reflection

This has been a long semester for me, and one of the hardest times in my life. I have been through a lot, learned a lot, and grown a lot. I have veered away from seclusion and a controlling relationship, and learned to be happy with myself. My writing has changed with me. Personality is reflected through writing, and my personality has changed so rapidly that it can actually be seen through out the semester of English 1020.

At first my pieces were about a game, a game I wasted months on because it was what my ex-boyfriend liked. My writing was styled articulately, rigid, and slightly formal. My writing followed the criteria to a tee, so to speak, and was written in a very textbook manner. Looking back on the piece I can see how absorbed into it I really was, but not for me, I wanted to be the best so that my ex-boyfriend would respect me. “Mass messaging also allows leaders to post attack targets for dominant enemy accounts so that members with accounts in range of the targets can assist in diminishing those accounts with assassinations and attacks, thus weakening enemy forces and helping the alliance reign supreme. Think about it, don’t we all have the internal desire to reign supreme?” Looking back on this I almost have to laugh at myself. “Don’t we all have the internal desire to reign supreme?” more like external desire. These writings were motivated not from myself, but from my ex.

After that, my writing lost most of its personality. Kiwi was analyzed through my knowledge of graphic design and film literature and composition. “…the clip doesn’t terminate all curiosity of the viewer with the medium shot, by not utilizing an establishing shot… the clip also uses a sufficient amount of anticipatory setups…” The writing is dry. Unemotional, and impersonal.

My work about Market Street Station I enjoyed quite a bit. Its not exactly the writing I enjoyed though. It was having the chance to sit back and relax and just watch people, and observe. This is something I would not have taken the opportunity to do on my own, and to my surprise it was rather relaxing. Since I truly did go and observe, where as some others clearly didn’t, I had some pretty descriptive observations. “…None of [the] people notice the janitor mopping around the slabs, using muddy water, and making the grimy situation of the floor worse, rather than improving it. She drags the mud across the tiles sloppily and in an unsystematic pattern adding a layer of dirt on top of the hundreds of layers previously set… one young boy stands nose pressed against the glass of the doors creating a tiny ring of fog that ungulates simultaneously with his breath… the lady is one of those readers who move their lips to form the words they are scanning the pages in their book, as if to sound them out.”

Following this piece is a story a tale of the most influential moment in my life, or rather in my death. This was the most difficult piece I have ever produced. It was a time in my life that for once I truly opened my eyes. I didn’t get the greatest grade however, for my writing was a narrative, which is not what was assigned. For this assignment however I didn’t care about the grade, I wanted to share my story, my experiences and revelations to the world. “Life is fragile. Life is something that people take for granted each and every day. Everyone has heard this before, myself included, and yet no one really thinks that they are personally like this. The only way for the importance of something to become apparent is for the loss of it to threaten you. I have learned the value of life the hardest way possible, not through the loss of a loved one, a pet, or a family member, but through the death and rebirth of myself.” This is my favorite quote from all of my writing, it is the most personal and thought out piece of any of my writings for the semester, in my opinion.

Another piece I didn’t get such a good grade on, I assume, is my piece about the Enigma of William Tell. I put a lot of thought into this one, and I mean a few hours before even beginning to write. It Is very insightful. “Sexuality and death may appear an irrational pairing, they did to me before I studied Dali’s paintings, however when given thought, these two concepts go perfectly hand in hand, a match made in heaven, or rather in hell.” I think that this analysis is done very well, however I had a bit of a family emergency and didn’t have time to add in my sources cited, and the rhetorical terms throughout my writing, so I know my grade isn’t to great. This paper though would have been impossible to write though if I hadn’t experienced the tough times in a relationship.

Overall, throughout my semester I have learned to be more personal in my writing, and in life as well. I have learned the meaning of rhetoric, for the most part, of which I previously knew nothing about. I have grown quite a bit in my writing abilities, but I still need to perfect the art of following criteria, that would be my biggest weakness.