I came to LaGuardia Community College to learn and improve my style and techniques in both film and digital photography. My main focus is photojournalism that records and helps me make sense of the world I live in, makes me feel part of it, and possibly contribute to a better world through my pictures. In order to be a photojournalist, I realize I have to get very good at writing. So I am looking forward to every English class, because I know it will benefit me in the long run. But this class has proven to be one of the best ones I’ve ever taken.
This class has been fun and very interesting from the beginning. I still remember our first day of class when Prof. Smith showed up in class and started telling us about the syllabus and the main theme of our class.
First of all, there was no pen and paper required. It could be a great thing for some people, or not so great for others. Well, I still used pen and paper to take notes in class and to write the blog drafts at home.
Then we found out that we don't even give in essays and we have to make blogs. The sound of that wasn't very appealing. I am not a public person when it comes to the internet; I don't even have a Facebook account, and even if it is a blog for English 102 class, initially I didn't like the idea. And I also thought that some people might not be so good with the computer and this would be a disadvantage for them. But then, this is the end of year 2010 and we live in one of the most advanced cities in the world. Everybody should know how to use a computer.
And then we were told about the other rule and probably one of the reasons why we had to create a blog: to separate in teams and work together and review other people's work and give feedback. I am trying to imagine the same system with the teams and peer evaluations in a regular class. It would be too much. First of all, too much paper going around back and forth. And then, the noise; it would definitely be much, much noisier.
I have learned a lot of new things in this class; archetypes and the hero’s quest can definitely help one demystify the structure of a movie or novel. I am the type of person that shares with people outside of school the new, interesting thing I have learned about. Lately, I’ve been getting complaints from friends and family. Some of them say I talk too much about archetypes, Joseph Campbell and the monomyth in movies or literature.
This semester I feel my writing has truly improved. What I really loved was that Prof. Smith explained everything to us with strong arguments and examples until everyone understood. There are not many professors out there who would do something like that.
Overall I feel the class has been very influential towards my writing. Obviously I’m not the best writer, but I feel I have learned ways to fully extend my ideas onto paper. I had some problems with the Radiohead song I chose. It was very haunting for me to work on that because of the dark lyrics. I wanted to revise it for a better grade, but after going back to read the lyrics again, I decided against it. I think I did a good job on the Blog 3 entries. I really enjoyed analyzing the photograph of Patrick Stewart from “Macbeth” and the video of the animation. My last essay was probably my best work, but it was my best not just because it was the accumulation of all my writing experience, but that it had a great interest in the topic. I love movies (and I hope someday I will direct one) and Donnie Darko is obviously, one of my favorites. On the other hand, it is fascinating to me how Richard Kelly’s other movies are so bad. I hope he will be able to make other great ones in the future.
From all of my classmates, from the beginning, I was very impressed with Rianna’s writing skills. Her command of words is very remarkable and she was very consistent in every blog entry. Her final essay about Alice in Wonderland was very good, as it related to everything we have learned in this class. And I have to admit that I wish I would have thought about writing the paragraphs in different colors. Such a great idea, and it makes the reading more pleasing.
I am about to conclude this essay about my thoughts on this class, but not before I thank you, Prof. Smith, for your dedication and a great style of teaching. I am also interested in teaching someday and you are a great inspiration for the type of professor I want to be.
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