Literacy Narrative Reflection

For this assignment, we had to write a literacy narrative on how we felt about the painting, Charcot’s “A Clinical Lesson at the Salpietre.” A literacy narrative is usually supposed to tell a story about a writer’s experience with reading or writing. However, this literacy narrative told a story about how the writer felt about a painting. A literacy narrative includes vivid detail, which I included in my piece by describing what the painting looked like to my audience. 

I, the writer, was motivated to write this piece for class, however what I wrote in my literacy narrative specifically pertained to the anger I felt because of the painting. The potential audience for my piece are the future generation of women and men who will take positions of power. I’d like them to know that their actions will greatly affect the course of the future. So they should make sure to include everyone in their decisions. The painting was of Jean-Martin Charcot, a French neurologist, demonstrating his scientific approach to curing hysteria to other doctors. The only women in the picture were the patient that Charcot was using as a test subject and the, presumably, nurse looking after the patient. I’d like them to remember the lack of power women had then and make an effort to have more women in power.

This assignment helped me achieve the course learning outcomes by introducing me to a new genre, and helping me analyze my feelings towards the painting. Since this was a painting and I wasn’t very familiar with what a literacy narrative was so after our initial draft, I didn’t do a really good job. Although, after the peer review I was able to revise my work with the help of a partner. So I developed strategies to read, draft, collaborate, revise and edit my work. With the help of the North Field Guide, by Richard Bullock. I was able to learn more about key rhetorical terms and identify the rhetorical situation of what I’m analyzing. With this assignment, I was able to use technology to share my writing with different people, and locate different research resources.  I still haven’t been able to compose texts that integrate my stance with appropriate sources using summary strategies, critical analysis or argumentation. However, because this essay is supposed to be in mla format I got to practice my application of citation conventions.

Exploratory Essay Reflection

For this exploratory essay, I had some trouble picking which story I wanted to explore the Freudian terms on. I had to choose between writing it on a story I liked or a story where the Freudian concepts stood out to me. In the end I chose to write about “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe instead of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates. This essay consisted of using one of the short stories provided to analyze and explore how it reflected Freudian terms. This task was hard for me because I had to make sure my essay had a mix of retelling the story while also talking about the ways that a certain part of the story reflected repression or wishful impulse. While writing this essay, I hoped to show my professors my understanding of the Freudian concepts, while also showing that I’m able to identify them when I see them. My audience for this essay was my professors which is why I didn’t go too in depth about the content of the short stories because they already read the stories. 

In this essay, I didn’t really have a stance because I was just stating what was happening in the story. This essay didn’t require me to take a stance on anything in particular, I was just trying to identify certain things in the story. This assignment is helping me reach the course learning outcomes by pushing me to explore how the displays Freudian terms. I was able to devise a strategy for reading the short story, drafting what I’m going to write for the essay, and collaborating using the peer review, revising it after I got the feedback from the peer review and editing it. I was able to use blackboard to upload my essay and use strategies to summarize the short story, analysing the story, and interpreting what is written in the story. The exploratory essay helped me get more exposure with writing college essays. 

Critical Analysis Essay Reflection

For this critical research analysis paper, I chose prompt number two which asked me to analyze two of the stories we read in class, and analyze them through a Freudian lens. I had to think about how the characters in the stories let society influence them. This essay was probably the hardest essay I had to write because I had to figure out a way to stop summarizing the stories in my essay and just analyze the specific things I wanted to talk about. I was motivated to write this essay because of my grade but also because I know that many more college essays will prompt me to analyze a specific text so I had to develop my skills in writing analytical essays. In this essay, I hoped to clearly convey the idea that beauty standards can be detrimental to one’s mental health, and also use Freudian terms to back up my arguments. The audience is my professors, and I had a lot of perspectives on this topic because as a woman plagued by a society that is always telling her about the way she should look to be considered beautiful, I can relate to the main characters of the stories I’m writing about.

This essay greatly helped me accomplish the course learning outcomes because I was able to analyze different texts that weren’t exactly the same but similar and prove the argument I was trying to make about society using the stories. With the peer review activities done in class and online I was able to draft, collaborate, revise, and edit my essay to get the final product. Furthermore, we used blackboard to upload our essays so I was able to understand and use digital technology to address my audience. I was required to use two outside sources so, I had to use the library’s database in order to find relevant sources for my paper, while also ensuring their credibility. Next, I was able to integrate my stance while using the summarizing, critical analysis, interpretation, and argumentation strategies. Lastly, it was critical for me to dd the proper mla citation in my essay to avoid plagiarism so I was able to successfully complete the last course learning outcome.

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