ENGRD101.24. Spring 2022. Emory University
This was the breakdown of my learnings in this class. These are the different learning outcomes that are crucial to a successful writing career. I have broken this down in the same way a person makes tea. Milk, Tea Bags, Water, Sugar and a spoon are all very important to make a good cup of tea. Similarly all outcomes are responsible in writing a successful essay.
Tracklist:
This sketch assignment was extremely interesting to do because I generally enjoy making playlists be it for the studying mood or the shower. However, I put more thought into this playlist and the music is relatively slow. I picture someone listening to this playlist on the beach when the sun is setting or enjoying a scenic view while resting in a chair. The songs that I have included in this playlist are those which may prompt an individual to reflect on situations or their daily life in general. This playlist could also be used to study as it is currently also finals season.
This assignment was very different compared to other assignments that I have done in this class. I thought a presentation would help me express my thoughts more clearly because I tend to struggle to express my ideas while writing an essay. I chose to do my Halfa Kucha on “Stitches” and “Kindred” because I saw the process of trauma and healing through both of them. I realized that just like I structured my presentation to help my audience understand the process of trauma and then a road to recovery, I should do the same with my essays to help the reader understand my thought process. My slides were mostly focused on certain images that I wanted to highlight and things that held meaning to me. I struggled with the format of this assignment because there were some slides where I had more to talk about and some slides where I did not have enough information. I realized that time management is extremely important while presenting to an audience and being precise so that they understand the purpose of your content. Something I could have done better in my presentation is be a little more confident in my content because I ended up stuttering which disrupted the flow of the argument.
This literacy narrative project has helped me improve my writing skills and made me re-think many of my strategies regarding writing. Making a comic made me think of many ways I could improve my essay. Once I visualized my narrative I realized that I should express some of my thoughts differently. I also added some events that completed my literacy narrative such as my acceptance to Emory and how this writing course has had a small change on my writing abilities. Looking back at my initial literacy narrative I can see that there was a lot to improve on and a lot of things that I could do better. My thinking process regarding this narrative was very different and I think what helped me was drawing it in the form of a comic.
This was my first time drawing a comic and I really enjoyed myself. This assignment allowed me to use visual representation to show ideas that I had in my head. I also realized the different aspects that there are to making comics compared to writing essays. I used the gutters to my advantage by explaining the storyline so that the audience could interact with the comic. I really enjoyed doing this assignment and I am looking forward to creating other comics in the future. It made it easier to express my thoughts and ideas when I could present them visually. I was initially very skeptical of this process because I am not a good artist but I discovered that I could portray my story using stick figures as well.
This assignment was really interesting because it made me measure things that I usually do not keep track of. My apple watch is in charge of keeping track of things like the hours I slept or how many steps I took today or how long I worked out. However this assignment took into account things like how happy I felt, or if I fulfilled my religious duties or if I was feeling content with myself. Everyday I used to look back at the information think “Oh I wasn’t as productive as I meant to be”. Another thing I realized was that my productivity was directly related to my happiness on somedays. Days where I was more productive I felt more content and happy with myself. One shocking thing that I realized was that I am not happy all of the time. In my head this was something that I never really needed to think of because it is just an emotion. However, looking back at this data I can see that there are moments in time when I haven’t been completely happy with myself. Something that I realized I have to work on is my creativity. Looking at my data set right now I believe one change I would make to my schedule is to try to be creative. I would try to do this by trying one new thing everyday. It could be trying new food or playing a new sport. This would help me branch out and may help boost my creativity. This assignment has been helpful to me as it has helped me to analyze my own character. By seeing these results I can visualize what I need to work on to help improve myself.
This assignment was a very interesting one because it made me build on the previous assignment, Triptych. I was thinking about my childhood and how as a child I always wanted to grow up and be an adult sooner. There were moments in my childhood which I took for granted and now being an adult with responsibilities I remember the “good ol days” when my only worry used to be if I was going to wake up in time to watch the Saturday morning cartoons. As a child I used to wish to grow up and now as an adult I sit and wish to go back to my childhood.
This assignment was very different from the other assignments we have done before because this had a segment regarding tracing pages. Tracing the pages in this assignment made me realize the author’s thought process while he/she was drawing it. They focused on each panel and every specific image in this comic strip. The formation of the thesis was different for me because I was very used to the thesis being straight to the point located in the beginning of the essay. I feel like I understand more about comics in general along with these specific comics because this assignment pushed me to dive deeper and focus on things below the base level. This includes focusing on the tone and images in these comics. I would say the biggest thing I have learned from this is the openness of comics and how it is up to the reader to determine the relationship between the story and the panels. The thesis of my tracing pages is found below, “Page 255 of Stitches and Page 58 of Fun Home are both very important moments in the play because they are turning points of each narrative and indicate a certain realization on the part of the protagonist but consequently the characters learn new things that they weren’t aware of in the beginning.”
This is a visual representation of things that I keep my bag. I feel like these items represent an average college student. A laptop used for work along with a notebook since I like to take notes. I keep my glasses in my bag because I tend to use them only for classes. Headphones are important to me because I listen to music constantly when I am walking on my way to class or even taking a nap. These items don’t stand out to me in any sort of way because they are regular items used by majority of the students. However I also believe that these items are of great importance because I require each of them at different parts of my day. The mask is the newest addition to my bag because I need it to go anywhere.
