My Journey Through English 120
This semester in English 120 has been a journey. For starters I want to say that learning in this environment has been a breath of fresh air. All digital and no pens and paper ? That was an absolute relief ! I’ve always thought that my writing looked better on the screen than on paper where my teachers would have decipher what I wrote. This is the first English class I’ve been in where I’ve had to write reflections about myself and my process every once in awhile. I was definitely not expecting that from college at all so on the first day when we just wrote for 45 minutes I was pretty surprised that a professor would care so much about our personal experiences. I was even more shocked when there were comments on my reflections (I would normally just expect that on essay). Nonetheless it was an interesting experience to just write freely. It gave me a break from technical writing and it was a very good way to vent. If I was having trouble with a certain assignment, I knew that experience would wind up in my reflection.
The the very first discovery draft was and still to this day the hardest assignment for me to complete. I’m not sure if it’s because it was the very first major assignment we did or because the topic that I was writing about was hard for me to put into words but writing about my family life wasn’t really the easiest thing to do. I found that no matter which way I edited this piece it would end up as something completely different than what I wanted initially. I know that I didn’t want this to be just personal but to have more meaning so that if someone else looked at it they could be inspired to take the actions that I took. Standing up to family isn’t the easiest thing to do especially when your culture demands that you stay silent in the first place.
The research essay was definitely a lot easier to write. Finding the initial idea was difficult but once I had found it everything from the intro to the conclusion just flowed onto the paper. I knew exactly how I would do my experiment. I consider myself to be a very strong feminist which is why both of my papers and my movie assignment ended up revolving around the topic somehow. This assignment was something that I looked forward to writing from the very start because I knew that my findings on sexual objectification of women would make a difference to someone (they definitely made a difference to me). Though I had a lot of small to things to work out with this paper, I was very proud of the final result. This is definitely a paper that I will look back on many times.
The movie reflected the message that I wanted my research paper to portray (but couldn't quite fit it in). I wanted people to know that yes these are the facts and yes women are sexually objectified but that doesn’t mean that this has to continue on forever. There are correct ways to represent women in media. I wanted people to understand that sex doesn't sell but rather objectification does and that is what needs to be stopped in our society. Movie making has never been my strong suit so I knew that this was going to be tough from the start but it was something different to look forward too (I was just thankful that it wasn’t another essay. I definitely ran into a lot of trouble while making this movie, so much so that I had to watch tutorial videos on iMovie so I could figure out what I was doing. In the final version there are some places where the text doesn't flow as nicely or the transition is choppy, and though these small mistakes only last for about a second they still annoy me when I go back and watch my movie.
The Frick essay was one of the hardest pieces that I along with my group members (Darsen and Gretchen) had to write. We honestly put so much time into our piece. From going to the Frick Museum and taking extensive notes, to researching at the Frick Library, and then spending hours after in Hunter meeting up so that we could collectively write and edit it. Even with all that we had to constantly skype to make sure that were all on the same page as one another. Initially we divided up the parts of the paper and then we collectively rewrote and did technical edits that way if one of us disagreed with a change (not that we really did) we could settle then and there. It was a long and strenuous process but it was worth it in the end and we all worked really well with one another. I honestly could not have asked for better teammates. We helped each other out when one of us could not put in as much work because they were busy, tried to meet at convenient times for one another, and gave each other new ideas or a new way to look at things while writing the paper. I remember while visiting the museum I said something about a piece in the living hall and Gretchen and Darsen expanded on the idea. It worked the same way when we were editing the paper itself. Having 3 sets of eyes looking at one piece might seem overwhelming but it was really helpful to have my peers edit my work. Our piece ended up flowing very well, so much so that you would not be able to tell the difference in who was writing what part.
The Lincoln assignment was also something that I found interesting to do Though my grade on that was a bit lower than I expected, writing the essay was entertaining. The movie itself had a lot of great scenes where the rhetoric could be analyzed and that was something that I had never thought of before. I had seen the movie a few times before but I had never looked at it in so much depth. Visual rhetoric was also a new concept to me (looking at the commercials helped me with this skill) I didn’t know that the camera had that much power to dictate a scene. I chose the scene where Fernando Wood gave his very theatrical speech on why slaves should not be freed. I chose that scene because Wood is literally a walking and talking rhetoric machine. Every sentence out of his mouth had meaning and power. It sounded and looked more like a drama than a house debate.
Overall with each piece and each new class assignment I learned something new. It has not only helped improve my writing but I have learned to look at things in a new light. Rhetoric was a huge part of this process. I know now that the way you write and the manner you write in has a lot to say about you as an individual. Rhetoric is not all about convincing someone but rather how you get your point across. This is still something that I have to improve on. Something else I would like to change is my style of writing. While doing collaborative work in class and looking at other student’s assignments I realized that I wanted my style of writing to change to something that sounds mature and sophisticated and though this will be a long process I know that it will benefit me in the long run. This class definitely helped me be more comfortable with free writing. In any other class I would have shied away from the idea of showing my reflections to any teachers or students but because this entire class ran on google docs I’m not so afraid of showing other people my work.
I can honestly say that this was the only English class that I have been in that focused on so much more than just writing papers and handing them in for a grade. It was meaningful because I discovered myself through my process essay and I not only got to write essays but also create movies and websites. This was a lot more than simply writing and I am honestly very thankful for that. I learned my technique for writing and picked up other skills along the way. Writing this final reflection I can see now that what I have learned in this class and the essays that I have written will always be something that I constantly look back on.