In English 1010 we have had to write four different types of papers. We had to write a Literacy Narrative, an Informative Summary, a Media Analysis, and a Reflection piece about the class as a whole. In this class I got to freshen up my writing skills, and ultimately get more practice to become a better writer.
The first piece of literature we read in English 1010, was a piece written by James Baldwin. In the writing, Baldwin explained how African Americans used their own style of communication. They used this back during the time of slavery to secretly communicate, so the slave owners did not know what the slaves were saying to one another. People have even been using this form of communication to present day. From reading this piece of writing, I learned that African American English in todays time really derived from how their ancestors talked in the past. It was really interesting to learn that they pretty much created their own language inside of the English language. The first paper we had to write in English 1010 was a Literacy Narrative. The definition of a Literacy Narrative is a first hand narrative about reading or composing in any form of context. This type of narrative can be in the form of letters, blogs, or social media. I decided to write about how my art work can tell a story the same way a written paper can. Writing this narrative showed me that I need to pay more attention to grammatical errors. In paying more attention to grammatical errors, it will allow the audience to read my paper with ease. I also learned that in this form of narrative it can be about your things that you have read, it can be about your personal experiences, and it can have any emotions that you desire to include. I enjoyed writing this piece due to the fact that I chose a topic that I really like, and have a first hand view on, which made this paper a lot easier to accomplish. I liked being able to share how I learned to successfully tell a story in a way that is easy and comfortable for me unlike writing a five paragraph paper on a subject that would typically bore me. The second paper we were assigned was an Informative Summary Essay. An Informative Summary is I learned how to look at a song, poem, or any form of literature and take out the key pieces of information. In taking the key pieces of information, I had to put all everything that was of importance, into my own words. This gave a slight idea what the meaning, purpose, and reasoning was behind the literature that I read. I wrote my Summary about a song called: “Soundtrack 2 my life” by a musician named “Kid Cudi.” This song was about how Scott (aka Kid Cudi) had all these sad and lonely emotions that no one can see. He explained that the death of his father gravely affected the amount of music he was producing. This also led to him using various drugs, which also affected his music production. He shared some insight to the struggles his family faced when he was younger. His mother worked hard to give him and his siblings everything they needed, he had one brother who was consumed by the streets and was not around much, another brother who was good and was a role model, and then a sister who tried to help him out when she could. I had to portray all of his emotions in my paper which was kind of difficult mainly because I have not personally experienced the feelings he was singing about. The Media Analysis paper was definitely one of my favorite assignments in English 1010. My partner and I decided to write a paper on a mural named “Mobile Lovers” that was painted by an artist named Banksy. Writing this paper taught me how to analyze the meanings of color, find the purpose of the article being observed, taught me to find a purpose and background information on the article being studied. From writing this paper and looking at the mural it was very easy to find the purpose and meaning of the mural. The mural is a picture of a couple hugging each other, but behind the backs of one another they are glued to their phone screens. The purpose of this mural I believe was to show how consumed our current generation is by technology. Also writing this paper shows how closely art and literature correlate with one another Writing the Reflective paper and making the portfolio has shown how me how much we have actually covered in this short period of time together in English 1010. It has put everything into perspective. I have been able to successfully write papers in a college class and reflect and realize the things I have learned this semester. Making this Reflective portfolio has given me a better understanding for literature and technology; in high school I never had to make a website to display my work and doing this in English 1010 has given me a little more knowledge in the technology world and not just for English based topics, I could use the skills I obtained during this assignment to make a website for my art work or even to use as background information for job interviews and things along those lines. This assignment definitely has been the most difficult. It was not difficult in the aspect of writing it or creating a blog about it, it was difficult to really look back and see what we covered and what stuck in our brains. English 1010 has given me a little more confidence in myself than I had before I took this course. Right now I could not tell you if I am completely prepared to take English 1020 next semester. I really feel as if you cannot tell if you are going to do well in a situation until you are right in the middle of it. I am just hoping this class has prepared me enough to succeed in my last English course that I will have to take. |