The assignment that I feel was most successful was the flyer which I believe was essay number 3. I am more of a visual person, so this was by far the easiest assignment. The outline was easy to follow and meet. While having fun doing this assignment, I also learned a lot about poetry. I could have done better on the quizzes by double checking my responses and cross-referencing them with my notes and the material given. I could have also studied the material more intently to get a better grade. Coming into this class, I could say that I did not have much experience writing essays that had such a detailed and specific outline. At first it was a struggle because I felt like I was producing good work, but it just did not meet the directions. However, now I think having these outlines assisted me in producing work that is more focused, structured and organized. Because these are all great attributes of a good paper, I now appreciate this way of writing more. To summarize i learned how to write more structured, organized and focused papers.
Keona Lewis
The story the most handsome drowned man by Gabriel Garcia Marquez shows various examples of commonplace but precise language because of the frequent use of descriptive language. For example, when the drowned man washed up to the shore, they explained briefly that there was no way the drowned man was from their village. “So when they found the drowned man they simply had to look at one another to see that they were all there.” (Marquez 2). Another example of the use of this type of language, was when the narrator was describing the state of the dead corpse. “Only his shape gave one to suppose that it was the corpse of a human being, because the skin was covered with a crust of mud and scales.” (Marquez 1). The use of common and easily understood language throughout the story helped me to paint a clear image in my mind of what the corpse may actually look like. Which helped me to understand the characters reaction to the corpse. The common place language in this story is extremely necessary and helpful seeing as this story contains strong aspects of magical realism which may be a hard concept to grasp.
I believe that fairytales give children a misconstrued image of what is just and good. Fairytales rarely show the villains being punished for the bad stuff or the pain they have inflicted on others, which shows a disregard for justice. In the article “Sex and Violence” written by David Isaacs, something that caught my attention would be when the author mentioned fairytales being used to help children with sexual confrontation. “Some of the power of these stories may be that they help children confront and come to terms with their own sexual and aggressive thoughts and feelings” (Isaacs). However, I do not believe that this is the job of fairytales. Additionally in the article “Good and Bad beyond Relief” by Jerilyn Fisher and Ellen S. Silber, it mentions the absentee father never making an appearance. “The fairy tale father, oblivious to his child’s misery, never intercedes; nor is he reproached for being inattentive” (Fisher and Silber). This is something I noticed myself but never thought it was a big deal; so to see it written about in this way really piqued my interest.
There are a lot of things I would have missed if I had not read the excerpt from activity one. The theme and plot of the story isn’t linear. So, without the excerpt I believe I would find many of the scenes disjointed or confusing pertaining to where the author is trying to take the readers in this story. The specific idea would be the grandmother being recognized as the “Heroine” and the misfit later on in life, going back to Jesus and becoming a prophet due to the grandmother’s words. She played a part in saving the misfit and what she said to the misfit before getting shot aided him in choosing a better life. Additionally, I would have thought that whatever the grandmother was saying was ineffective because he still shot her. But maybe he shot her because her words were having an effect on him and shooting her was his only defense against those words. I believe I would not have been able to pick up on these ideas by simply reading the story on its own without the excerpt.
I’ve learnt so much about poetry over the course of us going through the different types of poems etc. Therefore, my ability to read and understand poetry has increased. I’d rate myself a 6. Even though it’s seemingly low, before we started this topic, I would’ve rated myself a 3. I realized that poets use the different times of day or seasons to represent time or age. Like in the poem “What my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. She wrote, “Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree” (Millay). The term winter can convey that a lot of time has passed or now she’s older. This shows that you need critical thinking, creative interpretation and sometimes a little research to figure out what the poet is trying to convey. Just like in Oedipus the king, we are provided with interpretations for the language used. But without these interpretations I would’ve been confused about some of the references. For example, where it says, “You may see them one with another, like birds swift on the wing, quicker than fire unmastered, speeding away to the coast of the Western god” (Grene 3). At first read, the meaning behind this is hard to understand so I had to research It to realize that the western God refers to “the god of night, or Death” which tells me that this means the women were dying quickly.
Writing essay one was challenging for me because of the multi-layered aspect of this assignment. Even though this was an opinionative essay I struggled to write my essay following such specific guidelines. Due to these guidelines, for a while my paper felt “stiff”; it lacked flow and individualism. Another struggle I faced was critiquing the sample student essay. The process felt harsh, but to follow the instructions given to me, I had to ensure the student properly adhered to the guidelines given. One lesson I’ve learnt is the importance of having your essay line up with your thesis statement. I realized that while writing my essay, all my main points hinged on what is written in my thesis. It is also important to ensure the body of your essay is not contradictory to the thesis statement. Due to this realization, I approached my thesis differently. I spent extra time to ensure that I had a thesis that effectively expressed my thoughts on the sample student essay.
My title would be “The different ways in which individuals conceptualize the same idea”. In the story “The Lesson”, They all live in the same neighborhood and they all live in very similar situations – Living in the ghetto with similar house holds. “while our mothers were in a la-de-da apartment up the block having a good ole time” (Bambara 1). However, during their visit to the toy store, they all had different reactions. In the end some personalized the experience while it flew over the heads of others. It had an effect on all of them but the severity of the effect is different. For example, Sylvia and sugar. They both understand the concept, that the lesson is a contrast to how they live versus how others live in relation to their financial stance. Thereafter, sugar accepts her reality and situation. The lesson never truly got through to her, However, for Sylvia, her reality was threatened and in that moment she felt ashamed and somewhat vulnerable which she’s not used to. Those feelings urge her to change her situation instead of accepting it like sugar.
For this week our Pre-writing step is the method or process that is done before we start to write our papers . In this pre-writing assignment for essay one there are multiple steps. step one would be for us to read “The Handsomest Drowned Man” which was written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. After completing the reading then I should also look on the overview/ literary critique of this book, followed by reviewing the supporting guides such as the PowerPoint on thesis statements and the second PowerPoint on how to insert quotations into a literary essay. we were also tasked with watching a video about format illustration and we should review the citation guide. The last two steps, had advised us to read the directions for the sample student essay, and then to read the sample student essay. After I’ve completed all these steps It will help me to write a thorough, detailed paper that will meet the grading criteria and it will bring ease to the process of me actually writing the paper, which is what pre-writing is about. It will provide aid to becoming more knowledgeable about the topic/ subject of our essay. Thereafter, this knowledge will equip me to write a successful essay.
