II

Since I’ve been getting a little behind with the journal, it’s hard for me to remember what we did the first three or four classes; so, I’d like to think about what I’m going to write as some kind of overview of what we’ve done up to now. After this entry I guess I can compromise with myself and start writing on a “daily basis”(no guarantee, though).

Let’s see, if I understood correctly (if I’ve been a good observer), for the past 3-4 weeks we’ve been covering topics that are essential for society to maintain good expression and communication in between all kinds of people. By saying this, I’m talking about Writing, Language, Rhetoric, etc. And all these topics have been covered up with two particular tools: discussion and perspective. We’ve been using a graph (the f*ck#ng graph! like Zach said) to map out certain problems along with their appropriate/logical solutions, and we’ve been analyzing how sometimes we involve unintentionally with them. This has been very interesting, because even though some times we address topics like “being a believer” (which at times like these it is very hard to discuss in such way that does not offend or sound disrespectful to others) the graph always seems to “balance” everything. Thus we all end up agreeing with one side or another without having to get stubborn and argue about which side is better or “perfectly” correct. At the end it is human behavior and the best thing we can do is to be tolerant.

Also, after two or three classes we started analyzing, in a rhetorical way, texts and especially various pieces of advertising. This was something new for me. Yes, we all are aware that most of the advertisements and television commercials are intended to persuade you so that you can buy products, so that you can become a consumer; but here in class we’ve been doing it more thoroughly. Every little piece that constitutes the ad/article is separated and analyzed individually, allowing us to understand and criticize its pros and cons. How useful, right?

This is actually one of our major assignments: pick a text/essay/article and rhetorically analyze it. Let’s see if Gallop’s “Close Reading” article helps out here. Since I still haven’t found what I’m going to analyze, I better leave this blog and keep looking around.  

I

 So far, English 1311 has been a very entertaining class. It’s been only about 2 weeks and I can actually feel interested in it because of the whole dynamic that the teacher has managed to develop.

The group is not well connected yet, but still almost everyone participates and exchanges opinions with the teacher every time a discussion takes place. The topics are interesting, the assignments are fairly easy, and also the pieces of reading have been quite a discovery for me, especially the one that talks about the rather mysterious subject of “Zen”. I’ve always been curious about it, but I never really took the time to investigate and search for books about the subject. But now I think I have two or three clues as to how and where I could begin to learn more about it.

Now, not only do the topics and discussions surprise me; people’s opinions and the revelation of this new “model” of teacher are giving me a great feeling in this 1^st semester of college as well. I must confess I was actually expecting much less, but at this point I probably should start putting my “preconceptions” aside and wait to see what happens. That was actually the first lesson I learned here, and it’s helping me for the rest of the classes I’m taking too.

Something I noticed as soon as the 1^st class started is that the teacher was very interested in our opinion and thoughts regarding writing, reading, and him as a teacher. I liked that. He didn’t stand in front of everyone talking and talking about how the class was going to be and what we needed to do in order for us to get a good grade; instead of that, he questioned our perspectives, he allowed us to speak out and discuss, and he made us aware that basically we should be ourselves in front of him, even if that included cursing (he was almost motivating us to do it).

This being said, all that is left for me to think about is… Can I really complain when a class turns out to be like this? I really don’t think so. I have the elements and the motivation I need to enjoy the semester as much as I can, and I intend to do so.