My long journey down the road of semiotics has encouraged me to ask questions: why is my English 202 teacher sitting in a back desk with a wig on, dig deep into readings: proper annotation and reaction, analyze just about any situation: take notice to underlying gender codes, predetermined notions of femininity, or paradoxes at play, and somewhere along the road, everything began to click. From my first disastrous conference which enlightened me that I had no idea what a topic sentence even was, and that I was advised to get a tutor, I knew my journey down the semiotics road would be a bumpy one! Despite the fact that I did not take Jim’s advice about the tutor, I did in fact annotate every reading, and re-drafted my class drafts until they were acceptable not only on a scholarly level, but on a semiotician level. Which brings me to something else I acquired in this course, my semiotician thinking cap. I used to be able to take it on and off, but now, it’s permanent. I used to be able to observe other’s behavior, or watch tv without readings popping into my head, or saying to myself "that’s funny this show embodies a clear American paradox", it’s a bit exhausting and somewhat disappointing to see that everywhere I go reaffirms my initial perception of modern day America. Whether I find myself questioning why does our nation value the messages, blatant or hidden, in the television shows we religiously watch, or I am confronted with gender codes at my work as I handout all the blue, green, black and red crayons to the boys, and pastel colors to the girls; semiotics is constantly with me.
My writing style has immensely changed throughout the duration of this course. I have cleaned up my tendency to throw in unnecessary verbage (verbal garbage), I have learned how to clearly state my argument or opinion in a topic sentence which allowed my paragraph, or blog post, to flow nicely, and I also believe that my writing style has improved a tremendous amount! Before this semester I did not have a clear writing style, nor did I know how to compose a simple topic sentence. My writing has improved to such a level, that I believe I have the ability to succeed in any writing assignment I come across because I now understand what I am capable of, what is expected, and I can read my drafts and understand what is missing, what is clear and what is unnecessary from the reader's or grader's perspective. For example, through my understanding of what a blog post is supposed to be comprised of I drafted my "Celebration of Contradiction" blog post from nothing more than a simple story with out of order details, to a short effective summary of an event, with striking detail including the environment in which I was surrounded, to the look on my face, and the contradicting values behind it all. I connected this blog and its values to two readings from the book and I also clearly stated what those values revealed about America. Due to my ex-love of verbage, I would have never been able to tell a short, effective story before taking this course.
Aside from the reasons I just stated, "Celebration of Contradiction" was my favorite post because not only does it embody consumerism at its finest, but it is also very telling about American culture and its paradox of values. My first two drafts of this post had absolutely no striking detail, and followed more of an essay format: topic sentence, summary, connection to reading, and interperetation. My final draft of this post is completely different from my two previous drafts: its former topic sentence is now located toward the bottom, I presented striking detail from people's "full paced runs" to the "amatuer look on my face" and my integration of quotes flowed very well, I think this post truly has all the components of a good, successful "A" post.
Thank you Jimbo for expanding my bloging (and writing) horizons to a land where the "A" students frolic and graze in their scholarly worlds of ecstasy.
Post #1 A lack of Supervision, and a Presence of Chaos!
Post #2 I can live in MY own Little World 24/7!
Post #3 Going Green's Dual Identity
Post #4 A Celebration of Contradiction!
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