Over the course of the semester in English 131 I have worked to develop better critical thinking and writing skills through letter writing, journal writing, and writing essays with a focus on longhand and writing for an online audience through the use of a blog. Though all of the writing I have done over the course of the semester has helped me to become a better and more thoughtful writer, I believe that letter writing and journal writing have had the most impact on my writing not only in the classroom but outside of the classroom in my personal writing as well. I have loved to write from a young age, because when I write I feel as though I can express what I am trying to say more clearly to others and also to myself when I am writing in my journal simply for my own personal use.
For me, writing has always been cathartic and has helped me to express exactly what I want to say while also helping me to think it through. In the past I would journal almost every night, however I had gotten out of the habit of doing so. The letter writing and journal writing that we did in class inspired me to buy myself a personal journal and begin letting my feelings flow from my heart and mind onto the page. The prompts that Professor Lucas gave to the class to write about in our journals such as “What memoir do you have to tell?” and “What song in your playlist stays on your brain? What truth or lie does it tell?” helped me to think critically not only about my writing but also my life. I have always been someone who enjoys asking questions and these prompts led me to ask myself Why is your favorite song White Houses by Vanessa Carlton? and Why is this memoir what you have to tell? while writing at home in my journal.
The journal writing and letter writing that I completed during English 131 is significant to me as a writer because it helped me to develop critical thinking skills that I will apply in my future writing both personal and public, such as on my blog. Also, as someone who reads quite a bit outside of the classroom, I feel that reading Our Town, The Underground Railroad, Creature, and The Devil and The White City and having to think and write critically about them all has helped me to experience books in a deeper way and develop critical thinking skills as not only a writer but as a reader as well. As I was reading Our Town by Thornton Wilder I began to think deeply about what Simon Stimson meant at the end of the play when he says that to be alive is to “spend and waste time as though you had a million years. To be always at the mercy of one self-centered passion, or another” (109). After reading this I began to reflect on my own life and how I spend my time and I was able to express this in my journal and critical essay for class. As I was reflecting on Simon’s words from Our Town and how I spend my time I began to think about the article “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” by Jean M. Twenge and the effects that too much screen time can have on young people and how “The arrival of the smartphone has radically changed every aspect of teenagers’ lives, from the nature of their social interactions to their mental health” (par. 9). I came to the conclusion that I am not immune to the effects of too much screen time and I should spend less time on my phone and more time enjoying the little things in life so that I don’t waste the days away.
Thinking critically about my life and my writing has caused my writing skills to undergo many changes over the course of the semester and I now I have a deeper appreciation for the power of words, both through reading and writing. In my journal I expressed my love for reading when I wrote “reading is as necessary for me as the air I breathe. It helps me to reflect on life in a way that nothing else can”. All of the assignments that I completed in English 131 complemented one another and each made my writing a little better, one step at a time. Through letter and journal writing I have been able to express myself and enjoy writing in a way that I didn’t even realize was possible.
Twenge, Jean M. “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” The Atlantic, Atlantic
Media Company, 4 Aug. 2017, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/.
Wilder, Thornton. Our Town. 1938. Harper Perennial, 2003.
Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City. Vintage, 2004.
The Devil in The White City by Erik Larson takes place during the 1893 World’s Fair. Throughout the book Larson weaves the story of America’s first serial killer, Dr. H. H. Holmes, and the story of Daniel Burnham, the chief architect behind the the composition of the Chicago World’s Fair. Throughout The Devil in The White City Larson creates a book that is not only historically accurate, but that makes the reader feel as if they’ve been transported to 1893 Chicago during the turn of the century with the height of the World’s Fair and Holmes reign as a serial killer.
Lucas, Jane. “Through a Glass Darkly: Girl at the Mirror and Grover’s Corners”.
https://janelucas.com. Published 20 November 2017. Accessed 29 November 2017.
“Through a Glass Darkly: Girl at the Mirror and Grover’s Corners” compares the lives and feelings of Emily Gibbs from Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and the young girl in Norman Rockwell’s painting Girl at the Mirror. Both of the girls long to be pretty and wanted by society and men. In the critical analysis Professor Lucas explores the complexity of both the innocence and sexualization of Emily and the Girl at the Mirror.
Richtel, Matt. “Blogs vs. Term Papers.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Jan. 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/muscling-in-on-the-term-paper-tradition.html.
In Matt Richtel’s article for the New York Times “Blogs vs. Term Papers” he explores the benefits of teachers having their students keep a blog rather than write long term papers. Richtel displays extreme points of view on both sides, the people that want to completely eradicate the term paper, and those who are against the blog altogether because they feel it does not teach critical thinking and argumentation skills. Richtel is able to convey the positives and negatives of both blogs and term papers to readers of his article.
Twenge, Jean M. “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 4 Aug. 2017, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/.
The article “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” by Jean Twenge is a look at the effects that social media, the internet, and too much screen time is having on young people. In the article Twenge explores the idea that too much screen time is leading teens to feel isolated and experience more depressive tendencies. The article aims to help readers understand the negative ways that smartphones contribute to teens mental health and the way that they act and present themselves in the world.
Whitehead, Colson. The Underground Railroad. Doubleday, 2016.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead follows the journey of Cora, an African American slave from Georgia, as she decides to take the fictional Underground Railroad north to escape her controlling and abusive slave owner. In the novel Whitehead takes a different stance on the Underground Railroad, a network of people and safe houses that helped African Americans get to freedom in the United States during the 1800s, and utilizes the opportunity to make the Underground Railroad a literal train that runs under the earth to carry slaves towards freedom. Through this, Whitehead creates a work of fiction that is both innovative and powerful.
Wilder, Thornton. Our Town. 1938. Harper Perennial, 2003.
The play Our Town by Thornton Wilder takes place at the beginning of the 1900s and follows the characters George Gibbs, Emily Webb, and others of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire through birth, marriage, and death. The play is a testament to the stereotypes of small town America, however it goes deeper than that and explores the idea that not all small towns are the epitome of the great American life and that there is something eternal about humans, regardless of how mundane their lives may seem.