Took Sophia ENG 2 after dropping out of ENG 121 Matthews - a review

[Marlin9276]

Hey guys,

A while ago I made a post complaining about Matthews' hot and cold, unclear feedback on assignments -> https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...1-Matthews. I dropped her class two weeks into the term and decided to take Sophia's English Composition II instead. Most of the advice here about this Sophia class is to avoid it and take the UMPI equivalent which is what initially landed me with Matthews. 

I just received my final assessment back and I passed Sophia ENG 2 within two and a half weeks. And it is not at all the horror story that it has been made out to be on this forum. 

Yes, there are more writing assignments than the UMPI classes. However, there are clear instructions and rubrics for them, and some of the assignments are shorter. For instance, one assignment is creating an outline for your last assessment, another is creating a bibliography listing your sources with explanations of how each source relates to your thesis, and another is evaluating and analyzing one source from your bibliography. Then the last two assignments are 1) a rough draft for the last assessment, and 2) a final draft for the last assessment. As well, there is one other essay assignment that is longer which is the Rogerian essay that, based on two sources they give you, they want you to take a position on and then write about a middle ground solution. Before taking the class/paying for the subscription, you can download the class pdf that explains all of the assignments in more detail.

Along with the ENG 2 class, I completed five other Sophia classes in less than two weeks. Overall, it's definitely manageable with a one-month Sophia subscription. 

Speaking on behalf of grading times. On average, every touchstone was graded within two days. The only time it took longer was my final draft of the last assessment which took five days to get feedback. To note, I was not at all aiming for a high score just a passing score, so I ended the class with a 74%. 

Furthermore, the feedback I received was helpful in my opinion. Most of it pointed to specific areas of my writing that were weak and suggestions were provided to help me strengthen them. Nonetheless, no matter how bad or good my assignments were, I always got a passing grade.

I hope this helps people decide whether to take a chance on UMPI ENG 121 or Sophia's English Composition II.

[Vle045]

Thank you for the input. Do you think overall, it helped you learn to write a better paper? I have been considering an option for my HS Junior who struggles with this skill. He hates his current English teacher, so he has a very hard time in her class.

[Marlin9276]

Thank you for the input.  Do you think overall, it helped you learn to write a better paper?  I have been considering an option for my HS Junior who struggles with this skill.  He hates his current English teacher, so he has a very hard time in her class.

Personally, I wouldn't say the Sophia class helped me write a better paper. I'm not saying that I write the best papers, I absolutely have much to improve, but it didn't teach me anything I didn't already know. 

Like your HS Junior, I once hated my English teachers and had a hard time with writing. Ironically, it was in AP Lang that writing and analysis became fun. It's hard to explain but what I've found the most helpful is when I discovered my writing voice and stopped trying to mimic all the high-scoring essays I read for practice. And by writing voice, I mean I wrote down what I thought and noticed and cut down on trying to write with big, fancy words. For instance, I was taught to look for the big three in rhetoric analysis: logos, pathos, and ethos. Whenever I noticed any one of these tactics within the piece of writing I am suppose to analyze, I asked myself "Why is this here? What's the purpose of using (insert tactic) with this audience or the bottom line/message? Who is the speaker trying to appeal to and what are they trying to argue? And why does this tactic work? What is the outcome the speaker hopes to achieve by using this tactic?" And so my essays were mostly my answers/thoughts to these questions.

Furthermore, I found it helpful to have a writing framework to structure my essays. Sometimes you'll be told how to structure an essay, other times it's up to you. Of course, whatever structure you use, it must meet and address all requirements and points of the assignment. I recently discovered this YouTube video explaining a writing framework called PEECEL that I've found super useful for my university assignments (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHBUsdwYXTk). Especially the advice to use an academic phrase bank to help incorporate appropriate transitions into my essays which have improved the flow and coherence of my writing.

Writing for classes is two things: it's critically analyzing the piece of work and then it's transforming your critical analysis into written words. 

Some people may have trouble with the critical analysis, others may have trouble with transforming critical analysis into words. I fell into the second group. Perhaps as a start, you can help your HS Junior understand what part of writing he struggles with the most, and tackle the problem from there.

I hope this helps.

[ss20ts]

Thank you for the input.  Do you think overall, it helped you learn to write a better paper?  I have been considering an option for my HS Junior who struggles with this skill.  He hates his current English teacher, so he has a very hard time in her class.

Sophia definitely didn't help me write better. The feedback I received was harsh. I lost a ton of points for things not in the instructions or rubric. It seemed like the grader hated my topic. I had the same grader for 5 our of 6 of the papers I submitted. I scored very well with the person who only graded 1 of my papers. It was like night and day. I also had to wait 2+ weeks for each paper to be graded. It's not that crazy now. I dropped it and took the course at UMPI where I completed it in 3 days with an A+ versus the barely passing and 1 more paper to go problem I had on Sophia.

[Marlin9276]

Thank you for the input.  Do you think overall, it helped you learn to write a better paper?  I have been considering an option for my HS Junior who struggles with this skill.  He hates his current English teacher, so he has a very hard time in her class.

Sophia definitely didn't help me write better. The feedback I received was harsh. I lost a ton of points for things not in the instructions or rubric. It seemed like the grader hated my topic. I had the same grader for 5 our of 6 of the papers I submitted. I scored very well with the person who only graded 1 of my papers. It was like night and day. I also had to wait 2+ weeks for each paper to be graded. It's not that crazy now. I dropped it and took the course at UMPI where I completed it in 3 days with an A+ versus the barely passing and 1 more paper to go problem I had on Sophia.

Wow, that seems like it was a nightmare experience. Each assignment I submitted in Sophia ENG 2 had a different grader and their grading was fair across the board, in my opinion. It seemed our experience with both the Sophia and UMPI English offerings were reversed.

[Chankosumo]

It is often being overlooked (probably because at first it appears to be the slightly more expensive option), but English 104 and 105 from Study.com are both very manageable to pass due to the way the final score is calculated. Each course had 3 papers. I used these two classes for my UMPI degree, and I managed to do both in a single month, which with the coupon I used meant something like $170 for both classes. Of course, if people can complete the equivalent Sophia classes for a month it will be cheaper, however, it does not seem to be a common occurrence. And actually, I ended up getting a better score for English 105 and also it was the quicker one to complete. The UMPI English courses may be easier according to the feedback, but if you are for some reason scared and/or unsure, I strongly recommend the Study 104 and 105.