4 December 2018

At the conclusion of each semester it’s great to look back at the early lessons and contemplate all that has been learned and acquired from the course. Being in a two-part course such as FIQWS: Literature & Psychoanalysis has taught me many valuable lessons, both applicable in the classroom as well as the outside work. This essay will thoroughly preview the learning outcomes achieved as well as provide small portions of text which will aid in the validation of the outcomes learned.

One of the first assignments was the literacy narrative and was worked on mainly in the classroom. Writing the literacy narrative helped me to achieve the learning outcome of exploring and analyzing a variety of rhetorical situations and genres in my work as well as of my peers. The literacy narrative required the analysis of two images: a political cartoon and a painting. The political cartoon was by Glenn McCoy and referenced the painting by Norman Rockwell, “The Problem We All Live With”. In my narrative I wrote:

“Specifically speaking, the painting by Norman Rockwell, “The Problem We All Live With”, alongside the political cartoon by Glenn McCoy of Education Secretary Betsy Devos, are two examples of individuals using their influence on the public to support their messages.”

Exploring the two images taught me to analyze the genre of political images and paintings, and to understand the intended audience and the author’s purpose. Besides learning how to analyze the two images given to me by my professor, I learned to recognize and practice the use of key rhetorical terms and strategies. To facilitate and make our understanding of the rhetorical terms clearer, our professor drew a triangle with the words purpose, content, and audience. The final narrative did not have a specific format, and it was up to us to think about who our intended audience was. The only requirement for this paper was to include the analyzation of the images, which would fall under the content of the paper, and incorporate our stance.

The learning outcome of developing strategies for reading, drafting, revising, and editing was achieved and demonstrated in my writing of the exploratory essay. Reading the work of my peers as well as of my own benefited in my understanding of the exploratory essay because I was able to exchange ideas with my peers, in both the content and composition portions of our essays. Not only was I made aware of greater connections within the literary element I was analyzing, but I also got help with grammatical errors that I was making in my work. In my reflection of this paper I included:

“Not only do I see growth within my knowledge of Freud’s condensation and displacement, but I can also see growth within my personality. The requirements that had to be met for the fulfillment of this paper challenged me to the extent of asking for help and advice, which turned out to great. From now on I think I will visit my professor more often when assigned any paper”.

The revision and editing of my exploratory essay was successful because of my peers but greatly because of the flexibility of my professors. For a revision of the content I was using and to verify if my connections were accurate, I visited my professor for the content section during her office hours and received a lot of feedback which helped me better develop my ideas. For the writing section I emailed my professor and she also gave me feedback on the grammatical errors I was making. I learned the positive outcomes of visiting professors to aid me in better arguments and a stronger thesis statement for my papers.

 

The third learning outcome acquired from my composition FIQWS class was to practice the application of citation conventions. Again, I will use my exploratory essay as an example of this learning outcome. My citation page of the exploratory essay included the two citations:

“Freud, Sigmund, et al. On Dreams. 1989. PDF file.

Poe, Edgar Allen. “The Black Cat”. 1843. PDF file.”

But after a discussion with the content professor I learned that the correct citations would be:

“Giordano, Robert. “The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe.” Poestories,

poestories.com/read/blackcat.”

Freud, Sigmund, et al. On Dreams. Norton, 1989.

I learned to create my own citations and to revise my work cited page for any obvious mistakes. This lesson even aided me in the external world because I learned the importance of revision of another person’s work when adding it to my own.

With the help of the exploratory essay assignment I was able to develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of the writing process which means using my peers to review my work. Like stated above, my peers and professors helped me in the revision and reviewing of both content and composition. The drafts of my exploratory essay are presented below:

My understanding and use of digital technologies to address a range of audience could be seen through the creation of my website on CUNYCommons, where this paper is posted. The use of digital technologies to reach a range of audiences can be seen because since my website is public, my paper is accessible to other students and/or professors. Moreover, the use of digital technologies was also put in use to aid me in reading the literary elements provided for us in both content and composition sections of this FIQWS class. Using the exploratory essay as an example, both Poe’s story “The Black Cat” and Freud’s “On Dreams” were provided as websites and PDF’S, respectively. To access both documents, as well as all the other documents needed for this class, I had to use the internet and my laptop.

One of the first assignments we were given was the summary and response paper in which we had to analyze the Freudian concepts in “A Rose for Emily”. This summary and response paper aided in the achievement of the learning outcome of using texts that “integrate the student’s stance and language with appropriate sources, using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation”. When writing the S&R paper I argued that “Miss Emily’s childhood repression led to her avoidance of change and affected the relationships she had in her adult life”. By arguing my stance on this short story, I incorporated my interpretation of her characterization, my critical analysis of her actions as well as those of her father and argued my stance.

The final learning outcome that was to be met during this FIQWS semester was to “locate research sources (including academic journal articles” in “the library’s databases or archives and on the internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias”. The final Critical Research paper required two scholarly or academic journals to be incorporated to support our thesis. My thesis for my final paper was:

“Katagiri’s development of Super-Frog and Worm are attempts to cope with a disconnect from society and to boost his self-confidence, ultimately saving Katagiri instead of Tokyo”.

To support this thesis, I used the CCNY Library’s database and found two scholarly journals:

“Communal Coping and Posttraumatic Growth in a Context of Natural Disasters in Spain, Chile, and Colombia.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1069397116663857.

Rosbrow, Thomas. “Murakami’s After the Quake —The Writer as Waking Dreamer and Trauma Analyst.” Psychoanalytic Dialogues, vol. 22, no. 2, Mar. 2012, pp. 215–227. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/10481885.2012.666161.

As I stated in my reflection of the Critical Research Paper,

“I feel I have benefited tremendously from writing this critical research paper because not only did I increase my knowledge on the Freudian concepts and closely study Murakami’s work, but I was also able to learn how to search for scholarly journals and academic journals with the databases provided by City College. Finding academic journals will surely benefit me for other classes in my college journey.”

            The journey through this FIQWS course has led to several lessons learned, besides the ones mentioned above. Looking back and seeing the progression in my writing has given me a sense of satisfaction. Overall all the work that has been completed and all the revisions done to my work have all positively affect both my work and my writing. I hope all that I have learned is instilled in my mind and used for future reference.

-Odalis Espinoza