Final reflection essay

My thoughts on engl110? It was interesting. The class was not that difficult, but it was worthwhile. It was interesting because for the first time, English class was not about reading Shakespeare or writing an essay. I mean, we did write essays (duh), but the point of the class was more about figuring out how to express my language, outside of “standard English”. However, my language is pretty much just standard English, at least in my opinion. So, I was basically experimenting with writing styles this semester. Even this essay is an experiment. So, I’ll be breaking down the 3 big “experiments” and what I learned from them.

Experiment 1: Language and literacy narrative

(This assignment was supposed to be a reflection of my language and literacy journey. The problem is, I’ve been speaking English for so long that there wasn’t exactly a literacy moment that speaks to me. But there was a language moment: my first time reading a proper book. Initially, I was writing a run-of-the-mill story. But then I remembered Professor Brain’s insistence on not writing something generic and boring. Now I could have written some deep philosophical things about me reading Charlie and the chocolate factory and how that had lasting effects on my mindset and life; but that felt quite pretentious. After all it was a memory from 8-ish years ago when I was still a child. So, I decided to lean heavily on that aspect and write something my 10-year-old self would have enjoyed reading. My favorite ways i achieved this was the short play at the start of the narrative. Specifically, how I framed my response to my friend actually reading a book:             (Language Literacy Narrative, Sayed, 1)                                                                                               

Another way I personalized the essay was the addition of quips  to the side- almost like I’m whispering to my friend in the back of class while the teacher explains something. That part was not actually planned. It sort of just came with the flow and I only realized it after Angeliki from the writing center pointed it out to me.

Experiment 2: translation 1

I HATE speeches. Like despise them. From the bottom of my heart. So, when our first translation looked like it was going to be a speech, I was pretty annoyed. But then Prof. actually explained that we could express the narrative with other mediums. So, I decided on a YouTube-style video presentation. Why? I have no clue. Just felt like it. It turned out to be the right choice though. I edited the video in such a manner that it called back to the YouTube of my childhood. The 2010s with PewDiePie and Markiplier and Game theory. I basically took the funny parts of the LLN and stitched it together into a video. My aim with it was to make people laugh. So I filled the thing with memes and funny gifs. Basically, I made a video for my 12 year old self to watch.

Experiment 3: synthesis essay

This assignment was challenging. At first, I approached it as a study paper, before realizing that I was meant to make an argument. Big mistake, especially because I was 2 weeks into the project. Now I could have turned my original idea of analyzing bilingual relationships with each of their languages into some argument about how code mixing is okay. That’s what Professor Brain suggested. But that didn’t feel like something I firmly believed in. On our 1-1 meeting I requested to start anew topic and prof. Brain, being as chill as she is, let me do it. I decided to write about the reasons behind manga and Anime’s increasing popularity compared to the decline of American superhero comics. This is something I knew a lot about but struggled to find sources to back up. 

I did tone down my voice a lot for this essay as I wanted it to sound professional and informative. Let’s compare two extracts from my language and literacy narrative with my synthesis essay to analyze this difference.

                              (LLN, Sayed, 1)

    (synthesis essay, Sayed,1)

I am actually really proud of both of these introductions. For the LLN I was able to use humor to grab attention while for the synthesis essay I used an epic moment to do so. The former is very personal while the latter is more general. I think this was one of the best skills i refined while working on these. The ability to maintain my quality of writing while adapting to different contexts and tones.

It is important to note that the topic itself was very niche (for lack of a better term) which meant I had to get really creative with the citations including multimedia sources such as Reddit and YouTube and blog posts. For example:                                                                 :(Synthesis Essay, Sayed, 3) 

“This feels like the “safest” piece of writing this semester, style wise, but the topic and content were very different. It was an analysis of modern literature which means I had a lot less “credible” sources to cite from which made it a lot more challenging and interesting to work on. I learned 2 important from this project:

1. To not be afraid to listen to my instincts and change a decision if necessary
2. To look in unlikely places for inspiration

I also visited the writing center when I needed help with my instructor feedback draft. That really helped me move forward when I was stuck, unable to find sources. The lady told me to narrow down my points more and focus on them rather than just keep spouting lots of random broad claims without evidence to back them up. Overall, this assignment was a proper mix of challenging and exciting, and I think I managed to put out an interesting argument for Anime/manga’s rise and superhero comics’ decline.

Overall, this course was a very enjoyable ride. I really appreciate Professor Brain’s encouragement of freedom and self-expression in our writing  and I believe the class has improved my writing for the better.