The Classes You Never Thought You Would Use In Your Career

Everyone always talks about how he or she has learned a subject in school and then never used it again. Well, I’ve always been passionate about my education. From the moment I started school, I loved the idea of learning and working hard to succeed in my academics.

College gave me the opportunity to enjoy new topics and discover my passion for writing and editing. Although I was required to take courses for my major, minors, and general education requirements, I also had the chance to explore a vast array of electives to grow and become more well-rounded. While I had chosen certain electives for specific reasons, I was surprised to learn how these courses played a role in my career. This just goes to show that even though one may think he or she will never use y=mx+b, it may creep up in the most unexpected way.

When I signed up for classes for my senior year, like most students, I needed to choose an elective to fill my schedule. I decided to take that opportunity to choose a class that would not only be fun but also improve my verbal communication skills.

I had previously taken classes within the theater department, so I knew that I would most likely enjoy this course as well as benefit from learning how to speak more clearly. Peers, friends, and family had often told me that I either mumbled or was too quiet, so I wanted to work on my vocal technique. While I had enjoyed learning proper vocal warm-ups, practicing telling stories, trying to speak in different accents, and listening to my peers attempt to do the same, I was surprised to learn that I had gained a more valuable skill that would contribute to my position with Composure.

In order to properly learn how to speak American English, as well as the other languages we studied, our professor taught us IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet. This was daunting at first because all I saw were foreign letters that somehow instructed me how to pronounce the word “fire”. While learning IPA, our professor introduced other fancy words such as diphthong and plosive consonant to further explain how to correctly pronounce words.

Although I enjoyed looking intelligent amongst my other friends by writing in what appeared to be another language, I was bummed because I thought I would never use this new skill again. That was until I started my job at Composure. During my first week of work, my coworker showed me a section I would eventually have to edit that contained IPA.

I was thrilled to utilize my skill and retrain my brain to remember the lessons I learned in school. This experience reminded me that, although I thought I was taking this class for fun, there were still important lessons that would contribute to my career as a writer and an editor.            

After this eye-opening experience, I reflected on other courses I had taken in college that benefited me not only inside the classroom but outside as well. One of my favorite classes I took at Stetson University was Non-Fiction Workshop. I loved it so much that I retook the course three times so I could improve my skills as a non-fiction writer.

Although my main focus was to practice my writing, I completed the seminar with enhanced knowledge and expertise in editing. The class functioned as a workshop where each student would write three non-fiction pieces then distribute each piece for the class to edit at home. In the class after we distributed our pieces, the students would workshop the piece by vocalizing their edits while the writer remained silent until the students were done talking.

While I loved learning in this unique environment, it also gave me the opportunity to grow as an editor by fixing grammar mistakes and sharing my opinion about each of my peers’ stories. This course helped me realize how much I love editing as well as help me understand that, no matter how well written a piece may seem, there’s always room for improvement. For instance, my professor is a journalist himself and had us workshop one of his pieces. This opportunity reinforced the idea that first drafts are never perfect and I need to be open-minded to suggestions.

Sitting in this class each day reminded me how lucky I am to help others with their writing as well as work on my own. It was refreshing to hear others either agree or even disagree with me about an opinion on someone else’s piece because it showed me that not all literature is universal. Five people can read the same text and each person can have a different takeaway and that’s perfectly fine. Having these discussions helped me grow by allowing me to justify my reasoning for wanting to make an edit to a piece or help me understand why my edit was incorrect. This learning technique has shown me the importance of communicating and asking questions, especially when it comes to editing, which I have continued to use throughout my time with Composure.

Although my time in the classroom has ended, my skills, knowledge, and learning opportunities are far from gone.

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Lana Kaczmarek