End Of A Great Journey

English 101 was not a class, it was a lifetime experience. It is a type of experience I had never had acquaintances with nor I was prepared for. Taking this class with Prof. Polson was the best decision I have made in my academic career. She provided us with resources and guidance to achieve our learning goals. The level of creative freedom I had in this class can not be appreciated with a simple “thanks.” For instance, I was going to write a synthesis essay criticising the English language because it was used as a colonial weapon to destroy native cultures and languages. Criticising the English language in the English language is a non-starter for so many English classes in the country and in the world. Yet, she appreciated my critical thinking and gave me a platform to convey it. By the end of the class. It has turned me into a critical thinker. It has motivated me to hone my writing skills. Through this class, I have mastered the most powerful human persuasion technique, rhetoric. And by far the most important, I have learned to target an audience and write a piece that caters their needs.

The semester starts with its first phrase and it was nothing like a conventional high school curriculum. I was very confused because I did not encounter a major text in this class yet. We read articles and OpEDs and wrote opinions on them. Soon, I found a clue; it was all about setting up the rhetoric. Then later we did a worksheet on “2 sentence rhetorical summary” which satisfies the learning goal of “explore and analyze in writing, and reading a variety of genres and rhetorical situations.” This worksheet gave a good platform to analyze how authors set up their rhetoric and find ways to understand and summarise them. 

Next up, “How do we actually set up rhetoric in our own words?  It was a tricky learning goal. I satisfied it in my synthesis essay when I was using an emotional human persuasion rhetoric called pathos. I backed up my claims of the English language as a colonial weapon, but at the end I gave my perspective that is unique to me and invited the audience to think in a certain way. For example, 

Then I was introduced with a new idea of using multimedia. I thought it is important because a picture can tell a thousand words. For me, the biggest challenge was to create an abstract image that is both persuasive and creative. So I created an image of a big hand with strings to resemble control. On the string I put all the colonial tactics campaigned by pictures to make my point. It satisfies my goal to use multimedia to set up more aesthetic and cater for audiences who are visual learners.

Then I have to decide to use library databases and advanced search engines to find appropriate and accurate academic sources. In the final phrase of the class I had the pleasure to meet with a librarian. He helped me find resources to better find the academic texts we desire for our synthesis essay. In this process, we were introduced to the advanced search tools in the CCNY library’s One Search. Using this dedicated search engine is both intuitive and immersive. Soon I became an expert in using these systems in the most effective ways. Here is one of my attempts to find my desired academic text. This is actually the text that I was looking for a very long time. It is a journal which indicates its credibility and it is also peer reviewed. Here are the examples:

As I reached the end of my synthesis essay. I realised that I have to create a bibliography page to accredit the authors of the academic texts. Citing the sources was very tricky because every type/format of media has different styles of citations. Missing certain information of citation can change the overall look of the citation entirely. In addition, every citation should be listed in alphabetical order with hanging indentation. “I think I have done it well and hence satisfied, ‘Practice citing sources accurately and consistently.’ ”

Overall, English 110 was not a class, it was an immersive journey. Along with learning more about the English language, I have learned to do so many other things. Rhetoric, which will help me to persuade the audience into believing a certain ideology. Multimedia which will force me to think out of the realm of text and cater for audiences who are visual learners. Advance search, which will help me locate my desired academic sources. And citation, which will help me give credit to the fellow authors. But most importantly, this class has taught me to see the world in a different way. At times, it has challenged my beliefs and ideas. For example, I used to think English is a global language. Now, I think there is no global language, one language is not superior to the other, more speakers does not mean more representation. The English language is just another language that serves as a medium of communication. If the English language is used as a medium to convey a message successfully, it has served its purpose. This class didn’t only teach me about the English language, it has taught me what language is.