Goodbye Spring Semester, Hello New Ideas!
Normally, at the end of every semester, the only reason why I compile all of my work is to study the material for the cumulative review. I’ve never done something like this, reviewing old material to track progress not for the sake of being tested on it, but to see what my progress was like, is new. It’s invigorating and a tangible proof that the more you write, the better you become.
Like the beginning of this post, all of my posts start with a broad paragraph to ease the reader (and myself, as the writer) into the bulk of the content. I don’t know why, but diving right into what I want to talk about intimidates me. I really do this more for myself than for my readers, but its a habit worth working on. I just didn’t know how similar all of my posts started until I reread them all.
Another theme that I stuck to this semester without realizing it was centering my work around women. In the Tracing Post, Impersonation Post, Conversation Post, Roundtable, and Multimedia post, I wrote them about women, exclusively. Maybe its because I am a woman, but its a noticeable trend. An aspect about our culture that often gets under my skin is how women are scrutinized in media. The tracing post, still my favorite post by far, allowed me to write about two women, in love, making love, in the absence of men. There was so much printed across the pages I traced, its a project that I can foresee myself recreating in the future should I ever find myself studying another comic, or even a work of art.
What was so valuable about this lesson, of looking closer at an image and taking in the entire story it tells, was that now that I’ve learned how to look at something closely, it feels wrong to look at it any other way. Yes, its important to step back and take in the entire picture, the overarching theme, the main message. But now that I can say I spent an hour tracing over one page in a comic book, I can also say that I forgot how to read passively. If my perspectives have changed at all during this semester, it was because of the tracing post. I wasn’t necessarily looking for this kind of revelation, but I’m certainly not complaining.
It’s also because of this attention to detail that my posts became more lively (or, at least, I hope they became more lively). I totally thought that the idea of “paperese” was silly, but its a real thing. I grew up with the standard, five paragraph way of writing. The “intro, body, conclusion” hum drum that, no matter the subject, always reads the same. Throughout the semester, I found my voice, and learned how to tweak it to deliver whatever message I was trying to get across. I can’t contribute all of this to the tracing project, however, because our class discussions everyday were increasingly insightful and honest.
I know I can only speak for myself, but my posts were always fueled by the intensity of our class discussions. The depth that we covered our material in always proved to give me a lot to think about when writing.
Overall, as I became more comfortable in the class and as a writer, my blog posts got longer but covered more specific information. If I compare my Impersonation Post to the Roundtable Post, my writing style remained virtually unchanged, but the way in which I covered my topics shifted. In the latter, I talked about one subject (violence) and used multiple examples to back up my one, overarching topic. In the former, I went from aspect to aspect, not tying them together as well. I’m happy that I learned to deliver an argument in a more cohesive fashion and use evidence to my advantage.
Overall, I learned a lot from this class, and feel like I’m walking away a more creative thinker. 🙂 Though it wasn’t always a walk in the park, the way I had to tackle projects in this class made me a more versatile writer, which is definitely a benefit!
Citation
Churchill, Suzanne. “Class Lecture.” In person.
