Project Web

English is a Tough Language

I never considered myself to be a strong writer. So when I came to the realization that I would soon be starting my first real college English class I literally shook in my boots. I was afraid that I would not be at the skill level that I was expected to be at and that my teacher would pull out her/his hair in frustration when reading my papers or worst laugh at how bad my writing was. I expected college to be nothing but big lecture rooms with everyone sitting in class quietly taking notes for hours at a time.  I expected the worst from this class. I expected to sit down staring at my laptop with a blank gaze not knowing what to write or what I was supposed to write about. From the first day I was pleasantly surprised with the way my English course was designed.  In this course we took each lesson one step at a time to ensure that we understood the subject at hand to the best of our abilities. It helped me view people, situations, and objects form a perspective that I would have never thought of on my own. It also helped with my writing process it made it easier for me to get my point across thus greatly aiding my writing abilities.

The first assignment that we worked on was a poem entitled “It’s a Woman’s World” by Eavan Boland. Poetry is not my strong suit. It is very difficult for me to understand what authors are trying to convey with their metaphors and similes. When I found out that our first assignment was a poem I thought that there was no way possible that I was going to pass this class, however; I thought wrong. The first time we read the poem I had no idea what it meant but we read it over and over as a class and by ourselves. The teacher encouraged us to asked questions not only to her but our classmates as well.  We broke it down into parts making sure that we understood what each line meant. It was extremely frustrating because I would grasp what one stanza meant but not the other. In order to understand the poem more our professor Kitty Nard showed us videos comparing the song these boots are made from walking by Nancy Sinatra (link to the vidoe) and the other by Jessica Simpson (link to the vidoe), lyrics to the songs , pictures about woman and made us write letters to the speaker, author and to a family member making us explain the questions that we had, what we understood, and how we could relate to the poem. After we wrote out letters we randomly gave them to another classmate and they had to read it out loud to the entire class. When my letter was being read I wondered if it was humanly possible to die of embarrassment unfortunately for me it wasn’t. There were so many mistakes that I failed to see because I didn’t read my letter out loud to myself or to anyone else so I didn’t notice that a great deal of the sentences I wrote did not make sense. Even though I was embarrassed of my work, hearing my peers work made me understand parts of the poem that I couldn’t comprehend very well. This assignment though me to relate what we were reading to a situation that I understood, read my work out loud, and to ask as many questions as I needed.

The second progression of our class didn’t seem to get any easier. We started working on a thing called rhetoric. At first when our professor mentioned it I had no idea what it meant then she said that it to do with the way we wrote that it was ethos, logos, and pathos. I didn’t even think that those words were English! I had no idea what they meant. For our first assignment we got the opportunity to transform words into pictures. I got the lyrics to “You Lost Me” by Christina Aguilera and I painted the emotion that the song was conveying.  The song was very depressing and it was incredibly difficult for me to get my painting how I wanted it, but when I was done with it I realized that I understood what pathos mean which is making the reader feel pity or sadness.  

My Painting for You Lost Me

Our second exercise was greatly amusing. We got the chance to work in a group and make a skit appealing to persuasion, logos, ethos, and pathos. I still didn’t fully understand what logos and ethos meant so getting a chance to work in a group and have them explain to me in their own worlds helped substantially. At first I was extremely nervous about going up in front of a group of people that I didn’t know very well but I knew that I was not going to be alone and that made it much easier for me to perform. My group performed last and I liked that because I was able to learn from the other groups that performed before mine. The hardest assignment for me in this progression was “Observing Rhetoric at Work”. For this assignment we had to sit and take notes on a conversation that was being held between people and how they used rhetoric in their daily lives. This assignment was very difficult for me because I observed my family on the day that my dad informed us that he was moving to Texas to work.

My Dad Visiting for the Holidays

Even thinking back to it now makes my eyes water. When I started to write my essay I wanted to stop immediately and just observe strangers but I knew I had to let what I was feeling out so I did. I think I spent more time crying than actually writing my essay but after I wrote it the sting I felt in the pit of my gut didn’t hurt as bad as it did before. This progression helped me understand the way emotion, logic, authority, and persuasion are used in everyday conversations.  

My sister Liz and I at Union Station

I didn’t know that my English class was going to be two semesters long but I am glad that it was. In the second semester we went over a graphic novel entitled Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi it was about a little girl’s perception on the wars that were going on around her in Iran. I truly enjoyed this graphic novel because it was not what I expected it to be. Every picture meant something it showed what the words could not. It made me want to take an art class or two. After Persepolis we worked on a thing called “Project Space” which completely changed the way that I viewed my surroundings. For our ethnography I went to Union station with my sister and  it made me realize that when I go places I don’t focus on where I am at but more on the people that are there or the situations that are at hand. After we did “Project Space” I felt like I was slapped in face with a hammer suddenly it all hit. Everything that we did went together. It meshed perfectly. If I think back to all of the assignments that we did I can pick out space and rhetoric from each one. I can also do that in my everyday life now which is substantially improved my writing abilities.

Throughout the entire year I have learned so much more that I thought that I would. I realized that I am a better writer that I give myself credit for. I enjoyed my English class very much and I am happy to say that I my classmates are not just my peers but my friends as well. I don’t think that I will have another class like this again but I have learned so much from it. I became a better writer and my comprehension abilities improved as well. Now, when I am assigned an essay I don’t feel like cowering away from it but taking it by the horns with my newly found confidence in writing.

My class mates and me