The Secret Language of Comics

Month: March 2022

Tracing Pages Reflection

Student Posts

My thesis in my essay was that David Small and Alison Bechdel use repetitive images and choice of frame strategically to aid their storytelling, but while these tools allow Bechdel’s illustrations to better support her written narrative, they allow Small to let his illustrations stand alone, therefore making audience participation more straightforward in Stitches and broader in Fun Home. In my essay, I argue that Small and Bechdel utilized similar rhetorical devices in the creation of their respective pages, but because of the difference in their use of language, the results of these devices created very different experiences for the reader.

When completing the tracing pages assignment, the first steps of actually tracing and annotating the pages were very useful when completing my analysis. I usually don’t know where to begin or what to focus on when annotating documents, so I found your directions very helpful because I was able to systematically go through each rhetorical tool or method and determine where and how it was being used on my selected page. Something I did that really helped me to compare the two authors’ pages was including a list of what I thought the top three most important/relevant clarity terms were for each page. For Stitches specifically, the act of tracing the page made me really pay attention to David Small’s linework, which made me think about why he chose to include the details he did. 

The essay part of this assignment was really hard for me because I am not used to writing inductive essays. I had a lot of ideas from annotating the tracings, but the amount of evidence overwhelmed me because I couldn’t figure out how to neatly organize it all. I ended up typing out all of my annotations and sorting them into broad categories on a google document. From there I drafted an argument based on the patterns I saw and started to piece together my essay. I had to rewrite/rearrange my paragraphs a lot more often than I usually do when writing essays because I would forget to write them in an inductive format. Overall, the hardest part about this essay was coming up with an ABT thesis in the last paragraph. 

I think this assignment did help me understand the secret language of comics a lot better. After close reading the pages it became very obvious to me how conscious every decision is in the creation of a single page, not to mention a whole book. I definitely have a better understanding of the themes of both Stitches and Fun Home after completing this assignment. It was also very interesting to see how similar the comics are to each other. Individually, something about Fun Home that clicked for me while completing this assignment was that Alison Bechdel was comparing herself to her father throughout the comic. Also in Stitches, I noticed that facial expressions have a huge impact on the mood of Stitches.

Healthy Habits?

Student Posts

The problem I wanted to tackle with this project was the effect five fairly mundane lifestyle habits had on my general happiness. I admittedly selected a unique set of days to track data as I spent 03/11 and 03/12 in London with some of my friends on spring break, 03/13 in an airplane flying back to Atlanta, and 03/14 and 03/15 doing an ungodly amount of school work. I imagine if I were to repeat this process over seven ordinary days, my findings might be slightly different.

I found that a good night’s sleep generally added to my happiness. However, extraordinary circumstances might have overruled the effect sleep had on my well-being over those days. However, my eating patterns certainly had a noticeable relationship with my happiness. I found that three meal days contributed to me being relatively happy. Although the days I ate three meals pales in comparison to the previous days, my ability to maintain a healthy eating schedule made those days better than they could have been. I found that typically when I was eating four meals, it was because I had not eaten three complete meals earlier in the day and became ravenously hungry, resulting in a second dinner of sorts.

I did not drink out of my water bottle as much I had expected to while I was in London, partially due to my access to other fluids but also partly due to neglect. I found that I typically drank more when I was isolated in my room with my water bottle being my exclusive source of fluids. In this sense, I don’t think that metric as I measured it was very effective. I do, however, believe that there is some correlation between my general hydration and my happiness levels. The same can be said for the time I spent exercising. Although I spent a lot of time on my feet whilst in London, I suspect I would have been equally as happy viewing the city while on the top of a guided tour bus. Being somewhere exciting contributed to my happiness more than my physical activity.

Sketch 8: Data viz from everyday life

Reflection of Literacy Narrative Part 3

Student Posts

The literacy Narrative process allowed me to explore and grow in the revision and editing process, compose texts in different genres and styles, and collaborate with individuals in the classroom.

I did not particularly like going back to my abc literacy narrative just because I realize how basic and “flat” it was. I generally do not like revisiting old work of mine but doing so allowed me to make the necessary changes to really put it over the top and connect the main idea which, before, did not have an effective bridge.

I see my story as more complete and understandable. Before, only I would have really understood what the essay was trying to convey, however, it was not as clear to others. Now it bridges the gap in logic and is more coherent to other readers.

Writing So. Revised

Student Posts

My return to my alphabetic literacy narrative proved to be challenging. I am coming off a reasonably tricky month in terms of workload and general wellbeing. I think I was beginning to hit a wall as I started to think about how to meaningfully revise So., making the writing process cumbersome. That said, I do believe I took strides in the right direction by framing my narrative to give an answer the big so what? Still, I think it is unrefined and far from perfect.

I derived my idea to make my fifth-grade experience with Ms. Mannering the centerpiece of my alphabetical narrative from my comic. This is an excellent example of how interacting with a visual medium like comics enriched my ability to reason with traditional text. I don’t think I would have generated that idea if it weren’t for my time considering my narrative visually. However, I slightly altered the story’s focus from finding Heaney’s Beowulf in a bookstore to my experience with his poem Digging. My comic directly inspired me to incorporate a poem’s content and themes into my alphabetical story, similar to the way I intertwined the text of Ozymandian into the comic version.

So.

Reflection-literacy narrative 3

Student Posts

In the final version of my literary narrative, I wrote a new beginning and ending, and added a few details throughout my narrative. The process of drawing the comics made me realize the importance of details, be it examples that support my argument or descriptions of a particular emotion or realization, since they are the key factors to make a story interesting and convincing. Therefore, I added more details about the content of the dairies and stories I mentioned in my essay, hoping that they would make my narration to be more comprehensible and relatable.

However, the changes I made to the beginning and the ending of my final narrative are drastically different from the ones I had in the comics, as I felt that the same narrative would be less ineffective if it was presented through text instead of visuals, especially colors. For me, the visual medium allows me to establish a certain ambiance and incorporate cues more implicitly and effortlessly, while in a text narrative, I might have to spend a lengthy paragraph to achieve the same effect. However, the combination of text and self-created visuals was to me indeed the most powerful presentation of my idea. The visuals give me the opportunity to influence the amount of time readers spent on each part, thus allowing me to highlight certain parts of the story.

Colored Glass

Reflection on Post Narrative, Part 3

Student Posts
  • How has the entire literacy narrative project helped you to meet the Learning Outcomes for this class
  • How was it to return to the alphabetic literacy narrative after having created your comic? How did you think differently after having worked in the visual medium and now returning to a text narrative?
  • How do you see the story you are trying to tell in different terms now? Was your analytical thinking process any different?

This entire literacy narrative project has helped me meet the following learning outcomes for this class: Practice writing as a process, recursively implementing strategies of research, drafting, revision, editing, and reflection; Demonstrate collaborative skills in classroom discussion and while working together on projects and presentations; Use technology rhetorically and appropriately, and engage responsibly in online spaces. I was able to practice writing as a process through the creation of the essay, its multiple revisions and edits, and reflections of said revisions and edits through the reflection posts. I was also able to demonstrate collaborative skills in classroom discussion by peer-reviewing other people’s comic strips and giving constructive advice on how they could better the construction of the storyline. Lastly, through the continuous upload of our work to our WordPress website, I am able to use technology appropriately and responsibly in online spaces.

Lady Luck

Student Posts

I found creating my quadriptych comic much easier than creating the triptych comic because having an additional comic square allowed me to tell a better story. Initially, I wanted to make a funny or clever comic, like the examples in the sketch 7 assignment post, but after brainstorming for a bit no ideas really worked out, so I did something more in my comfort zone and made a darker comic. I decided to compose the comic with the first 3 panels zooming out a little bit at a time until the third panel showed the full picture, and the fourth was the conclusion. My intended goal was to create a plot twist within the 4 frames to make a dark comic with a misleading beginning. I made the first two panels about the luck of ladybugs, in order to mislead the reader and make them believe that something lucky may happen, and then made the last 2 panels showcase the result of ignoring the sign of a lucky ladybug. This assignment, though not as challenging as the triptych comic, was still challenging for similar reasons: it’s hard to tell a complete story in so few panels. Having the middle act stretch across two panels rather than one made it much easier to include important details in my story, therefore allowing me to make the story more complex than the triptych comic because the additional panel allowed me to better build-up to the plot twist.

Refection on My New and Improved Essay

Student Posts

After completing the comic I created, I was able to have an idea on how I wanted to shape this essay. I was able to reflect upon my previous essay and note what was well and what could have been improved. I was able to make some aspects of the essay more concise all while interpolating the key points I am trying to showcase.

After creating the comic, the essay did not include any other details that were present in the comic. My intentions on this new essay was to make it more serious and include details I wasn’t able to include in the comic, which I felt was great.

I saw the story I had originally and just add onto it. Eliminating details that appeared to be redundant or concision were integral parts in refurbishing this essay. My analytical process was different in my opinion, mostly because I was thinking “can this sentence proof it’s significance” rather than writing things down and not really thinking much of it. Writing this new essay helped me look at a different perspective, which I find great !

If you want to read the new essay, the link will be provided underneath ! I hope y’all enjoy it !

Revision On My Narrative On Reading and Writing

Backpack Bundle

Student Posts

Yellow notebook: A graph paper notebook for my calc class (one of my favorite classes to take notes for because my teacher writes everything out so I have time to write notes in the margins. Also I just love graph paper.)
Open notebook: My biology notebook (the cover is green because last semester’s was blue). This is another favorite class to take notes in because there is an abundance of diagrams in biology.
White notebook: Arabic notebook. The class is dreadful (painfully difficult in my professional opinion) and the innocence of this notebook doesn’t do it justice.
Umbrella: Rain is not my friend (especially when partnered with Georgia heat)
Backpack (center): It’s much smaller than it looks and I’ve been telling myself to buy a new one for the entire school year. We’ll see if she lasts the summer.
Germ-ex: A necessity during a global pandemic
Pencil pouch: I love writing utensils so, of course, I carry an arsenal with me at all times
Open planner: My 2021-22 academic planner flipped to the last page I ever used a highlighter on. The highlighting was supposed to help me improve my time management by organizing when I was going to do each assignment, but all the colors overwhelmed me more than the long to-do list initially did
Decomposition notebook: I was enticed by the cover which has a deep diver doing acrobatic stretches
Tablet charger: My tablet can’t hold a charge to save its life
Headphones: I still use wires despite their inconvenience
Phone charger: I like to be prepared
Gloves: My hands are the first to freeze on cold days
Glasses: I rarely wear my glasses (I don’t own contacts instead I just choose to live in a blurry world) though I do like the style
Glasses case: The permanent home of my glasses and the same case I’ve been using since 9th grade when I realized its abnormal to not be able to see the board
Hair ties: just in case
Chapstick: Dry lips are very distracting
Money: I didn’t know this was in there, so I am now $3 richer than before this assignment
Open notebook (bottom center): My journal for my creative writing in the garden freshman seminar. Filled with thoughts, observations, and the occasional pretty sentence
Tablet: very old and very accident-prone (especially on tiny desks that attach to the arms of chairs) and covered in stickers that really have nothing to do with me
Lanyard dorm key: the lanyard was thrifted and the dorm key has been lost one too many times
Face mask: Another pandemic necessity. This mask was made by my grandmother and mailed to me with a card that now hangs on the wall of my dorm room.

What’s in my bag – Reflection

I really liked this assignment. I think looking at the items that people carry around with them tells you a little bit about who the person is, though I’m sure many items overlap from person to person. That being said, I don’t think it gives you a full picture of the person because a lot of the items carried around with them are chosen for their functions rather than their sentimental meaning. I didn’t really change anything that was in my bag, so most of my choices were related to the arrangement of the items. I decided to make the final arrangement a square shape because it’s easier to photograph. I left some of my notebooks closed and opened others to make the image more interesting to look at (and because I love the way notes and writing looks). I didn’t find this assignment very challenging, so my biggest struggle was probably getting high enough to take the picture because I’m pretty short and I had arranged my items on a table.


I think representing yourself in a catalog of the stuff in your bag is a type of writing because you have to pick and choose what to include, arrange it in a way that is appealing to the viewer, and the image you produce will usually have a goal of some kind. These are all things that you do with words when writing. Because of this, I think creating a catalog of stuff in your bag is just another form of visual storytelling.

Revision On My Narrative On Reading and Writing

Student Posts

When I was commencing my high school career, my instructor made an announcement that we will have to write an essay at the end of the semester. The essay would consist of a book my class and I read and provided would be a series of prompts to choose from, finding certain pieces of evidence from the text, and following the three body paragraph template.

I remember hearing this announcement, and already a mixture of different emotions started to convene in my head and interpolate my mind. From the start, my feelings towards writing have been mixed: I hate writing, yet also enjoy writing my thoughts on a piece of paper. My confidence as a writer was pretty high- mostly because I would receive good grades on essays I would write throughout my middle school career.

Nonetheless, they were new components that must have been implemented when writing an essay: this included two commentaries, one interpolating the evidence and the other tying it back to your paragraph’s thesis all in a five paragraph essay. This format was relatively new to me, but didn’t hinder me from writing an essay I deemed almost perfect … that was until I received the grade.

I received a grade that I wasn’t so proud of and made me rethink my capabilities as a writer: “maybe I am not meant to be a writer” and “how could I let that happen ?” I later went on to discuss my essay with my instructor, and from there showed me ways to improve my writing, how to properly execute the commentaries, and how to flow well within an essay. 

Upon nearing the end of the second semester, my instructor announced another final essay, and it follows the same concept as the previous one. Although I was nervous when the announcement was made as I didn’t want to repeat that same thing I did last semester, I stayed persistent and implemented everything I was taught. I wrote and wrote, until I was satisfied with what I had and turnt it in. I waited and waited to see what my final score was and I can’t deny, I was nervous as heck. I mean I was thinking “what if I did terrible ?” or “you suck never write again !” I was already thinking negatively, and I couldn’t stop it, until I came to the conclusion: whatever happens happens. Once the scores were released, I was shocked, yet satisfied. “I did it for once.”

That thought stayed in my head for a while now. I for once was able to improve my craft in writing, and from there I started to write my essays well. Going into my second year of high school, I remember having a conversation about Hip Hop with my English teacher, and we talked about our favorite rappers and why paying attention to their lyrics as they were telling a story. This made me link to my prior experience of poetry, and how they too tell a story in a structured manner.

I would consistently talk to my English teacher about Hip Hop, and at times we would branch out different topics such as poetry and storytelling. After our conversation, my peaks of interest will make me want to do research on my own. I would read many poems from different poets such as Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou. On the Hip Hop aspect, I will listen to MF DOOM, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Denzel Curry, and many more rappers and how they can paint a story all while implementing intricate rhyme schemes.

Listening to them influenced me to try to write my own story and incorporate similar factors. Throughout my high school years, I would write raps of my own. At first, they would follow that AABB rhyme scheme and would just write things to write. Upon analyzing their lyrics, and learning about rhyme schemes, I started to comprehend the style of rap. I would have multi-syllable rhymes, intricate rhyme schemes all while conveying a message or thoughts I had. After high school, I stopped writing for a while- mostly because I didn’t dream about being a rapper, and even if I did, that dream was slim. Coming into Emory University, I was introduced to a friend whose name is Caleb Sharkey, and I remember one time we just hung out after lunch and we freestyle for hours and from there, he supported my rapping capabilities. Him and others made me pursue writing not for a purpose, but for fun, something I didn’t realize until after.

Another aspect of writing I found out was a way to explain certain aspects of my life. I was able to express where I come from, how my community was able to shape me to the person I am today, and other aspects. I remember enjoying writing my personal statement, and college essays as it gave me a way to express who I really am rather than basing it off numbers and statistics. Writing helped give me a sense of identity, a sense of hope. I knew whenever I was feeling down, I would turn to writing as a way to express my feelings, or express things I wasn’t able to express.

In the present day, I still incorporate writing into my day to day life. I started to write more raps whenever I have time as a way to pass time. I write two three hundred summaries every week for a class, and although it is tedious, I somewhat enjoy it- it keeps my mind working. Writing has been a passionate hobby that has grown onto me in a matter of years. Writing has allowed me to express myself through essays, emotions, and music. I am happy to say that I am glad to have discovered the wonders of writing through an essay.

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