Reflection Blog

In order to reflect on this class, I decided to do another version of the first assignment we did this semester – the literacy log. Instead of actually logging every word I read over the entire weekend, I made sure I noted the things that really stood out to me, especially after all of the material we’ve covered in these passed few weeks. While I have had to spend a lot of time grappling with words throughout my academic career (I am in a very writing-intensive major, so I have had to read and write a lot) it is still very interesting and useful to take an extended period of time to really consciously read all of the words that are put in front of you every day.

Running errands at CVS is honestly always kind of stressful for me. I am usually rushing in between classes or on my way to or from work – generally not at a moment when I actually have time to wander the aisles and chose from the over abundance of brands of laundry detergent or toothpaste. This weekend, I stood in front of the overwhelming wall of mascara trying to decide which one I would like best, and I read the words on all of the packages. “Volume” was one word that came up a lot, as well as “mega”, “great”, “extra”, all words that suggested what would happen if I used a specific product. Since I can’t actually open and sample each different type of mascara, I have to depend on the words that are on the package to decide which on I think would work best. For the most part, especially for mascara, packaging on make-up is small and there is not a whole lot of room to market the product, so the words on the package have to count. Some of the tubes of mascara actually physically were bigger at one end or in the middle and tapered off at the ends, and the font on the package was large and plump, to convey to the consumer that the product would have make their lashes large and plump as well. I found it very interesting that in the past I was definitely influenced by which words I saw on the packages, but I hadn’t actually taken the time to notice why. What’s the difference between “mega” and “extra” or “bulk” and “volume”? I know there are many different factors that go into marketing a product -- the colors, the placement of images, etc -- but the words were deliberately chosen, too. 

Another instance where I was reading that I found interesting was looking at podcast titles. Admittedly, I hardly read the news anymore. But I have found that listening to the news during my commute has been an incredibly efficient use of my time. As I was downloading my subscriptions for this week, I thought about how technology has influenced the way we consume information, and how journals have been affected by these changes. Instead of receiving The New York Times or The Economist in the mail, many people receive them online or listen to audio versions of them. Podcasts (at least the ones I’ve listened to) aren’t organized like most physical journals – they don’t have volume or issue numbers, they’re just numbered from the beginning to the most recent. Like most journal articles though, they also have titles that reflect the content of the article. This week I have “New Efforts to Prevent Domestic Homicide”, “The Cost of Free Doughnuts”, “New Music: Yuck, Electronic Music Pioneer Roedelius, Chastity Belt and More”, and “Tony Hinchcliffe”. The last title, “Tony Hinchcliffe” is the least descriptive, which is characteristic of Joe Rogan’s podcast titles, and is very frustrating to me. I like to be able to at least assume what the general topic of the podcast will be just by reading the title. “New Efforts to Prevent Domestic Homicide” is pretty self explanatory, but “Tony Hinchcliffe” is just the name of this week’s guest on the podcast. That says a lot about the nature of the podcast itself, however. While a podcast from NPR have a more informative title to reflect the informative content, Joe Rogan’s podcast is much more informal and usually doesn’t start off with any one subject in particular, so I’m assuming that he leaves his podcasts without a more specific title on purpose.

Looking at the way we use words more closely has been really fun this semester. While I do think I’ve done it a lot in my own field, it’s been very useful to look at language through a wider lens – how it is used on a day to day basis, and in other disciplines that are not my own. I think that gives us as students a greater understanding of how we can use words as tools in all areas of our lives.

Reflection

    Reflecting on something while you are still in the midst of it is a difficult region to explore. It is hard to reflect while there are still unknown elements that could affect your reflection, positively or negatively. 

     When I registered for this class, I was indifferent at the time. I had been registered for another class that was unexplainably canceled and was forced to find a new class to register for quickly. I’m going into my last year at Northeastern and have an already rather specialized major so finding the courses to fit my class requirements can be a challenge. I did no prior research of the class or the teacher before registering, just selected a time that allowed flexibility for my work schedule.

     Writing is something that has always interested me and something that I had always been very much aware of. I have always been really intrigued by word choice, linguistics, syntax and the etymology of words. It always infuriated me when people misused words or placed a comma inappropriately. Having this past experience with writing, I was excited to begin this class. I thought it would be a simple writing course like the many I had taken before.

     However, it was very different from what I expected. Everything was much more discipline specific. Coming from a small and narrow discipline, in which a majority of my writing takes place in a different language with different writing rules, discipline specific writing has always been a challenge for me. I had also just finished my co-op, in which I spent everyday writing.  However, everything I had been writing in co-op was not applicable to the assignments. It was difficult to see the connection between my discipline and the assignments.

      It was during the last assignment, writing in the workplace, that I recognized the best way for me to succeed in this class. My discipline has a very different set of rules, as does everyone’s. I needed to remove myself and create a third-wall with my discipline and approach my work as an anthropological or a linguistic study. By removing myself as the author and simply creating a piece of work, analyzing and understanding the intention and purpose of the work becomes much easier. I was blocking myself from succeeding because I wasn’t able to see the connection, until I created one.

       I think one of the things that I have taken away and appreciate the most from this class is a new analytical approach to things. It has made my writing process for this class more standard and habitual. I never really have to write lab reports or project testing reports; all of my writing for my classes are relaxed and explaining my thoughts on a topic. It has been very interesting to see what other people have to write for their disciplines and how their jargon and paragraph structures vary. It is clear that the writing process varies greatly from discipline to discipline and it has been nice to have this class to demonstrate that to me. It has created a larger appreciation and understanding for the different role that writing has in everyone’s disciplines. 

The course so far...

     I remember when signing up for classes how unexcited I was to have to take another writing class. I had thought that College Writing was the last required English class I would have to take in my entire college career, so I'm sure many of you felt the same sense of dread when my adviser told me about this one last, little requirement. After talking to a few of my friends, it seemed like i had two options for which advanced writing class I could take, technical writing or advanced writing in the disciplines. I chose the disciplines in the end because it seemed that had a chance to be a little bit more interesting because at least I would get to meet people from other majors and maybe be able to stay a little more engaged. I also heard from multiple people that the writing in the disciplines is far easier then the technical writing, so disciplines it was. I did absolutely no research on rate my professor or anywhere else, and picked the class purely based on time and the fact that i had a friend who had already signed up for the same exact class.

After a brisk summer weekend following the end of my co-op, I prepared to take my first classes in six months, and while i was not looking forward to it in any way, i was really not expecting the semester to be too difficult. since it was a writing class, I could gather that participation was going to at least be a small factor in our grading. This was something that i had always successfully skated by on the minimum requirements, i would tune in for 5-10 minutes, ask a question or provide some sort of comment, and then drop back out. While this had always worked for me, its a dangerous game to play as teachers usually notice if your zoning out and will put you on the spot to call you out on it. I decided that i was really going to try my best to stay more engaged this last time around, even if I didn't have a lot to contribute.

Within the first few days of class, I could tell that this was going to be a refreshing change of pace. After doing some sort of math or engineering for the past two and half years, it was nice to work a different part of my brain out for a few hours a day. I could also tell within the first few classes that Charlie was going to be a pretty chill, interesting teacher, and I have not been disappointed. The in-class discussion are interesting and unlike anything i had ever discussed in an English class before. Not many teachers have us analyze Little Wayne lyrics or break down aspects of the shit face tale. The writing assignments we've had to complete so far I actually find interesting, and I enjoy writing about my specific discipline and then hearing about other disciplines through the writings of others in the class. Overall I'm very happy with how this class has gone so far and will actually be a little disappointed when its over and i have to go back to all engineering all the time. It also helps that my friends in advanced technical writing have had to write a whole lot more then i have and complain about it almost every day!

Usefully Required

Required classes generally aren't something I look forward to. From lower level major requirements to GenEd the university requires, I've found there’s often a lot of wasted time. Without a doubt some are better than others but I tend to find that being forced into classes for the sake of diversity leads to a group that isn't eager to be there and a class experience that leaves much to be desired. It seems that universities are picking up the slack for a failed country wide education system. Since the general education of students isn't a sure thing just because they graduated high school, we have to pay for the university to say we’re well rounded.  That’s not to say all GenEd is bad, but when you’re sitting in a class you paid thousands of dollars for and have a professor reading off slides that most people who ever take that class will likely see, it is definitely frustrating.

So, I wasn't particularly excited for AWD.  After placing out of English freshman year, I thought I was done having to write essays and read excerpts. It didn't help that most of what I’d heard about the class from older friends ranged from “average” to “terrible.” I had decided to take the class this summer so that I could power through it not have to trudge through a full semester hating it. Given all of this, it’s surprising to say I've greatly enjoyed the class, and am in many ways disappointed that I did not take it during Fall or Spring.

Not many classes require you to think about how you’re writing, just what you’re writing. I actually think it’s really beneficial for the class to flip that on its head entirely. There’s still analysis to be done, but the majority of what I've had to think about preparing assignments is how I’m conveying what I think. Instead of spending hours reading books, collecting sources, and pulling them together to form and back up a cohesive argument, my time in this class is spent appreciating and fine tuning the nuances of how I word something. Frankly, it’s a nice change of pace. I can think of few classes where I could have ever been given a prompt and a professor could reasonably expect a draft of any kind the next day (given the obvious exception of “respond to this passage/excerpt.)

            The fact that so much in this class is transferable to real world (and real class) uses is another thing I did not expect. So many writing classes are teaching you how to take a test or teaching you how the professor likes things written in what is ultimately a game where students are trying to score as many points as possible. For this class, by and large, we pick the format of the final deliverable. This does so much to make the work done actually useful for later in life, and even if it ends up not being as relevant for some than others there is still at the very least a level of insight. While I’m not sure that even knowing what I know now I could have convinced myself not to take AWD during the summer, I’m glad to see GenEd done correctly and enthusiastically. 

AWD Reflection

Coming back from coop, I wasn’t looking forward to an English class and writing a bunch of essays within 8 weeks. I hadn’t written any essays in a while and knew that AWD would be a handful. After taking College Writing, I was confident that AWD was going to be another English class where the teacher gives you a prompt and expects you to write a 1500 word paper every week with minimal interaction with other students. However, after the first two days, I was relieved that it wasn’t going to be boring cause we had a young teacher who we could relate to. Since the first week, I have had an open mind to all the assignments in class and wanted to see the direction the class would take me.

The thin slicing assignment was a totally different idea that I wasn’t used to, which changed my way of thinking. Throughout my years studying English, I have always been told what to write about, the structure of the paper, and goal of the paper. This specific assignment asked us to look at certain aspects of our topic throughout 30 years and follow the trend and its evolution. At first, it was intimidating as it was hard to look for something substantial while looking through hundreds of articles and boring titles. However, after coming to class and hearing other peers’ ideas, it made it easier for me to analyze my research and find a goal for my paper. Peer review meetings helped for all assignments as you receive constructive criticism and are able to enhance your analysis from a different perspective. However, close reading is the complete opposite of thin slicing and took me sometime to get my head around it. This was easier than the thin slicing assignment as it was finding something small and linking it to a broader picture. Since we were already familiar with the topic it was easy to find things to talk about.

The abstract assignment was a very interesting assignment because it opened our minds to different disciplines and connected it to our own discipline to create a concise abstract. This assignment brought my attention to specific words, sentence structure, and language used in the abstract. My partner and I took time looking at every sentence and seeing if it meant what we were trying to say. This helped me understand language on a higher level and understanding the different meanings that specific words give out.

The workplace writing assignment was a straightforward assignment as we had dealt with the language before at our respective coops. Being able to analyze our genre documents demonstrated a deeper understanding of English in our everyday lives since we pointed out the audience it appealed to and how it was presented to them. This helped me understand the micro and macro aspects of the genre document.

Being an accounting major English was never my strong spot, however this course has illustrated that writing is valuable and shown me its strengths. This course is very engaging and nothing like College Writing. I hope to learn more in the next two assignments and reflect on my assignments in my final portfolio.

The AWD Experience

I knew almost nothing about AWD until mere days before I signed up for it for this summer. I’ll be honest, writing was not one of my strong suits and I constantly considered that I had severe writer’s bloc. I spoke to a couple of friends regarding class choices for a summer semester and nearly all of them told me that I should take a class that I didn’t like. Why? Apparently, the pain is easier to get through over 2 months rather than the regular 4 months. After confirming that my friends were actually serious about it, I decided to to choose two classes that I didn’t favor and prepared myself for a heavy 2 months, to say the least. 

Two things caught me by surprise in the course description on myNEU. Not having read this before choosing the class, I couldn’t blame anyone but myself. Firstly, AWD was a 3000 level class, and the name of the class itself started with the word ‘Advanced’. Truthfully, this scared me. Another important thing I got out of the description is that it described the class to be in a “workshop setting”. I don’t mean to sound like a lazy rebel or anything but the first thing that came to mind while reading that was: “participation”. A workshop setting at 10:00 am...this posed a second mighty hurdle for me to pass. 

As clichéd as it sounds, AWD so far has turned out to be of the most interesting and engaging classes I have taken - voluntarily or forcefully - in my entire academic career. I think the last time I was so active and psychologically consumed by a class was probably in my second grade painting class. From in-class discussions to the flexibility of the projects, I felt that AWD was a very open-ended class where we, as students, were allowed to write about almost anything we chose with just one category to fill: our discipline. I don’t know about other students but I chose my discipline in college based on an academic idea that interests me the most. If I find my discipline interesting, no matter how long the assignment or how complex, I believe I would still be able to conjure ideas and put them on paper. 

My favorite part of AWD so far has been the in-class discussions. From dissecting Lil Wayne lyrics to breaking down every detail of stop sign, every discussion we’ve had has been free of any political, social or cultural bias. It has been a place where I feel I can easily and comfortable discuss any ideas or theories I deem relevant. I know this isn’t the focus of this class, but I consider these discussions to play a key role in coming up with ideas for nearly all the projects. 

From here on, I don’t hope that the projects will be ‘easier’ or less time-consuming. I hope that the projects continue to be as open and flexible as they have been. I hope that the in-class discussions continue to be powerful and dynamic as always. I hope that this workshop-like class allows me to continually attain the high quality of academic concepts and techniques, as it has done so for the past five weeks.

The Psychology of Language

Confusing yet Constructive

               Coming into this class, I was honestly expecting another boring experience like College Writing. There would be more reading about reading and writing and less connection to our actual discipline despite the course name. However, going into the first assignment - the thin-slicing assignment - my views began to change. The way the topic of thin-slicing was at first framed seemed quite tedious but in the end, turned out to be very interesting. This first assignment allowed me to have faith in the course and allow it to take me on the journey it would provide.

               In high school, I was never a fan of the subject of English. I was a math and science student through and through and never developed an interest in English. We used to read famous novels by famous authors and the interpret the text with respect to the author or the time he or she lived. I never saw the point of this because to be honest, I always thought, where is this going to be of use in my life? And additionally, did the author ever intend to even create a novel that would be analyzed in such various contexts or, did the author just want to create a good story? I never received that answer so I went through high school English as just another motion.

               When I had to take College Writing at Northeastern, I thought, "Oh no, here we go again." I was correct. It was pretty much the same thing which didn't make too much sense. Then moving to Advanced Writing now had me thinking the same way, which I can't really be blamed for as prior experiences had put me in that position. However, after meeting the professor and starting the assignments I began to think, "Finally, a writing course with purpose." The thin-slicing assignment allowed me to create large analyses based on small amounts of information with a relatively great amount of precision. Then on contrary topics, close reading and context memos allowed me to do the same with even less information. Close reading, I found particularly interesting as this is when I first saw that each word, phrase, and sentence has more than just the intended meaning. Each word, phrase, and sentence has a psychological purpose as well. An epiphany of sorts; this began to answer my questions about English in high school and why we had to do what we did.

               The third assignment really brought the whole course together for me. Creating a conference abstract allowed me to focus on an area of writing which I have not always been able to incorporate into my writing throughout my time in the educational system. This area of writing was word choice and precision. With a limitation of 500 words and so much information to provide, the project seemed intimidating at first. However, after sitting with my partner and going through and correcting each and every sentence, I ended up noticing that this project, although very short, was my best writing sample. Within the time constraints given and the criteria needed, my partner and I did an excellent job. After receiving a rewarding grade on this, writing has finally made sense to me and become quite enjoyable.

               I titled this post, The Psychology of Language. I did that as writing truly is as much a physical practice as it is a psychological one. Everything can be put together to form a generalization but the details are what allow for one to formulate those generalizations. Those details are the psychological level of writing and what has allowed me to endure and enjoy Advanced Writing. I never before thought writing would be this beneficial to me but this course has allowed me to see its advantages. I still have a long way to go to be a great writer, but I think I have come far enough to be deemed as at least, "good." Thanks AWD.