honors Intermediate composition
REFLECTION/DOCUMENTATION:
For my first honors experience, I took an honors section of Intermediate English Composition (ENGL 2089H). My teacher was Professor Kristin Carlson in section 043, and was held on the second floor of McMicken Hall.
Since I had already taken both AP English Language and Composition and AP Literature and Composition, I was able to skip the freshman composition course and proceed directly to this course in the second semester of my first year. In part because of this, I was worried that the course material, even for this more advanced class, would be too similar to what I had already worked for two years to master. While I found that the skills I had acquired in my AP classes prepared me to succeed in the class, they were not repeated. Most notably was that while almost all the writing in my AP classes were timed, in-class examinations, ENGL 2089 allowed me to take my time and write extended essays. I particularly enjoyed being able to go through a complete writing process before turning in my work. I felt like it was, and is, an accurate representation of what I wanted to produce.
This experience also allowed me to write, for the first time as a mature author, on topics that interested me. The class helped me to reflect, albeit indirectly, on what I am interested and passionate about. After all, it would have been difficult to devote uncountable hours to researching, writing, and editing a paper on Star Wars if I had hated Star Wars. I think that it will be easier to stand firm in my own opinions in dance, and in life, now that I have a better idea of what they are and how to express them.
ARTIFACTS:
ESSAY 1 - MEANING BEHIND MOVEMENT
"How has your writing /reading/communication taken shape? What meaning does your literacy hold for you? What promises and/or anxieties does it present?"
I wrote this essay on how my visual literacy in dance has developed over time and how that literacy has, in turn, developed who I am as a person. Most importantly, that it has influenced the way I see and interact with the world.
ESSAY 2 - SHIFTING SANDS: THE AGING NARRATIVE OF MOSES
"Find and compare at least two documents or sources (but no more than three). They must be different genres created for a different audience. You should focus your essay on the impact of differences and/or similarities in genre, the use of specific rhetorical features, and differences in the rhetorical situation (including audience). Determine how genre and the rhetorical situation affect one another and the features of the texts; there should be comparison in addition to analysis."
This essay was written as a critical comparison of the DreamWorks Animated movie The Prince of Egypt and the Biblical, Old Testament story of Moses. It allowed me to analyze a movie I love in depth and present it to others.
ESSAY 3 - STAR WARS: A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH
"Research, analyze, and present the rhetorical and literacy practices of a particular discourse community (social group). You should draw upon all that you have learned this term in order to seek a full, complex, and diverse representation of sources primarily by, but also about the discourse community of your choice."
For this final essay, I chose the fans of Star Wars as my discourse community. Funnily enough, in the process of conducting my research, I joined the fandom myself.
For my first honors experience, I took an honors section of Intermediate English Composition (ENGL 2089H). My teacher was Professor Kristin Carlson in section 043, and was held on the second floor of McMicken Hall.
Since I had already taken both AP English Language and Composition and AP Literature and Composition, I was able to skip the freshman composition course and proceed directly to this course in the second semester of my first year. In part because of this, I was worried that the course material, even for this more advanced class, would be too similar to what I had already worked for two years to master. While I found that the skills I had acquired in my AP classes prepared me to succeed in the class, they were not repeated. Most notably was that while almost all the writing in my AP classes were timed, in-class examinations, ENGL 2089 allowed me to take my time and write extended essays. I particularly enjoyed being able to go through a complete writing process before turning in my work. I felt like it was, and is, an accurate representation of what I wanted to produce.
This experience also allowed me to write, for the first time as a mature author, on topics that interested me. The class helped me to reflect, albeit indirectly, on what I am interested and passionate about. After all, it would have been difficult to devote uncountable hours to researching, writing, and editing a paper on Star Wars if I had hated Star Wars. I think that it will be easier to stand firm in my own opinions in dance, and in life, now that I have a better idea of what they are and how to express them.
ARTIFACTS:
ESSAY 1 - MEANING BEHIND MOVEMENT
"How has your writing /reading/communication taken shape? What meaning does your literacy hold for you? What promises and/or anxieties does it present?"
I wrote this essay on how my visual literacy in dance has developed over time and how that literacy has, in turn, developed who I am as a person. Most importantly, that it has influenced the way I see and interact with the world.
ESSAY 2 - SHIFTING SANDS: THE AGING NARRATIVE OF MOSES
"Find and compare at least two documents or sources (but no more than three). They must be different genres created for a different audience. You should focus your essay on the impact of differences and/or similarities in genre, the use of specific rhetorical features, and differences in the rhetorical situation (including audience). Determine how genre and the rhetorical situation affect one another and the features of the texts; there should be comparison in addition to analysis."
This essay was written as a critical comparison of the DreamWorks Animated movie The Prince of Egypt and the Biblical, Old Testament story of Moses. It allowed me to analyze a movie I love in depth and present it to others.
ESSAY 3 - STAR WARS: A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH
"Research, analyze, and present the rhetorical and literacy practices of a particular discourse community (social group). You should draw upon all that you have learned this term in order to seek a full, complex, and diverse representation of sources primarily by, but also about the discourse community of your choice."
For this final essay, I chose the fans of Star Wars as my discourse community. Funnily enough, in the process of conducting my research, I joined the fandom myself.