Reflective Essay ~ Draft 1
Dear Kait,
I hope all is well. You have been on my mind a lot especially since I've been back to school. You were with me every step of the way from Highland Park, to Beverly Hills, to Upper Darby, and even to DCCC where I’m back at now. This semester has been crazy I have 4 classes: Math which I hate, Psycology which has been extremely boring, Biology has been pretty tough but interesting, and then there is English. Now you know how I’ve always felt about English and I have to tell you that this class and this teacher have been so different. You would love it.
Right off the bat in the first week of class we got to know our class mates by doing a pretty fun activity which included sharing secrets. This set the tone of the class for me, to know that we all shared something personal and weren't judged was extremely refreshing. We spoke about convention or what is expected (the statue quo), we were given a different outlook on the norm, to challenge convention maybe by asking why things are the way they are. An example of this was the classes perception of Humpty Dumpty. Majority of the class knew the character as an anthropomorphic egg, but an egg was never mentioned in the nursery rhyme. So why an egg? And not a vase or plate? We also talked about the meanings and difference between writing and composition. Writing being the words, thoughts, or opinions and composition being the structure or format. We learned about Weebly and began to make our very own website for our electronic portfolio. Above all I learned that because of the relaxed environment that our professor had given us by not adding extra pressure to writing this would transfer into making our work more honest and mold us into better writers.
The second week of class was packed with different activities, assignments and discussions, for both in the class and to bring home. We ended one class on a high note with a positive response to the Weebly website along side a fun strange activity. Professor Mangini had the class close their eyes and write any sounds that were heard. It was amazing how much your other your other senses are heightened when one is taken away, it made sounds that were normally difficult to hear, audible. This activity set the tone for learning about writing processes, anything on paper no matter where it comes from, or what is written, is better than a blank canvas. We read “How Can You Create Fiction When Reality Comes to Call” by Carolyn Chute, “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life” by Anne Lamott and “Zen in the Art of Writing” by Ray Bradbury. This was difficult for me. I have never been strong at reading, it takes me several times to read something before I comprehend it. What was even more difficult for me was pulling direct quotes from the texts to build a flowing conversation for my blog. The whole process was extremely time consuming, and time is something that has been very precious lately. What was a little helpful was reviewing some tips in class to better understand what you are reading and also learning about the critical reading process. I learned to break the text up into smaller sections or thoughts. To draw pictures or write a few words on each section, and to not leave a section until everything is understood. Again it was time consuming but it helped me gain a better understanding of what I was reading. We spoke about paying attention to signposts, reading the context paragraph to gain a background knowledge of what the text may be about, and reading until it feels good. Even though this has been a slightly difficult week in class for me, I am happy with what I retained from class, and I know with practice my reading comprehension will improve and with that my writing should improve as well.
One the third week we focused a lot on Creative Nonfiction. What I believe Creative Nonfiction is, is a colorful detailed collaboration of showing and telling truthful text. In class we focused on the difference between “showing” versus “telling”. To show a story would mean being a storyteller, using an extremely detailed description of individual scenes or actions, so that the reader could close their eyes and see what they had just read, just as the writer had intended. To tell a story would be statements that would move the story along from one scene to another just enough that the reader understands the background and context of the piece. We started speaking about our upcoming essay which I am extremely nervous about. We were told to begin choosing a topic. I have three topics I think I could write about one being when my son was injured and almost losing him, the second being the death of my best friend and the third being my separation from my husband. It’s just very difficult choosing which would work best. We reviewed what the structure of our essay should look like in terms of where the “telling” should go and where the “showing should go. I think the most difficult part for me will be learning how to break up each section and making sure that the “telling” portion doesn't outweigh the “showing” portion. I hope that I am correctly understanding everything that has been taught about creative writing this week so I can be sure that when I write my essay it will be correct.
On the fourth week it was been pretty enlightening we spoke more in depth about our essay, what I remember most about this week is Sabatino telling us not to defeat ourselves, not to put ourselves down before we even begin to write. This spoke to me because I tend to look at anything English related and automatically assume that I will fail at it. I feel like I have nothing to write about and even if I did I wouldn't know how to put it into text. Our teacher taught us that we all lead interesting lives and if we trust ourselves it will present itself in the intensity of our work. I learned that this Creative Nonfiction Essay is giving me a window to be creative with my truthful information. Sabatino armed us with an arsenal of tools or literary devices to assist us in writing this essay. Each text that we read in class gave us examples of how to use these Literary Devices. For example, in the article Everyone Knew I Was Gay, Except My Brother by Brian Douglas Kennedy, when he wrote "My sister-in-law was wearing clean, white Keds that had yet to be touched by the City's filth." There is both symbolism and juxtaposition used in that one sentence. Her clean, white keds symbolized the perfect, normal, untainted life he believed his brother and sister-in-law led, and the cities filth symbolized his perception that his lifestyle and sexual orientation were dirty or wrong. We also read a chapter from a memoir called My Name Is Margaret by Maya Angelou. I thought she used foreshadowing by mentioning that the help used the back door a couple times so they are not to be seen and at the end Margaret holds open the front door for everyone to see Mrs. Cullinan is hysterics.Also, Mrs. Cullinan's china that Margaret had broken may have symbolized generations of Cullinan family wealth and power.
On the fifth week things were more difficult for me we discussed the difference between Truth and truths. Truth with a capital T is something that is received its monoliths and cannot be questioned and truths are constructed and subjective, truths acknowledge bias. This was difficult for me to understand especially when asked what my truths were.
This week I also wrote the introduction to my Creative Nonfiction Essay after reading 6 Ways to be a Hemingway-Level Productive Badass. After the reading I realized that everyone has different methods to writing. After our very first day of class and reviewing the syllabus I tried to brainstorm ideas that I could write about even though I didn't know the guidelines. Once I knew we had to write about something within the last month I went to good old fashioned paper and pencil and again started brainstorming topics that I could write about. I found a topic that I felt I would have enough action to write about then went to my laptop and just started typing anything I could possibly think about that specific topic. After the explosion of words on my laptop was complete, I reviewed everything that was there and picked out what I liked and didn't like and started to piece together a ruff draft of my essay. Now, I am in the revision stage I am procrastinating a lot at this stage because I'm still unsure of what is right and wrong in my essay. I plan on asking myself questions like ... Is this necessary to have in this essay? Or making sure after reading the essay the reader knows who the story is about, what the story is about, where the story takes place, when the story takes place, and why this is all happening. And I want to make sure the essay appeals to all 5 senses
So this has been what has been going on recently in class, it has been extremely challenging but after finishing tasks that I doubted myself on it was extremely gratifying.
Sincerely,
Tina Hutton