texts easily readable online. Instead of having tons of paper wasted each new reading we are assigned, I can just boot up my laptop and read away. Don’t change a thing, Dr. White.

Jillian Silva

Experiences with Online Texts

          I’ve taken a class with you before, Dr. White, and to be perfectly frank, the accessibility of online texts is amazing. I absolutely love the format of the class, specifically when reading an objective or class discussion question and coming across a word that requires defining such as “sublime”, “gothic”, or “correspondence”, you can easily click and find the answer you’re looking for. It’s always baffling in an age of instant gratification of technology, when one comes across a word they might not understand the idea of looking up the definition is much too much work. However, it seems that our lives are spent around technology and the internet, it seems only natural that our classrooms would reflect that similar mentality.

          As far as reading the reading assignments as well as the poetry, I always print them out to read them for the same reasons that have kept me from purchasing an Amazon Kindle or other electronic reader, I simply prefer to hold what I’m reading in my own hands and to be able to write on them (as I do even in my “entertainment” reading). But in all honestly, I also print them for studying purposes that keep me off the internet and from randomly straying to other websites; so, essentially, it helps keep me on point. But that is merely an admittance of my own weakness for online shopping.

          I also, as I know this is a common question in class, have no problem with reading smaller portions of the text for expedited reading. I never feel as though I’ve lost any of the plot or “important” aspects of the narrative; yet, I always find that I want to read the whole thing. That’s the only thing I can say that gives me anxiety, a want to finish the book in its entirety!

          All in all, I love this class, its content, and its online-heavy format!

Jeanette Williams

Advantages or Disadvantages of Online Texts

      The online texts have been a great help in this class.  Because I am visually impaired and require low vision aids to make reading less of a chore, the online texts are quite a refreshing.  I am able to enlarge the text at will from my personal computer which eliminates the stress of not being able to keep up with readings with the pace of the class.  Thought the online texts work well I still make sure I have a hard copy but my preference is to read them onscreen.

     The highlights and annotations are extremely helpful because they ensure that the class is made aware of the important points and emphasis made by the instructor.  It also makes it easier to keep up with the class discussion and eliminates having to ask “what page” and “where are we.”  This is an advantage too because these highlights would not be in a standard anthology.  However, the greatest advantage is the convenience of not having to pay the rising cost of textbooks that would only benefit the individuals who are really interested in literature as more than an elective that fulfills the academic plan of study.   

Marichia Wyatt

I enjoy the online texts because I didn’t have to buy the books.  It does however cost a lot in ink.  I print them out, and that makes it easier to highlight selected passages, and right my notes in the margins.  The annotations and highlighted aspects are great for reading.  Especially when it is excerpts from the text, and we need a guide to tell us what is going on.  It also helps us keep the he and she’s straight.  I definitely enjoy having the texts online, any way to save money is helpful!