Category: McCoy Fall 2018

Throughout this semester, I have learned to read and write at a more critical level. This class has helped me grow in the sense that I’m content with the development of my voice in my writings and that I’m more comfortable with being in a literary space. I used to have self-doubt about trying to attempt higher levels of English courses for the sole purpose of not knowing if I’d be a good writer or not. Now that I’ve managed to make it through this class, I feel like I can better navigate how I choose to present my ideas through literature.

Before I advocate for enrolling into English courses in college, I need to unpack the previous fears I had for fitting in, so to speak. In high school, I felt like grades defined my level of intellect. I would work hard to make sure I read through every assignment before its deadline. From my hard work, I’d end up with nothing short of A’s on my papers. However, these positive reinforcements throughout my high school career set me up for failure. When I was in AP Language and AP Literature my junior and senior years in high school, respectively, I took the required exam in hopes of scoring college credit. What I didn’t realize at the time was that my writing style didn’t grow that much, and I wasn’t ready to receive a passing score on college exams yet. I failed both of my chances of getting AP credits that I believed would’ve benefited me in college. After I received those results, I vowed to myself that I’d never enroll in another college-level English course ever again. Continue reading “Criticism is the New Compliment”

As unorthodox as this sounds I believe the best writing comes out of a person is when they’re under pressure. Although honestly, that may just be a result of me continuously finding myself in situations writing with the pressure of a deadline edging closer as a result of my own procrastination, drawing me to near to many mental breakdowns. But before I abject myself to all personal blame, I have to acknowledge that I have repeatedly tried to write before I reach this point on multiple assignments but I’m always displeased with the result and from my view it always feels tasteless on the page. Nonetheless, after completing a full piece that feeling afterwards, that complete absence of the creativity and vitality, that you just held so firmly in your grasp is the telltale sign of a great piece of writing. Writing is an act that should feeds imagination: forcing the user to become reliant to the point when after completion one’s energy is ebbing from their body. I also believe that all writing should teach the reader something: whether it be about a scientific breakthrough, more about the author themself or just sharing a new point of view the reader should leave with some new knowledge imparted upon them. That’s one new skill that writing in English 203 has added to my arsenal: the constant awareness of the world around me. As I looked for inspiration for my blog posts I unconsciously became addicted to observing events around me, juxtaposing them against what was discussed or read for class and finding the connections within them.
My first blog post, “Do we attribute too much to science? was the first glimpse of me actively attempting to draw a connection but is most notably characterized by the lack of cohesivity in the post. In “Do we attribute too much to science” a small comment was made during our classroom discussion which echoed the sentiments of a podcast “The Brilliant Idiots” that I had listened to the same week. Immediately I was filled with excitement for I believed I had my first idea for a blog post but, I had trouble expressing it through writing and it was left as a draft for months, left to fester in my blog bank for months. This is what I believe to be a huge factor for the lack of flow within the post because after revisiting the post the conversation nor the podcast was fresh in my mind, so I was left trying to describe a conversation that happened months ago. This resulted in the post being scrambled, garbled and leaving much to be desired.
My second blog post, Page Poerty marks when I began using the blog for it’s actual purpose and began reading the work of my classmates. This same exchange of ideas influenced the creation of other posts like “Chicago, One, and Two.” This is when I began to view my classmates in a different light , genuinely starting understand the types of writers my classmates were and to be completely honest I was pleasantly surprised. I never expected a blog to be filled with so many varying thoughts, opinions and responses to life itself. I was taught about literary techniques, myths, cultures and responses that idea doubt I would’ve encountered on my own accord. Beyond Dr. Beth McCoy’s instruction inside of the classroom class, the students’ discussions in class and the posts outside of it gave me an equal exposure to challenging minds and thought-provoking ideas.
Within the post “Language in Zulus” I spoke about the stress of language in the piece Zulus, an excerpt from Percival Everett’s book “re:f gesture.” Since I studied four years of Latin within high school I could immediately recognize and roughly translate (I’m a little rusty) some the the Latin that he implemented within the piece which led me to seek translations for the other languages that he Everett used which gave Zulus a completely new meaning. I was enthralled by this skills as it seemed to be an interesting method of discreetly placing hints for the reader to give them more glimpses into the world that the writer creates. I even tried to implement this in my posts “One” and “Two” by putting the numbers for the journal entries in Wingdings, hoping that they would be perceived as hieroglyphs and add to the tone of the piece.
For my paper comparing the “Bacchae” and “Frenzy” I spoke about a phenomenon that I self- coined the immortal quandray that I wanted to share with the class so I decided to write a blog post about it. The immortal quandary deals with the transition that gods seem to go through after coming into contact with humans that is characterized by their increased levels of empathy and understanding for their “puny mortals.” As a child I always loved getting myths read to me and as soon as I reached the age where I could take the reigns myself, my own family couldn’t see my eyes unless they peered over a book of Greek Myths. This obsession continued into adolescence and early teen years with Rick Riordan releasing the renowned Percy Jackson and the Olympians series which still holds a special place in my heart. So once I saw the name Dionysus on the first page of the Bacchae I allowed my confidence to get the best of me and already began trying to decipher the book and draw conclusions based on the attitudes and actions that Dionysus exhibited in other myths that I read about him. However I was thrust into a story that completely defied my expectations, paired alongside “Frenzy” I physically could see the duality of the two interpretations of Dionysus on the pages and see the events leading up that left him with such contrasting personalities. Then it dawned on me, and all the myths that had retreated to the dark recesses of my mind and I saw the common thread of the immortal quandary within all of them. Two books that were just supposed to be read as assigned reading made me brought me to one of the few, honest and notable “Eureka!” moments that I had in my entire life.
My final blog post, a piece that was my personal favorite “Conversation with an Ex-McCoyian” was such a random, event but also has the most significance to me. The fact that I “just happened” to meet a man who was in graduate school, pursuing the career that I would dream of having, and an ex-student of the professor’s literally a day before the final blog post was due felt like some immaculate form of divine intervention. Although our conversation was short it was thrilling to see the connections that writing can bring between people outside of just words on a page.
Beyond the blog posts, this class introduced me to Sidney Poitier, a man whom I had never ever heard of before this class, in the space of four months changed to become one of my most prominent literary heroes. This is what the true essence of writing is, creating a world that is so thought-provoking, so enticing that the reader has to do more research of their own, lest they be haunted by that unknown knowledge. This blogging assignment allowed me to recognize the faults in my own writing from the outside-in a learn from my mistakes as time went on. The class itself has taught me that the best writing comes from a genuine place within oneself. When I started having writer’s block I started just writing about myself and eventually I would naturally fall back into the rhythm of writing. This class has taught me about the traits of epistemophilics, the complexities of Not Sidney and the layers of Dionysus’ character but most important thing that this class taught me was persistence.

Critics receive such a bad reputation, for the fact that no one really wants to hear a bad review, however, how will we know if the pizza place nearby might give you the stomach flu or the workers do not wash their hands? If this was in the early 1900s, how would they know if their ground beef contained rat and human flesh? Continue reading “A Critic’s Jungle”

Transitioning from high school to college is the initial step every college freshman must face. First-year college students all start with high self esteem. Many students with high expectations for themselves, but for most, their experiences do not match up with what they initially intended. As a student you must realize that college is much different than high school and you are going to be faced with a variety of new challenges that you have not experienced before. This occurred to me when I was placed within my first college English course, English 203. I had new faces, names, and words being thrown at me all at once. The challenge I faced was I had never done anything like what was being expected, and yet I had to face these tasks and get them done in a timely manner. As students you must not shy away from the challenges being presented. By experiencing the difficulties that trouble you and changing your way of thinking, allows you to grow as a reader, writer, and thinker.

Continue reading “Challenges Create Growth”

Isn’t it funny how we learn through the process of listening- listening to others. The people we listen to can be scholars, professors, friends- anyone. The fact is, we rely on someone else’s knowledge to develop our own. Where we find this knowledge though is often debated, but it is up to the person themselves. Discoveries can come from anywhere, but it is our mission as students to find the why. We ask the question, “Why is this discovery necessary, and what does it do to help me?”.  As students, our job is to  fine tune our knowledge and implement it in a way that is necessary to our own and others learning processes. We are constantly learning everyday, especially within an academic setting. As long as we gain knowledge from reliable sources, we will make new discoveries. English 203 has taught me that sometimes I need to be dependent on the knowledge of others in order to grow as a student.

The process of listening is important everywhere, but in English 203 I especially found it vital within class discussion and group work. Every single class we counted off in numbers to find our assigned group for that day. In the beginning of the school year, I did not even know what this group work setting would begin to reveal to me. I got to interact with my classmates in a hands on setting, but what I didn’t know is that their perspectives on topics would help me in the long run. I found that through my classmates I was able to understand the readings more, I found new blog post topics, and they even helped to proofread and give me ideas for my papers. Their understanding of a variety of topics  perpetuated new interpretations for me. They often made me think in a way I would not have thought before, forcing me to grow as a learner. It was interesting to see how five people could read the same passage, but come to  100 different conclusions as to what that passage meant. If I had not been introduced to what my classmates thought it meant, I would be convinced that only my way was correct. Through the process of relying on their knowledge, I was guided to break the boundary I had created for myself. Ultimately, I became more open minded as a learner and this helped me to  find new things. Continue reading “Referencing Others To Complete Me (ENG 203 Reflection)”

These blog posts were a beneficial tool to help us practice criticism in regard to the materials we read in class. Through this practice I was able to identify some of the things that were holding me back from growth and get to know myself better as a writer, reader, and thinker.

The time period between my first blog post and my second was rather large, and during this absence of blogging I spent time with the readings we looked at in class. As I said in my second blog post, “Reading and forming various interpretations is a way to get you thinkING, and writing does this too. Just by writing this post I was able to start thinking about things that I normally wouldn’t bother to think about.” It’s just as Dr. McCoy said to me in her feedback on my rough draft of my Frenzy essay, “actual thinkING doesn’t really happen until the actual writing.” So, while I was still practicing criticism in this time period between my posts, it was not able to reach its full potential. When interpretations are trapped inside one’s head it’s hard for them to grow into something more meaningful and multifaceted. If you spend time writing about them it presents the opportunity for them to branch out into a myriad of paths to be explored, and the only way to explore them is to keep writing.  This is definitely something I’ve been guilty of in the past and still struggle with now—I’ve always been very open to hearing what other people have to say, but it’s hard for me to share my own thoughts. It’s much easier to sit back and listen to others and absorb what others have to say. These blog posts have forced me to get over this seeing as the whole point of them is for us to share our own interpretations and respond to  peer’s interpretations. After taking this course in which we spent the majority of it responding to one another through blog posts, I now realize that my previous tendencies to keep my ideas to myself was actually quite selfish. Much of my own interpretations this past semester were inspired by things my peers had said or written, and in keeping my thoughts to myself I was denying my peers the chance for inspiration. I was wrong to think that sharing my interpretations would not benefit anyone—and I believe this mindset was one of the things holding me back from growth, and it explains why there was such a long gap between my first and second post.

Continue reading “Criticism as a Doorway”

Feeling behind can be discouraging, but that is how I felt in the beginning of the semester. Transferring into the English major as a junior, and missing the first class did not help. I knew that I liked writing, but I also knew that there have been professors who don’t like my writing style. When the blog post project came up in discussion, I was nervous because of how public my writing would have to be. My confidence in sharing my work and ideas to other students in my class was low, and the thought of posting it online was almost unsettling. I was worried that my ideas wouldn’t be strong enough, my thinking would not be clear enough, and that my writing over all would not be good enough. In the beginning of the semester, I was stuck in a fixed mindset with low confidence, and struggled to see how I would be able to grow.

Continue reading “Reflection.”

To wrap up this semester, our class was asked to tell a story about our experience with criticism. Specifically if we had formed any questions, discovered any answers, and whether we will bring what we did learn into our future. Initially I found this prompt daunting, primarily because this class has altered my outlook on learning so much. However, I ended up honing in on one trait that I saw affect both my personal and academic life.

Continue reading “ENG 203 Final: Would You Like to Share With the Class?”

Throughout high school, much of my time in English class was consumed through the practice of “timed writing” assignments. The practice, to which, appeared unrealistic to compose a well-written essay. Moreover, these “timed writing” assignments, ironically, provided no “time” for narrowing down the abundance of thoughts that consumed my mind. As I transitioned from a high school English class to a college English class, I found myself amazed by the amount of knowledge we shared with one another. I walked out of every class with my head in a swirl of thoughts due to our group discussions. Shortly thereafter, I came to the realization that I lacked the ability of narrowing down these thoughts and ideas that consumed my mind. I began to notice that I had a difficulty in deciding what to write, and how to write, a blog post or an essay that incorporated all of it. As the semester began to dwindle down, I learned that the skill of “narrowing it down” is an important practice that only develops as one grows and advances in their writing skills. Continue reading “Narrowing It Down: An Abundance of Thoughts”

This course was my first college class ever — the first classroom I stepped into on my first Monday as a first year college student. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, and I was both nervous and excited about the fact that it was a class in my major. One thing I was immediately surprised by was the way that we began the class — with a meme. Even though it seemed a bit absurd as it seemed at first, as we began to unpack, the idea that something so directly embedded into my everyday life, something so seemingly unrelated to school, could be the initial introduction to a 200-level English course in college was refreshing to me. Throughout the semester, I would come to discover just how connected the real world, my life experiences, and my own thoughts were to the difficult, challenging and stimulating academic work I was beginning as a college student.

As we began the semester, I found the course engaging immediately because the conversations we were having sparked an abundance of thoughts in my head. The blog post assignment felt like a way to get my feet wet sharing these ideas and finding validation in the feedback I was receiving, as well as learning how to strengthen my voice and the way I articulated them. However, there was an overwhelming amount of ideas swirling around in my head when I thought about the vast amount of topics these posts could cover. This can be proven by the fact that Dr. McCoy’s feedback on my first post (in all caps) was to “SLOW DOWN”. I had so many ideas, and I had no idea how to make sense of them. This was real stuff, and it excited me more than I could have ever imagined to be exploring concepts like these within a course at school.  Continue reading “Real World Stuff”