Understanding of English 200 course - Essay Example

Reflecting My Understanding of the English 200 Over the duration of time that I have been in this as an English intellect, I have virtually developed a complex and well thought out reading that places me at a competitive level while examining various literary works and subsequently developing literary arguments. In a more coherent and well argued out basis, this paper aims at reflecting upon my learning as an English 200 student, and to subsequently put into focus the various English knowledge and related works. I have undertaken throughout the semester, related kinds of knowledge I have created a subsequently earned, related English thinking I have earned, the literary genres learnt and the required skills and abilities appropriate for future development in English as a contemporary modern course. For the purposes of this significant analysis, I will put my arguments within the scope of the English 200 syllabus. Within the larger description, English 200 is suitable designed to help students write for a variety of purposes that cuts across various English genres, including research essay and theoretical analysis. While interacting with the course content and course material, many emphases placed to rhetorical challenges in knowledge generation from literary materials and texts and for such I undertook personal and well researched literary essays to demonstrate my understanding of the subject matter. Of importance, my original literary compositions and analysis identified as The Ceremony, Curiosity killed the cat, The Mirror, and a critique of the famous play by Sophocles entitled, Antigone. Within broader understanding, rhetorical writing is essentially an activity learnt through skills and practice but also looks at ways through which people and societies examine significant issues that affect their daily living as people continuously interact with the changing demographics of the environment and as such develop tentative arguments and reasoning for those occurrences. Most often audiences form different literary meanings diverse from the author’s original intention in the text. (Lindemann and Anderson) From the onset of my English classes, I have always been a critical thinker; my subsequent and regular interaction with the right course content and materials in English 200 class has further improved my analytical skills as a critical thinker when examining literary texts. My desire for knowledge acquisition in English 200 influenced more as I constantly look at the ‘why’ platform of an author’s literary text rather than just focusing on the author’s literal meaning as depicted in the text. Subsequently, my exposure to rhetorical literary analysis, essay research, close reading, critical analysis, and to a larger extent creative thinking have enabled me to gain insightful rich knowledge into different writing styles such that am able to continuously and with much ease create a sustained arguments in any given literary text for a harmonious understanding of any literary text. Moving in a progressive manner throughout the English 200 class in literary analysis from presenting simple facts to building a sustained argument of the various literary components and intentions within various literary complexities, I have indeed expanded my reasoning faculties and mental abilities. At the earlier inception stages of this course, I undertake an in depth and informative discussions concerning critical literary analysis. This whole learning process proceeded through critical essay composition, related theories, pedagogical writing of the critique essay, group discussions, and conference presentations of literary review process. At the end, I submitted a well-researched paper on Antigone with special emphasis on 442BC classic writing. Within this literary analysis, deliberate efforts made in connecting the literary intentions of the earlier literary writing to a modern audience while unearthing the intentions of Sophocles in discussing kinship and family relationship. For the modern audience however, the works of Sophocles allude to the theory of desire which essence is greater than limits of men and laws. One significant issue that I learnt from this research process is that Antigone’s desire was largely a process of soul search that led to cleanliness. At the end of this process, my thinking shaped in analyzing the literary intentions of the earlier literary writing and examining the writings within the broader modern writing towards a more informed public audience. Native Guard’s close reading essay provided a benchmark for analyzing the different lexical and grammatical words as used by the author in presenting his literary meaning to the audience. Various literary essays analyzed in a close read format. While referring to a contemporary novel “The Ceremony” a critical analysis of the author’s writing in exploring the life’ hardships from a traditional lifestyle explored. Quite familiar with virtually all the close reading tactics essential discussions formed the basis for my further thinking on the threats that continuously influence Native Americans who lead a traditional lifestyle. As I learnt the art of close reading, I was able to relate the work of Silko to the modern contemporary times from a literary standpoint, enabling me to obtain a deeper understanding of the literary text, pointing important details within the text, and particularly pay close attention to the literary elements as used in the literary text. Coming almost to the end of the English a well intended creative writing undertaken in an attempt to provide a cohesive understanding of all the literary skills gained so far. This was a rare opportunity to express my thoughts, emotions and feelings at the expense of just conveying and passing information to the general audience. This personal freedom of writing opened a larger room for identification and comprehending the literary knowledge around my world. This form of creative writing enabled me with an opportunity to examine in a literary world how curiosity killed the cat while using a variety of writing skills so far learnt. Besides the aforementioned literary materials and skills discussed, the opportunity opened new paradigms in contextualizing modern poetic writing through songs and poetry. Of significance, I took this opportunity to examine Lil Wayne’s use of literary skills in his lyric composition while communicating to the musically sensitive audience. The purpose of examining ‘The Mirror’ aimed at understanding the underlying literary messages and composing skills that were use by Lil Wayne is his composition. Essentially, Lil Wayne looks himself in a mirror the kind of life he has lived and his endless search for satisfaction and happiness. As I near the end of this course, I can confidently and sufficiently argue that I have learnt all the relevant aspects of literary research, creative writing, critical analysis and close reading while placing emphasis on rhetorical analysis. However, I find it important that for me to sound fully and skillfully comprehend the knowledge so far gained, critical analytic skills and English comprehension skills would need developing through constant interaction with the particular subject matter. Work cited Lindemann, Erika and Daniel Anderson. A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.Print. . Read More