Over the course of this first semester, I have learned a lot about how to write effectively. I think the biggest change I saw in my writing was the need to address complexity. In the past, I thought I was addressing complexity by merely analyzing the 'so what?' in a text. Now I know there's a lot more to take into account. It's about thinking deeper in the right ways.
The PowerPoint presentations had me lost at first, but after awhile the process 'clicked'. I realized how the format of those PowerPoint presentations would set up the basis of our essays in this class. That's where you use author's background, universal themes, contemporary issues, and poetic techniques to find the complexity of a passage. Then you can use this information to create the thesis and build a well-rounded essay. I think I can definitely get better at finding tone shifts which will make this whole process easier.
Finding complexity is difficult, but I think taking your advice on looking for it in the real world can only help me. Sometimes our mind's eye ignores the hidden meanings to things so it should be interesting if I can find anything in day-to-day life. I hope next semester I will be able to improve my knowledge of poetic techniques and terms such as form, structure, meter, etc. I feel like I should have those terms memorized if I want to be successful, and I struggle to remember those items. Hopefully next semester we can watch a movie again too!
