Extra Credit Blog Post: Your First Semester at Longwood

Engl 165-09 Fall ’25

 

We have done a lot of reflecting this semester, but I firmly believe that when done correctly, reflecting can help you understand where things went wrong and help you correct things moving forward.

So take some time and reflect on your first semester here at Longwood. Nothing ever goes 100% perfect, ever, so think about what went really well for you this semester as well as things that did not:

  1. What went GREAT and why
  2. What went BAD and why
  3. What can you do to change things moving forward

That last question is what most people fail to consider when they write reflections. Go back and look at your own reflections from this semester. Many failed to address “what they would do differently in hind sight. So do not forget to address this. Here is the final part of this: if you do NOT want me to publish the post, at the bottom write DO NOT POST and I will respect your wishes.

Blog 10 AND Respondent Blog 10: What have you learned?

Academic Writing, Engl 165-09 Fall ’25

 

READ CAREFULLY:

For this blog post as well as response post, we will return to having ALL groups respond to the same prompt. Feel free to keep the due dates as listed.

Reflect on how you feel you’ve grown this semester as a writer. How has your confidence grown over the semester? How will you you use your growing skills moving forward? Now that you are aware that each discipline has not only different modes of writing but also differences in things like structure, language, and reference, how will this knowledge help you throughout your college career? How do you see this knowledge helping you moving into your career?

This is an opportunity to do some reflective writing prior to the final, so please take your time and write thoughtfully for this blog post.

BONUS:

Respond to a fellow classmates post and earn credit for a post you missed.

Blog Post 9

Engl 165-09 Fall ’25

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For my Zine, I decided to focus on guinea pigs, mostly because people really don’t understand how much goes into taking care of them. Everyone acts like they are super easy pets, but they actually need a lot of attention, the right setup, and daily care. There is so much misinformation out there, so I wanted my Zine to be more on the informational side, something that teaches people the things they actually need to know before getting a guinea pig, and how to take care of one the right way.

Since I already have my own guinea pig, I’m not starting from the bottom. I know their little sounds, their personalities, and how dramatic they can be when they want food. I know how easily they get stressed, what veggies they like, and how important it is to pay attention to their behavior. But for my Zine, I want to make sure everything is accurate, not just based on what I’ve learned from experience. So I’m planning to use information from small animal vets and animal organizations, especially about things like proper diet, cage size, safe vs. unsafe foods, and everything people don’t think about until they already have one.

For my cover, I wanted it to be cute but still make it obvious that it has real information inside. I started by doodling a few ideas in my notes, playing around with different titles and little guinea pig drawings. Then I sketched a draft that felt simple, kind of matching the vibe guinea pigs give off. After that, I made my draft cover using the colors I liked.

Making the cover actually helped me lock in the whole vision for the Zine. Now that I can see it, I feel more excited and clear about what I want to include.

5 Comments

Zine creation

Engl 165-09 Fall ’25

 

Dear Reader,

 Today I will talk about my zine and why I chose my topic. My topic for my zine is The life of sign language and it wonders. I going to talk about how sign language became a language and when, how people can be deaf either by being born that way or illness as a baby or the mother being sick while pregnant with the child or later in life slowly losing you hearing becoming deaf or hard of hearing  and other possibly that can cause someone to be deaf. There are things no one thinks about why that person is deaf. Long ago they used to say if a person was deaf, blind or hard of hearing it was because their parent sinned or they sinned to become this way and you should stay away from them because they was bad luck to be around and whoever was deaf or blind they care not faith christian because they sinned against god and god is punishing them by making them this way. But I think it funny how people long ago would say this but go make the blind see and the deaf hear again so why would he “ punish them” by making them either not hear or can not see. Then people later learned that it can be genetic and god has no control over what people are born with. With people being deaf i have seen myself that they have a stronger eye sight that people who can hear because with them not having their hearing there eye are stronger to make up for the loss of hearing. The steps I did creating my cover was something I knew would relate to the deaf community and that is one of the centers of the deaf community and is important to them.

Engl 165-09 Fall '24

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The topic for my Zine is about Peanut Butter Blossoms (the cookies). These cookies are one of my favorites to make and, of course, to eat. So I just had to look up a recipe and, of course, a little background information to gather all the necessary information that I wanted to include in my Zine. I am not the most artistic, as you can see in this rough draft, as the thing at the bottom is supposed to be chocolate… Yeah, it will be better for the final draft. But I also feel like it is missing something and need to figure out what it is missing. Once I correct the look of everything and figure out what it is missing I feel I will be in a better position.

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Starting our Zines

Engl 165-09 Fall ’25

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My topic for my zine is cheerleading! I am going to talk about the history of cheerleading, when it was started, and how it evolved into the sport we know today. I am also going to talk about the different types of cheer because not many people know that there are different types of cheerleading. Another one of my topics is that there are different divisions. There are different types of divisions because everyone and every school has a different skill level. I am also going to do what a practice looks like. Not many people know how much work we put into it when it comes to games, and we show our skills. I will also discuss what a typical week of cheer looks like and how many hours of cheer I participate in. One of my topics will be what a gameday looks like. I will also discuss what a competition entails. Lastly, I am going to discuss why cheer is considered a sport, as many people believe it is not. It is a sport because everyone practices, we compete, and we cheer at games. If cheer wasn’t a sport, we wouldn’t cheer at games and practices as much as we do. Also, just like how soccer has a USA team, cheer has a USA team. It is a pretty good team, and they have won back-to-back championships multiple times. I will research the topic and look into the history of cheerleading. I didn’t really take any steps; I just knew that I had also been passionate about cheerleading because it is what I love doing most, and I am always involved in cheer, no matter what. I didn’t do cheer my whole life, but I did do it when I was in elementary school, and when I went to high school, I knew I wanted to enjoy my 4 years og high school and not let it go to waste becuse in middle school, I had no time to do school activities because I had gymnastics.

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Blog Post 9

Engl 165-09 Fall '24

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For my zine project, I decided to create mine about all of Taylor Swift’s eras. Each era of her career has a unique sound, style, and story, and I want my zine to capture the creativity, reinvention, and personal growth that have made her one of the most influential artists of our time. The cover of my zine is inspired by the official Eras Tour poster, which I think perfectly represents the idea of reflecting on Taylor’s many musical identities. However, I made it my own by including her newest album, The Life of a Showgirl. The title, A Journey Through Taylor Swift’s Eras, sits at the bottom of the cover, with the word eras written in the same font used in the Eras Tour promo. I wanted other fans to be able to not just see a stylistic choice, but rather another nod to the tour. Since I already know so much about Taylor Swift, I don’t think I’ll need to do much outside research. However, I might include a few quotes from interviews or articles that discuss how she’s grown as an artist over time, just to give my zine more depth. Most of my content will come from my own knowledge and appreciation of her. When I started creating my cover, I first sketched out a rough layout to figure out where each “era” image would go. As you can see, I put the color that each box will end up being. Making this cover was actually really fun and helped me get inspired for the rest of the zine. It reminded me how much I love Taylor Swift’s ability to tell stories through her music and image, and it made me even more excited to start working on the inside pages.

 

 

Blog 9

Engl 165-09 Fall '24

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For my Zine, I have decided to do an informational zine about the Duke Men’s Basketball program. When thinking about what I am passionate about and things that contain information, this was a good topic that came to my mind. I knew I would be able to find lots of information on this topic, and would also have fun presenting it and constructing my zine. The cover of my zine will be pretty simple and include my name, one of the many Duke Basketball logos, and a picture of one of the past Duke rosters. 

 

I already knew quite a bit about this topic, as I have always been a Duke fan growing up. A lot of the stats and notable players I already had memorized, so I decided to use those in my zine, as I had a lot of knowledge on it. I also included some new research about how many contributions Duke has made to the NBA and how many of those were 1st round picks. Along with this, I did a deeper dive into Duke’s previous coach, Coach K. I included his record and a short background about how he got to be as successful as he was. 

 

To create my cover, I used Canva as I am not the greatest artist. One of the sample zines I read in class used printed-out words and pictures, and I thought it was much easier to read and gain information from. It also looked cleaner and more organized. This inspired me to do the same, and I used pictures from various sources across the internet to comprise my zine. I am excited to continue working on my zine as this is a topic I enjoy, and this assignment has felt like a nice break in all the hard writing and papers that have consumed me the past few weeks. 

 

Best of luck to everyone on their Zines,

Cullen

 



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Blog 8

Engl 165-09 Fall ’25

 

Personally I do not think I struggle as much as Sarah does because unlike her, I am close to home, I have my closest friends and I think I am a decently outgoing person, I do not struggle with anxiety. I will admit sometimes there are moments when I feel a little nervous but besides that I do pretty well. The classes do lightly sway me mentally sometimes but it never gets too bad. Honestly, I think that the one thing I will struggle with is my classes. They do not seem to be hard but maybe the assignments will be a bit of a struggle. Other than that I do not see myself struggling with anything. As I mentioned earlier I am doing pretty well here in college. Do not get me wrong, I love college, but I also love going home to my family and friends who do not go to the same college as me. I look forward to every break I get, I have mentioned this before, but I go home every weekend. So when I hear that we have another long break coming up I get really excited. I do not know what I will be doing for my spring break but I will surely think of something. I would make plans for summer break, but I have to go complete my AIT portion for my job in the military and it will take up my whole summer, I might even be a week late to college again unfortunately. I might not struggle next semester with classes too much but I think I will struggle next year due to missing a week and having to catch up on all my work. I do hope to make more friendships next semester though because I know that connections are important and I would honestly enjoy having some more friends to hang out with and build bonds with.

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Blog 8

Engl 165-09 Fall '24

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     Throughout the year when we have been reading “Freshman Year” by Sarah Mai, it has really helped me to look back at my own first semester of college here at Longwood. I also have looked forward to how my future spring semester might go. Throughout the book as Sarah had her experiences of moving away from her home, managing the college life, and making new friends felt very relatable to my fall semester here at Longwood. Although I am not finished with my first semester, I connect with a lot of Sarah’s experiences in the book. Like Sarah, I have had many moments where I feel unsure about managing my work in school and my social life. Sometimes the school work becomes a lot but I know it is important because you are working towards a degree. Her experiences in the book helps to reflect that it is normal to feel that way. It also helps to show that it will take time to learn to balance everything.

     Along with that, I think that a lot of my personal experiences reflect Sarah’s experiences. A good example in the book would be when she continued to struggle with balancing her classes and the homework within them, along with her social life outside of school. This is definitely something I have noticed in my first semester so far. I have also had to figure out how to prioritize certain assignments over others and to know it is okay to take a small break in between. Sarah has also talked and met new people which connects with me because I have met many new friends here during my first semester which is exciting.

     Even though there are a lot of similarities between Sarah and I, there are also a lot of differences. In the book, Sarah talks about her feelings of being unsure and having anxiety. A lot of which I do not feel as strongly as her. I understand the struggles having almost been through a semester of college but I do not feel the same level of uncertainty as she does in the book. I currently do not have any plans for Spring Break but I would love to take a trip with my hometown friends somewhere. It was very fun before college when we went to Beach Week so I am sure it would be enjoyable to have another trip.

     I am going to be honest when I say Spring Break will most definitely be on my mind from the start of the semester. I love Longwood but it is always fun to go back home and see my friends. Although, maybe this will change with time when I learn to be more adapted to college life. I also need to make sure I stay on top of my work as well. Reading Sarah’s stories in the book reminds me that it is important to plan ahead and learn a good school and social balance. Looking forward, I hope that my spring semester goes well and I meet so many more great people.

 

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