The work of an English major that interests me most
The assignment that interested me most in English 167 was the critical essay about a William Stafford poetry. I don’t really like talking about myself, and I am still not 100% sure what I want to do with my life, so I had issues writing my career compass presentation. I am not great at writing poetry, and my journaling skills leave much to be desired, so my Stafford journal was not my best work. I think that while I can write creatively, I do it best in short burst, and I have issues finishing or completing my creative works, so I think my best work is less creative, more technical or analytical work. That leaves my I-Search, and my critical essay. Normally, I would prefer a project more akin to the I-Search over a poetry analysis, but I had issues with my I-Search because of the topic I chose. I also thought that my critical essay was well done considering that I have little to no experience in analyzing poetry. Although I have issues with picking a topic or an analytical lens, once I have one, I generally enjoy digging through a work, looking for evidence to support my (usually rather strange) thesis. While the critical essay did not involve anything quite as strange as trying to prove that Dracula is a Marxist work, I got the most satisfaction from the project out of any of the ones in English 167. To further support this, my critical essay had the highest pencil grade of all my projects eligible for revision.
I am not sure what I would do for a capstone project if I had the class next semester. While I have seen this year’s presentations, I know that the presentations are not their projects themselves, and are just a short summary of them, so I am not sure what the limitations they have, or what formats the projects need to be in. There are a couple of ideas that I have, but I do not know if they would fit within the scope of the class. One of the things I am interested in looking at is the seemingly universal hatred of some eBook/e homework services (such as Pearson’s MyMathLab, McGraw-Hill’s Connect, or any other services created by large publishers) that students seem to have. Specifically, I want to look at why they hate them so much. I was just thinking of general research before now, but while writing this I thought of doing a usability study on one or some of the sites and comparing them. I think this would have issues though, as it would require subscriptions and probably help from a professor teaching a class that uses one of these services. Another thing that I was thinking of was a usability study, although I am not sure on what. Overall, I have some ideas, but I don’t know if they are viable, or within the scope of the class.
Which Capstone presentations interested me the most.
One of the capstone presentations that I found most interesting was Caleb Shaffer’s presentation entitled “Weaponized Patriotism: Pinning Down What Makes the U.S. Flag Such a Divisive Symbol.” Caleb looked at the United States flag as a symbol, specifically the flag in the form of a flag pin. He used a modified form of Grie’s methodology, virality – how popular the symbol remains (booms, busts, etc.), agency – how malleable the symbol is while still invoking the original, vitality – how long a symbol persists in the culture, and stability- how agency and vitality intersect. This last term was added by Caleb, as it is more apt for long lasting symbols like the U.S. flag. Caleb went over the history of the flag pin, its origins in the Nixon era, how it died down during the Nixon scandals, its resurgence in popularity after 9/11, and how it has remained popular since then. Caleb also talked about how different politicians have worn it, how there are gendered expectations, how it can be worn “wrong,” and how all of these different factors shape the discussion around the flag pins.
I found this presentation interesting because I have a passing knowledge of, and some interest in the flag code. It was also well presented, and Caleb kept my interest throughout. His abstract also caught my interest, particularly the last sentence, “The image of a national ensign should not be controversial, but it has been appropriated and weaponized to stand less for love of country, but more hatred and vitriol for everything else.”
Another presentation that I found interesting was Julia Sattler’s presentation “Misrepresentation of the ‘Reel U’: The Portrayal of American Universities in Modern Media.” Julia looked at how American universities are portrayed in the media, particularly literature and movies. She interviewed international students who had seen movies about American colleges, conducted surveys, found academic sources on the topic, and did an analysis of college-themed films. She found that major themes were: binge drinking, drugs, frat parties, and constantly trying to have sex. She also found that many of them misrepresented women. Julia talked about the effects of this misrepresentation, both of women, and of American universities in general.
I found this presentation interesting because I go to an American university, and I have seen some of the types of movies she looked at, before I came to, and while I have been in college. I knew that these movies were fictional, but I had a mother who worked at a university for part of my childhood, and was around it more than most kids were. I am also American, so I knew from talking to other people that it wasn’t like the movies, but I was interested to know if people not familiar with universities, or not from the United States would expect college to be like the movies.
My two strengths as a student/English major.
One of my greatest strengths is that I can remember what I read easily.
Another of my greatest strengths is my technical writing. This can be seen in my grades for my critical essay, and for my I-search.
Learning goals for myself at NDSU
I would like to learn more about technical writing, as that is what I would like to do when I graduate (as of now at least). Two classes that I could work on this in are English 320, Business and Professional Writing, and English 321, Writing in the Technical Professions.
I would also like to learn more about how technology and writing. One class that I could take to learn more about this is English 457, Electronic Communication.
Portfolio revisions.
Stafford essay
- On my critical essay, I made some surface-level edits, and some edits for clarity.
- I also added to, and clarified my interpretation section, which led to revising my significance section and conclusion, and from there added a new thesis.
- I only made surface-level edits to my I-Search, as I felt my time would be better spent revising my career compass and my critical essay.
- For my career compass, I re-wrote portions of my script, and changed my PowerPoint to match those. I also replaced or removed some of my placeholder images.
- For my poetry, I did not change anything on What Makes a Poem?, and for Writing Poetry, I revised the ending.