[{"id":37,"date":"2020-05-04T01:49:27","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T01:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/?p=37"},"modified":"2020-05-04T01:49:27","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T01:49:27","slug":"assignment-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/2020\/05\/04\/assignment-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Assignment 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zach Hill<\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Djain<\/span><\/p>\n

WRTG-101-019<\/span><\/p>\n

30 April 2020<\/span><\/p>\n

Final Reflection<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s surreal to think that this is the end of my college writing experience. My freshman year has not been short of surprises, particularly this semester with a chaotic transition home and online. Still, within the chaos of the year, the college writing courses I have taken have taught me invaluable lessons regarding a multitude of writing styles and the academic writing process overall. I recognize notable changes and improvements in my writing towards the conclusion of this course compared to when I first arrived at American. This reflection also allows me an interesting opportunity to observe and notice opportunities for change in my writing. Now at the conclusion of our learning, it is quite easy to reflect upon and see how my writing can be strengthened, and incorporate the lessons I\u2019ve learned this semester. Despite vast differences in content and subject matters, a common thread that connects my writing throughout this semester is the idea of fusing academic texts with personal experience to pose, answer, and create accessible discussions about literary work and the societal impacts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beginning with Assignment 1, I undertook the ambitious adventure of connecting literary work and it\u2019s central themes to larger societal impacts. Beginning with William Hazlitt\u2019s \u201cOn the Pleasure of Hating\u201d, a piece claiming that hatred is institutionalized and ingrained into world culture, I finished with a product about climate change and existential crises both driven and combated by the ferocious passion (and hatred) in humans. While this was a particularly challenging assignment to illustrate connecting personal experience to climate change and theoretical ideas about hatred, upon reflecting and a semester of learning how to connect literary works with experience, I can acknowledge how this assignment could have incorporated more personal experience. Before learning about the innate relationship of complex literary works and personal experience and the bountiful ways to connect the two, I didn\u2019t quite understand that my stories are being told in these challenging texts. Yes, Hazlitt speaks of inevitable hate as the only consistent variable in human nature, not something that may have a clear connection to my everyday life, but overlooking it and writing it off as too abstract to connect personally is a major mistake. I foreclosed the opportunity before even exploring it, something I\u2019ve learned in this semester is far from productive and actually ends up losing great ideas that then are never explored. I could have drawn into consideration protests and civil disengagements I have participated in and the rising partisanship I view in even my young peers, and especially how hatred has been magnified in a digital, social media age with cancel culture. I think this would have been an interesting perspective to take, and regret not considering it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This also ties in greatly to the central theme of accessibility, something I have tried to stress in all of my essays and blog posts. Accessibility in literature, specifically academic literature, has risen to the forefront of English education conversations recently. For academia, accessibility means curving the gatekeeping of who is and who isn\u2019t allowed and encouraged to participate in academic texts and conversations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Journalist Victoria Clayton summarized this movement when writing that \u201cthe problem of needlessly complex writing\u2014sometimes <\/span>r<\/span>efe<\/span>r<\/span>red to as an \u201copaque writing style<\/span>\u201d\u2014has been explored in fields ranging from law to science. Yet in academia, unwieldy writing has become something of a protected tradition\u201d (Clayton 1). This \u2018opaque writing style\u2019 may not be in cruel spirits, but the impact is debilitating. Audiences are cut out, powerful information is only held by the most educated, and elitism is engraved into academia as a whole. Clayton asserts that complex and unnecessary language that can be easily simplified serves as the main barrier. While I concur with that, I also believe that the way academic texts are structured is also a foundational problem: many academic works fail to consider other perspectives or invite readers of all walks of life to find a personal connection within the reading. When I see an academic text full of jargon and quoting tons of other sources, I am disincentivized to invest in the literature and find my own personal voice or connection within it. Instead of closing readers out, academia must open the doors for all. Until then, academia, increasingly in a digital age that presents cultural content online for all to see, will fail to reach a much broader audience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My second assignment certainly stressed this point as a central theme. Through analyzing tattoos as modern literary architects and the English education curriculum, I learned multiple aspects about accessibility in writing. Academic writing in English education is often criticized as rigid, rules-based, and not adapting to include more students. Through things like tattoos, students can learn so much more by incorporating lessons that actually apply to them and speak to their life struggles. Increasing inclusivity and accessibility is not just about changing the structure of academic texts, it\u2019s about changing the classroom too. This will allow students to see the impacts of literary texts by relating them to their own lives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also necessary to note that this writing course did not just rely on major assignments: weekly blog posts allowed us the opportunity to write, in shorter style, about questions posed by academic texts. Throughout these posts, I again stressed the importance of incorporating personal experience to showcase important issues and theories, as well as how I personally value some academic texts. For example, the fifth blog post focused on an incredible piece of writing by author Ta-Nehisi Coates. Through a simplistic writing style and extremely candid personal accounts, Coates creates emotional chokeholds for the audience that creates reader investment and translates a complex yet necessary point about race in America.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First-person experience, stories, and sharing memories are all potent ways to connect with the reader. Despite the multifaceted, complicated issues in academic texts, employing accessible writing styles similar to those of Coates cuts through confusion and delivers personable and powerful messages to readers. No matter what, the writing process moving forward and English education must make strides to adapt to modern times and classrooms. Assignments should encourage personal connection to a student\u2019s life, which will force educators to re-imagine how they structure the classroom. But by simply connecting complex academic texts to the everyday struggles of students, and reconsidering what can be included in education, the academic literary world will grow and progress towards inclusivity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zach Hill Professor Djain WRTG-101-019 30 April 2020 Final Reflection It\u2019s surreal to think that this is the end of my college writing experience. My freshman year has not been short of surprises, particularly this semester with a chaotic transition home and online. Still, within the chaos of the year, the college writing courses I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2900,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2900"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":35,"date":"2020-05-03T18:39:45","date_gmt":"2020-05-03T18:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/?p=35"},"modified":"2020-05-03T18:39:45","modified_gmt":"2020-05-03T18:39:45","slug":"assignment-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/2020\/05\/03\/assignment-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Assignment #1"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Please enjoy my first assignment, exploring a literary text and connecting it to a larger societal impact.<\/p>\n

Hate is a strong word, and the history of its implications on society is even stronger. Many analyze hatred as institutionalized into nature and human interaction, such as author William Hazlitt. This perspective argues we constantly thrive off of violence, division, and exclusion, often without realizing it. Hazlitt\u2019s 19th-century view is particularly interesting to glance through the lens of modern times and the problems we face, namely the rapidly deteriorating timeframe to save our planet from climate change. The world faces it\u2019s most existential challenge ever as a result of our own self-destruction. This is at a time when the world is extremely divided and our differences can feel much greater than our similarities. Considering Hazlitt\u2019s assertion that hatred is deeply entrenched into human nature, will hatred deter us from overcoming timely existential crises? Or, is hatred and its implications necessary to serve as a vehicle to action?<\/p>\n

\"OnWords:<\/p>\n

To fully grasp our future, the past must first be understood. Hazlitt illustrates how unconscious we can be of hate\u2019s presence through his relationship with a spider nearby. Hazlitt explains that while \u201cI bear the creature no ill-will, but still I hate the very sight of it,\u201d he still does not kill the intruder, a common reaction to encountering a spider (Hazlitt 1). While Hazlitt removes his hatred from his actions, he still doesn\u2019t question why he despises the creature, or more importantly, how natural it is to otherize and villainize different species just for existing in the natural world. From killing pests to how \u201cAnimals torment and worry one another without mercy, […] everyone reads the accidents and offences in a newspaper as the cream of the jest: a whole town runs to be present at a fire, and the spectator by no means exults to see it extinguished,\u201d conflict and hostility lurk everywhere (Hazlitt 1). Hazlitt connects this hate with many roots including personal insecurity and how entertaining instability is. Regardless of the cause, some evil intention seems inevitable in human nature.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The fact that our planet\u2019s destruction has been largely ignored until recent times shows just how powerful hatred can be. Climate change is the direct manifestation of humans being intrinsically self-destructive: killing the very world we rely on to survive. Not just the world itself, but the other species that inhabit it. Almost one million species are at risk of extinction, an exponentially higher rate for species like poison dart frogs who once flourished (Kolbert 17). There is no question this is a direct result of human\u2019s impact on the planet. Our natural overconsumption and self-centeredness are an existential threat to the world, but another threat is just as great: our inability to fix this. Growing division, nationalism, and polarization are all choking political systems and creating gridlock in government globally. The current lack of compromise and abundance of partisan politics in the American government and world highlights how divisiveness is stopping us from solving timely matters like global warming. This trickles to the public just as well, particularly in America. Recent data reveals climate change as the most politically polarizing issue among Republicans and Democrats (Milman 1). While Democrats rank climate change the third most important issue to solve, Republicans put it last, the largest discrepancy in rankings (Milman).<\/p>\n

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That divisiveness is a direct result of human\u2019s natural hate and instability: we otherize disagreeing parties so much we cannot work together, despite the fact that our inability to work together is dooming future generations to die.<\/p>\n

The rhetoric surrounding climate change is obviously far more complicated than Hazlitt\u2019s theory, but his ideas show up in a broad range of issues. Gun violence, immigration, and education reform are issues in dire need of solutions that have been delayed and delayed for years due to our inability to find bipartisan fixes. Around the world, tensions between the elite and the working-class are escalating, many argue the same is true of racial tensions. Still, history has not been settled quite yet. Hatred could very easily be turned into solutions, as Hazlitt explains that \u201cNature seems (the more we look into it) made up of antipathies: without something to hate, we should lose the very spring of thought and action. Life would turn to a stagnant pool, were it not ruffled by the jarring interests, the unruly passions, of men\u201d (Hazlitt 1). Without hatred, we would never truly feel the intense spirit we associate with it. Hatred fuels many to act, as it is a motivator for people, a fire burning inside of them. It\u2019s possible that our hatred could be the thing that unites us in finally overcoming our differences, as hatred is certainly the biggest similarity we all share.<\/p>\n

While the world seems more divided than ever, hope should not be completely lost. Pressing matters such as climate change flash gleams of promise for the future and may ultimately end up uniting us. One global study found nearly 90% of the world believes climate change is real and at least partly triggered by human activity (Smith 1). Still, the inequalities of climate change and how it impacts the wealthy vs the poor and the West vs the East changes this equation. Simply put, the \u201cimpacts, while immense, aren\u2019t shared evenly around the world, and the solutions will affect some nations more than others\u201d (Harder 1). Until the effects of climate change equally affect the world, our chances of overcoming it are slim. Even more detrimental, these disproportionate impacts will drive hatred and divide further as humans compete to exist in a collapsing world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Existential crises such as climate change will alter hatred in a new way, and the results will be extremely interesting to watch. Hatred is one of the only consistent factors in human nature. Hate serves to push action and deter it from occurring successfully. While the cause of climate change may not be solely based on hatred, it has catalyzed the crisis into a lethal state, and doomed future generations to death. The cycle of hatred and existential crises is never-ending, with each inflaming the other. Perhaps the world\u2019s greatest challenge yet will shift hatred, but as long as our tumultuous human nature proceeds, our solution to ending hatred will become extinction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Humans<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Please enjoy my first assignment, exploring a literary text and connecting it to a larger societal impact. Hate is a strong word, and the history of its implications on society is even stronger. Many analyze hatred as institutionalized into nature and human interaction, such as author William Hazlitt. This perspective argues we constantly thrive off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2900,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2900"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":26,"date":"2020-04-12T21:59:27","date_gmt":"2020-04-12T21:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/?p=26"},"modified":"2020-05-03T18:40:38","modified_gmt":"2020-05-03T18:40:38","slug":"26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/2020\/04\/12\/26\/","title":{"rendered":"Assignment #2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMy body is my journal, and my tattoos are my story.\u201d — Johnny Depp<\/span><\/p>\n

Derrick Todd\u2019s life has been marked by tragedy. His younger cousin was stricken by a car when waiting for the bus and died from complications. His brother was similarly killed, although under unknown circumstances to readers. As a young black man growing up in America, Todd\u2019s life and identity are characterized not only by the deaths in his past, but the frame society controls black men under. Black men are often viewed on a bipolar scale, with the worst stereotypes depicting them as thugs, living on the streets and being intrinsically violent for no reason other than their skin color. On the opposite side, black men are fantasized, sexualized, and mysterious. In a world that has taken and taken from him, wrenching his beloved family members out of his life and trapping him in a self-fulfilling prophecy summoned by others, Todd turns to tattoos. No, not \u2018I \u2661 Mom\u2019 or a girlfriend\u2019s name. Todd symbolizes a litany of his life experiences, his past, and shared cultural meaning through the ink he permanently inscribes into his body. These tattoos truly are literary devices that connect Todd\u2019s own life to the world and allows him to reclaim himself in a world that judges him before he even gets a chance to speak. His tattoos are usually simple despite their intricate meanings. Some of the tattoos he bears include eagle to symbolize his cousin\u2019s strength, or the dog paying tribute to his late brother. While these are just symbols on the surface level, this ink penetrates far beyond the skin. Tattoos may be a permanent, static drawing, but they are just as alive as the rest of our bodies. Todd explains this best himself by simply saying, \u201cAs long as I got these [tattoos] on me, my cousin gon live forever, or at least as long as I live. He always gon be a part of me,\u201d (Kirkland 384). These powerful statements force a cultural assessment of why we choose to get tattoos, what they represent both individually and as a collective whole, and what this means moving forward in terms of English education. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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One of Todd’s tattoos. This represents his brother, who’s nickname was Boss.<\/p><\/div>\n

Artistic expression is infinite. The very explosion of ways to express yourself artistically poses a challenge for modern education to keep up. This is particularly relevant when examining literature. Literature and English education are traditionally centered around grammar, rules, and guidelines, and are often slow to adapt to cultural changes. Education especially historically privileges some over others. The American education system has been dominated by cultural standards of whiteness as \u2018normal\u2019. This is a result of America culturally defining white as normal and good, whereas other races and cultures are viewed as different, and a disruption to the status quo. Because of this, we need new modes of education that are \u201cnot limited to technical, prescribed, or academic functions that privilege and serve only specific forms of texts and groups\u201d (Kirkland 376).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Black men and their connection to literacy are essential here. A lack of literacy is interpreted as a lack of humanity, which then leads to black men being treated as less humane. However, black men are extremely literate, and Todd\u2019s story highlights some of the intricate, modern ways that black men use literacy to resist the traditional system of suppression. Tattoos are a way to reclaim identity in a world that tells you who you are. This is particularly necessary for black men, who are so often defined by others. Reclaiming identity through tattoos is done on a personal and communal level. Tattoos clearly have deep personal meaning: through inking something permanent on our body, we create art that lasts with us forever. This art may connect to a challenge or struggle we overcame, or remind us of something we want to live by. The physical pain associated with a tattoo is also worth noting, as it serves as a reminder of the pain we\u2019ve endured in our past and how we live and persist despite it. Tattoos also connect us to others and create shared meaning. Through tattooing memories of his late relatives, Todd feels connected to their memory and is able to let them live through him. Tattoos of course also allow us to process and understand life. Todd endured great pain and confusion when his family members were ripped from him. Todd is able to gain closure and insight through tattoos, because \u201cIn symbolizing his human story\/struggle on flesh, Derrick participates in the human act of literacy that moves the personal closer to the transformative,\u201d (Kirkland 386). A main function of literacy is to aid us in coping with tragic events. It also allows us to connect with the past and apply the lessons learned into the future and present. By tattooing himself, Todd will forever carry the memory of his fallen family members with him, holding the growth and transformation that came with it.<\/span><\/p>\n

We must also fundamentally understand tattoos through a method of commenting. We live in a highly unstable and changing world, where forms of literacy like tattoos are viewed as ways to permanently stand in our identity (Weller). They also allow us to voice our frustrations and resist powerful systems. Todd\u2019s tattoos of course have a personal and shared meaning, but they also pose a question: Why have all these young black men died? Why do we value their lives less than others? How come my brother, my cousin are just another statistic? When death and violence, especially against the black body, have become so normalized, a permanent symbol on our body is something we turn to. We may not be able to create major change in society just on our own, but we can resist and show we are actively participating in change through materializing those struggles in our body. A painful yet beautiful example can be seen on the back of Trayvon Martin\u2019s father, Tracy Martin. Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a neighborhood watchman in 2012 at the age of 17. When Tracy explained the tattoo, he said that \u201cI just thought how my son had galvanized the country. To me, he\u2019s a king […]. I thought it would be fitting to take it back to Ancient Egypt. Like, the sphinx is one of the wonders of the world. Trayvon was my wonder of the world,\u201d (be Allah).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tracy Martin’s tattoo of his late son, Trayvon.<\/p><\/div>\n

What does this mean for English education? It means progressing towards increasing accessibility. Teachers must look for ways to include new and modern forms of literacy in their curriculum. This will require an open mindset from the teacher, but it will also flow easily from students. Teaching English in a way that incorporates tattoos among more youthful and nontraditional forms of English education will not go unrecognized by students, especially the students who are too often excluded from American education systems. Tattoos are literacy. They are ways to take back hijacked identities, to tell the world who you are, to connect to the world around you. But most importantly, exploring tattoos \u201cgive[s] us another way to search the human soul for its compassion and sacrifice and endurance,\u201d (Kirkland 391). <\/span><\/p>\n

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Explanation of Blog Post<\/span><\/p>\n

The reason I chose a blog post as my medium for explaining the article I selected is multifaceted. First, I knew I wanted to incorporate images. The article itself presented a litany of tattoos that connected to Derrick Todd\u2019s story. While a video or timeline are able to present images, I particularly enjoy using the blog because of the role images play. With a blog, you must scroll through to read it, and images placed in the right places can be extremely impactful. By putting the beautiful image of Tracy Martin\u2019s tattoo right after explaining the need for this tattoo, I am forcing the audience to pause and visually consider what I\u2019m talking about. Images in a blog post garner the most impact because they serve to transition the blog while also creating a visual recognition in the audience. Second, I chose to use a blog post because of the tone used. One of the messages in this blog post was that English education needs to become more accessible for more audiences. A blog post allows you to bend the formal rules of an essay or academic paper while still staying within the mode of writing. I thought given the subject of my article, the tone of a blog post that can be more relaxed, open, and personal was perfect.<\/span><\/p>\n

My main goals in this blog post were translating Kirkland\u2019s thesis while putting my own personal touch on it. If the audience walks away with only one thing, I would want that message to be for them to open their minds. American society constrains us to labels of our identity and who we are, and I want the audience to walk understanding we can break through these labels, both personally and society, through exploring things like tattoos. There is such deep meaning in tattoos themself and the practice as a larger cultural use. Tattoos are literary devices that help us in gaining knowledge and understanding of a world that may be unknown to us. I am a white male, and while I am part of the LGBTQ+ community, I still enjoy a lot of the privilege that many throughout the world lack access to. I find it frustrating when white members of my community are unable to open the rest of the community to other cultures and be inclusive of all. Through this paper, I hoped to illustrate one of the ways those with privilege can understand and support those who don\u2019t have the same power. Through showing the imagery of the tattoo of a dead son on his father\u2019s back, something no one should have to endure, the audience has face-to-face connection with Trayvon Martin\u2019s story. This may allow them insight and a perspective they had failed to consider before. When we hear about violence and people dying in society, it is often just another statistic. The painful imagery of his father reminds us that everyone who dies has a mother, a father, a family, friends, a life. They are not just statistics. Telling this story through the imagery of tattoos forces the audience to reconsider their previously held beliefs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, one of my main goals in this blog post was illustrating the need for education reform. Often, those who are in power of education and creating change fail to consider things from the perspective of students. I hope this post could be read by educators who will take away the idea that there are a litany of new literary devices in youth culture, many of which if incorporated into their curriculum would transform their classroom into an accessible space for all. Through sharing Derrick Todd\u2019s intimate stories, I believe that an educator who would read my blog post would leave with the understanding of the impact of adapting their teaching to meet the needs of their students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cMy body is my journal, and my tattoos are my story.\u201d — Johnny Depp Derrick Todd\u2019s life has been marked by tragedy. His younger cousin was stricken by a car when waiting for the bus and died from complications. His brother was similarly killed, although under unknown circumstances to readers. As a young black man […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2900,"featured_media":27,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2900"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":24,"date":"2020-04-09T22:18:02","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T22:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/?p=24"},"modified":"2020-04-09T22:18:02","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T22:18:02","slug":"blog-post-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/2020\/04\/09\/blog-post-8\/","title":{"rendered":"#Blog Post 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diaz doesn’t just write characters, she writes in universes. Each character in this short story, even the protagonist’s younger brother or love interests with minor roles, feels as if they exist in a world with entire histories and futures ahead of them. Diaz can create deep sympathy and connection with her characters by being unafraid to flinch from all aspects of their lives, an equation that leads to extremely developed and personal characters. Diaz never fails to take the opportunity to pour love and attention even into the smallest of details. While readers may not be able to relate to the overall experience of the characters, Diaz is constantly identifying pockets of unique details to highlight. This turns Diaz’s writing into immersive work that truly seizes the reader. When describing the emotional pain of discovering her mother’s cancer, Diaz eloquently writes “And at that moment, for reasons you will never quite understand, you are overcome by the feeling, the premonition, that something in your life is about to change. You become light-headed and you can feel a throbbing in your blood, a beat, a rhythm, a drum. Bright lights zoom through you like photon torpedoes, like comets. You don’t know how or why you know this thing but that you know it cannot be doubted. It is exhilarating,” (Diaz 53). The beautiful immersion and expansion of one moment is not just incredible writing, it is an opportunity to invite the reader in and stay. Through her always honest, always extremely-detailed, and always touching writing, Diaz forces you to meet her characters. Never sugarcoating, the ugly and gritty telling of this story lets you both find yourself in her characters while also being moved by the pain and tragedy in this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diaz doesn’t just write characters, she writes in universes. Each character in this short story, even the protagonist’s younger brother or love interests with minor roles, feels as if they exist in a world with entire histories and futures ahead of them. Diaz can create deep sympathy and connection with her characters by being unafraid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2900,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2900"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":22,"date":"2020-04-03T03:09:49","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T03:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/?p=22"},"modified":"2020-04-03T03:09:49","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T03:09:49","slug":"blog-post-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/2020\/04\/03\/blog-post-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog Post #7"},"content":{"rendered":"

Levi encourages his reader to reflect on the writing process by reminding us just who is in control of the writing process: ourselves. Throughout this chapter, Levi explains the story and history of carbon in meticulous, excruciating detail that can be challenging to follow. This analysis dwells on for pages, and at least for me, Levi loses clear meaning and impact. However, the end of the chapter draws the audience back in. Levi seems to acknowledge that he understands the reader may be a bit behind and that his writing is not completely accessible. He in fact theorizes that he could go on about carbon for much longer, writing that “I could recount an endless number of stories about carbon atoms that become colors or perfumes in flowers; of others which, from tiny algae to small crustaceans to fish, gradually return as carbon dioxide to the waters of the sea, in a perpetual, frightening round-dance of life and death,” (Levi 240). Instead, he concludes with a short and simple story about swallowing milk, and how that simple act creates the energy needed for his brain to write this chapter. This is twofold: Levi first, and almost humorously, highlights how complicated the entire chapter minus the conclusion is. This encourages the audience to remember that complex and nuanced topics can still be written in an accessible manner. The impact of this is obvious: I was able to understand the entire chapter only in the last paragraph. The first 11 pages, at least personally, become a wash and lose their significance. Overcomplicating valid ideas are dangerous. Second, Levi tells the audience on the most basic level possible that we have complete and total power over our writing. I believe this message to be extremely powerful, as my self-doubt and anxieties over writing often lead to writer’s block and procrastination. Levi cuts through this with his pen and hands it the reader, reminding them who is in control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Levi encourages his reader to reflect on the writing process by reminding us just who is in control of the writing process: ourselves. Throughout this chapter, Levi explains the story and history of carbon in meticulous, excruciating detail that can be challenging to follow. This analysis dwells on for pages, and at least for me, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2900,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2900"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":21,"date":"2020-03-27T19:42:39","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T19:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/?p=21"},"modified":"2020-03-27T19:42:39","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T19:42:39","slug":"blog-post-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/2020\/03\/27\/blog-post-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog Post #6"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Kingston utilizes her individual story to draw in and aid an audience in understanding the Asian-American experience at-large. Storytelling has some of the greatest impacts in delivering a message to readers. A writer can describe an issue as abstractly as they want, but personalizing a message helps the reader unpack a complicated matter in simple terms. The themes that Kingston writes of are extremely nuanced and would be difficult to fully understand without the personalization she delicately infuses. The very way the chapter begins highlights this perfectly. The disorienting summarizing of a village storming your house, killing your animals and destroying everything your family has worked hard for grabs the reader by the throat. The telling of a woman killing herself and her own baby out of pure shame and despair exposes a reality most people will never come close to even thinking about. It is often said that humans are incapable of fully understanding something until they understand it. We see a litany of examples constantly, of homophobic people changing their views when they find out their own child is gay, and many others of people altering their behavior after being personally impacted by it. Great authors are able to utilize this school of thought to connect with their readers, something that Kingston does with grace. While Kingston’s work will resonate with Asian and Asian-American audiences, she understands the more difficult task is reaching outside of that audience and making her work accessible to all. Through personal storytelling, the reader will not experience the story personally but gets as close as possible to it. This is essential not only in exposing readers to unknown worlds but also in breeding compassion and sympathy in audiences. After reading this story, perhaps the reader will not be radically changed, but they certainly will walk away with an enlightened perspective of an experience they would otherwise know little to nothing about.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Kingston utilizes her individual story to draw in and aid an audience in understanding the Asian-American experience at-large. Storytelling has some of the greatest impacts in delivering a message to readers. A writer can describe an issue as abstractly as they want, but personalizing a message helps the reader unpack a complicated matter in simple […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2900,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2900"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":18,"date":"2020-02-28T05:00:10","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T05:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/?p=18"},"modified":"2020-02-28T05:00:10","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T05:00:10","slug":"blog-post-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/2020\/02\/28\/blog-post-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog Post #5"},"content":{"rendered":"

I rarely cry when I am doing homework, and if I am, it’s probably out of frustration\u00a0or exhaust with the work I’m doing. But the most telling answer to this prompt are my tears. Coates writes in such a visual and descriptive way that reading isn’t just reading anymore, it becomes an immersive experience. The reader doesn’t even remember that they’re reading at a point and truly feels apart of the story. Coates writing is a balanced mix of jarring and shockingly honest experiences with wise insight that is extremely nuanced but just as simple to understand. The best moments are when we fuses these two approaches to writing together which is highlighted in one particularly important moment of recounting Michael Brown’s murderers acquittal and his son’s reaction. Coates writes that “…you were young and still believed.\u00a0You stayed up that night, waiting for the announcement of an indictment, and when instead it was\u00a0announced that there was none, you said, \u201cI\u2019ve got to go,\u201d and you went into your room, and I heard you crying. I came in five minutes after, and I didn\u2019t hug you, and I didn\u2019t comfort you, because I thought it would be wrong to comfort you. I did not tell you that it would be okay, because I have never believed it would be okay” (Coates 84). The reason why this example resonates so much with me is despite the retelling of a very specific instance, it’s still very relatable and understandable to most audiences. Whether or not someone is black, they can still connect to the sheer emotion and impact in Coates’ words. The power is in the simplicity and just retelling the facts of a harrowing story. This makes his writing accessible despite many audiences not being able to connect with being apart of black America. By keeping his stories short yet impactful, audiences can connect it to a similar story that may have occurred to them, even in a different context.<\/p>\n

While Coates carefully created writing style helps make his work accessible, his honestly does as well. Coates is willing to highlight the good, the bad, and the plain ugly. We get a well-rounded perspective of black America from Coates through his own personal experiences and a historical analysis. Coates willingness to be so vulnerable and never shy away from the truth, even if it’s not pretty, is what connects the audience to him and promotes accessibility in his work. Even if readers may not be able to personally relate to Coates experiences, they know that they’ll form a connection or at least leave a lot more educated because Coates is a straight-shooter. There’s no sugarcoating and certainly no fluff, but there’s also no pretentiousness or ego coming from the writer, something that can be hard to find. This honesty, as well as the emotional grip Coates writes with, are what allows his work to resonate with a diverse pool of audiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I rarely cry when I am doing homework, and if I am, it’s probably out of frustration\u00a0or exhaust with the work I’m doing. But the most telling answer to this prompt are my tears. Coates writes in such a visual and descriptive way that reading isn’t just reading anymore, it becomes an immersive experience. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2900,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2900"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":16,"date":"2020-02-10T04:58:28","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T04:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/?p=16"},"modified":"2020-02-10T04:58:28","modified_gmt":"2020-02-10T04:58:28","slug":"blog-post-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/2020\/02\/10\/blog-post-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog Post 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

I smoked weed to forget that night when we\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Smoked weed till three AM in your\u00a0room when we\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Drove endlessly through suburbia, that night<\/p>\n

That night, we stared at the stars oh so bright<\/p>\n

I found your name but you couldn’t find mine<\/p>\n

Finger up, connect the dots, make a shrine<\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019ll stare again and read it right<\/p>\n

But you never even learned how to write<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

I struggled at first when making choices for this sonnet. I had no clue what to write about. So, I just started writing. I began writing about my day and what was on my mind. Recently, I’ve been reflecting on the relationships in my life and viewing my past relationships through the lens of the end of the relationship, and how it represented the relationship overall. I decided to specify a romantic relationship, the ending of it, and what closure versus unresolved feelings look like. I was afraid that I would have to break out a dictionary looking for artistic or over-complicated language for poetry, but with such a short word limit it was best to keep my lines simple and concrete. This led to more impactful writing because it was written so concisely. The ending of relationships often feels extremely quiet, and that was something I wanted to illustrate in this poem. People are often at a loss for words or uncertain of what to say in fear that they will be the last words said. By including nothing about the words said in the night, I tried to portray this. I decided to be real and raw about the chain of events through the night instead of trying to create a metaphor to represent the experience. I believe this creates more personal writing and also creates a consistent tone throughout the piece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I smoked weed to forget that night when we\u00a0 Smoked weed till three AM in your\u00a0room when we\u00a0 Drove endlessly through suburbia, that night That night, we stared at the stars oh so bright I found your name but you couldn’t find mine Finger up, connect the dots, make a shrine Maybe you\u2019ll stare again […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2900,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2900"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":15,"date":"2020-02-10T04:57:43","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T04:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/?p=15"},"modified":"2020-02-10T04:57:43","modified_gmt":"2020-02-10T04:57:43","slug":"blog-post-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/2020\/02\/10\/blog-post-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog Post #3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dorothy Wordsworth and William Wordsworth both account the same experience under different literary works. Dorothy uses the prose form while William uses the poetry form. While the experience is the same, the writing illustrates different aspects of the experience. While Dorothy’s analysis\u00a0is concrete, simple, and focused only on relaying the line of events and describing the experience, William’s writing is reflective, more abstract, and writes about the experience as well as it’s long-term implications. Poetry seems to reflect our experiences in abstract and artistic contexts. It is focused on drawing the themes and beauty out of experiences, while prose is often focused on intimately describing the details of an event or experience and then summarizing the implications. William’s writing is abstract and complex while Dorothy’s is concrete and simple (and impactfulbecause of that). Still, despite the differences, there are many similarities between the writing. They both clearly appreciate artistic, descriptive riding of nature. They similarly\u00a0describe the flowers as dancing and having life of their own. One of the main differences is that poetry is often forced to compact the words into smaller amounts, thus having to be concrete and particular with the vocabulary. While Dorothy says the dandelions\u00a0“reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake,” William says “Ten thousand saw I at a glance, \/\u00a0Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.<\/p>\n

Personally, I find myself more drawn to poetry. While I still enjoy prose, I find that poetry allows both writers and readers to explore the creative writing process with greater capabilities. I also think that poetry allows both writers and readers more room for personal interpretation and allows readers more opportunity to connect with the work. In my own personal experience, poetry is a more holistic artistic approach to summarizing and expressing one selves while prose is a bit more stoic and limited in it’s scope. By using literacy devices and carefully selected vocabulary, the message in poetry can be magnified over prose. Poetry can also entail performance such as in slam poetry, and I feel that poetry, while often abstract, is actually more accessible for broader audiences. That’s because it has more room for personal interpretation, typically is shorter then prose, and also incorporates other elements then just purely writing. Poetry requires more holistic creative vision, which I’ve experienced myself. In high school, I participated in competitive poetry competitions, which challenged us to not only focus on the writing aspect of literature but a holistic focus that included performative and audience perspectives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dorothy Wordsworth and William Wordsworth both account the same experience under different literary works. Dorothy uses the prose form while William uses the poetry form. While the experience is the same, the writing illustrates different aspects of the experience. While Dorothy’s analysis\u00a0is concrete, simple, and focused only on relaying the line of events and describing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2900,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2900"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":14,"date":"2020-02-10T04:55:06","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T04:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/?p=14"},"modified":"2020-02-10T04:55:06","modified_gmt":"2020-02-10T04:55:06","slug":"blog-post-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/2020\/02\/10\/blog-post-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog Post 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Writing alone is one of the most foundational and effective ways to accomplish a litany of things. To start, writing clears your head. Most nights, I get a solid 6-8 hours of\u00a0rolling around, hot, then cold, then hot again, until I finally can rest and fall asleep. One night, when I couldn’t bear the racing thoughts boiling in my mind anymore, I whipped out my computer and just started writing. I have no idea what I ended up writing, but I do remember immediately feeling much more relaxed, almost as if someone had drained all the little details of the day and anxieties for tomorrow that were clogging my brain. Writing is arguably the best outlet for frustration, stress, and confusion, as it forces us to confront our thoughts head-on while also relieving the stress that comes from keeping everything closed off inside. Writing not only allows us to release those pent-up thoughts but also understand, organize, and filter through them till we find clarity. My senior year, multiple incidents occurred on my speech and debate team that was quite unsettling and isolating. In the months following, I went through denial, anger, shock, and finally felt resolved after I poured my heart out into my CommonApp essay. I wrote and wrote and wrote about the event and how it impacted me. I learned so much about myself and about the incidents. It also brought me comfort and closure and ultimately writing the essay was how I shifted back to my better self. I was finally able to alleviate the frustration and misunderstandings, all because I unleashed everything I was feeling onto paper. While it may not work the same for everyone, picking up the pen and just putting your thoughts down can completely shift your mindset and allow you to understand multiple perspectives. Been going\u00a0through it lately? Get to writing. You’ll feel better in an hour.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Writing alone is one of the most foundational and effective ways to accomplish a litany of things. To start, writing clears your head. Most nights, I get a solid 6-8 hours of\u00a0rolling around, hot, then cold, then hot again, until I finally can rest and fall asleep. One night, when I couldn’t bear the racing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2900,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2900"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/zh1639ablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}]