Over the course of the semester I found myself on a path of self-discovery (although it had not been my intention at the outset of the term). In growing as both a writer and critical thinker, it has become necessary to reflect on my past experiences to see who I am now. Each essay I wrote brought about a new perspective I had previously not considered, gifting me with new insight about myself. Writing about literacy enabled me to identify my own unique form of literacy, writing about genre analysis pinpointed writing techniques that I still needed to grasp, and writing about discourse communities encouraged me to probe deeper into my own discourse community to determine if it was where I belong. I was unaware of the knowledge I was lacking until confronted with essays I was underprepared to write. This perspective shift has empowered me to grow both inside and outside of the classroom. This semester inspired me to keep an open mind concerning what there is yet to learn in my future college classes, no matter how much knowledge I believe I already have on the subject.
Literacy is an essential part of life. I have defined literacy as, “A range of any skill, talent or passion with the only condition being that an individual has dedicated themselves to some extent to the improvement of said literacy” (Mullins 1). I wrote this definition in reference to musical literacy, but previous to Intermediate Composition, I would have also said that I was literate in writing. This may have even been a true statement. The issue is, I treated my literacy as though there was nothing left to learn. I have always been an avid reader, growing up I loved J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series and Douglas Adam’s "Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy". Lucas Pasqualin’s Don’t Panic: A Hitchhiker’s Guide to my Literacy caught my attention just from the title alone. I was starting to feel the pressure of writing my first essay, and as I was reading the article the words “Abandon all hope ye who enter here” (Pasqualin 1)from Dante’s Inferno appeared. I was transported to my 8th grade English class with Mrs. Fifarek. I saw the same sign above her door as I entered class every day. Mrs. Fifarek was one of the most influential teachers on my writing journey. She challenged me to be a constant learner, and taught that stagnation was the enemy. A key component of the definition of literacy is the word improving. The cultivation of a skill or knowledge is not a static concept and has no definitive end point. In the future I plan to work in the field of marketing research and brand analysis. I am fascinated by how people make decisions and what external factors influence them when making a purchase. Research is a continuously evolving field as new discoveries are made and new technologies arise. Literacy highlights the importance of not being idle in my own education, so as to not hinder my future marketing career. In this first essay of the semester I was fairly confident in my abilities, but at the same time I realized I needed to address some of my shortcomings. I discovered that I needed to focus on improving my grammar while writing and I have become more cognizant of that fact. When writing is grammatically correct, it adds an element of professionalism in communications. This concept is extremely important in jobs with business related aspects. The literacy essay exercise gave me the opportunity to reflect on the importance of continuous critical thinking, to not be satisfied with what I have written and that it can always be improved. This has manifested through my advances in writing this semester, which I plan to extend through my college classes and into a marketing career.
Where literacy influenced my critical thinking perspective, the genre analysis influenced my attitude as a reader and precipitated my evaluation of the sources of material I peruse. Tasked with writing a genre analysis, I came across my first stumbling block of the semester. I discovered the extensive writing knowledge I had gained from my previous high school AP Literature and Compositions classes had not prepared me for this type of analysis nor, more importantly, what to do in response. Genre analysis was not a topic with which I was familiar. I had written analysis essays about specific pieces of literature before, including comparative analysis, but those were content based observations. Exploring how genres compared to one another was foreign to me, so I had to adapt to the situation. There were a number of ways for me to augment my writing proficiency. The most significant of which was taking advantage of resources available to me such as supplementary texts, examples and people who were far more knowledgeable on the subject than me. Through this challenging exercise I was able to expand my knowledge of different literature sources, so I could better understand the characteristics of distinct genres and how they influence the content of a piece of literature.
Prior to the genre analysis assignment, I would have strictly relied on mainstream articles and would not have imagined exploring scholarly articles or editorial cartoons as sources of information. Scott McCloud’s “Setting the Record Straight” comic introduced me to an entirely new genre, leading me to choose an editorial cartoon as one of my comparative texts. Awareness of the resources around me improved my abilities as a researcher which is extremely beneficial considering my career aspirations. The topic I chose for this assignment, marketing ethics, was also due to its relevance to my future career goals and the importance I personally place on ethics in everyday life. When comparing the required three documents on the subject of marketing ethics, I realized that I needed germane supplementary information to provide a frame of reference for my audience. This exercise highlighted the importance that writing needs to engage the audience. To make the topic of my genre analysis essay applicable to anyone reading, I did some additional groundwork. I researched statistics from reputable online sources concerning how many advertisements the average person sees in one day to provide statistical evidence about the importance of the topic to the casual reader. My growth in this area allowed me to become a better reader, branching out into other genres of writing, which in turn influenced my writing to incorporate the audience.
Thinking of ways to increase the readers involvement in my writing forced a sense of audience consciousness. This is an important facet of writing and not necessarily one I had considered before. The principle of writing for a specific audience can be applied to any writing I undertake from this point forward, both in college and in my career. Being able to do research and engage my audience are skills that will be useful to me as a writer. Composing these essays has provided a way for me to develop those abilities.
Genre analysis expanded my scope of literature and focus on the audience, which helped set the stage for the ethnography essay. If you had asked me when I applied to be a Roar Tour guide last November, I would not have been able to tell you that I belonged to a discourse community. Discussions around the reading by John Swales about the characteristics of a discourse community prompted me research my new community. On a topic like Roar Guides, where I already had a familiarity, writing an ethnography essay and conducting an investigation allowed me to reach a more thorough understanding. The extra benefit outside of writing the essay and growing as a researcher, was feeling more connected to the ROAR community and its mission. Writing the ethnography essay required honing my skills in the research field, as well as utilizing the lessons of critical thinking from literacy, and the more expanded sourcing outlook from genre analysis. As I read scientific papers on serious leisure, interviewed my peers and critically analyzing the motives behind why student volunteers would give up so much of their own leisure time, I realized there is always more to learn on any topic.
In the future, I can expect to be in situations where I do not have all of the answers. I may receive an assignment or have to write about a topic on which I have no past experience. However, as a professional I will be expected to adapt and complete an assignment despite circumstances. In this class, not only was I able to improve my skills as a writer, reader and researcher, I was also able to develop a course of action when working in unfamiliar territory. This knowledge will be priceless in all my future endeavors.
Below is the essay I wrote discussing a genre analysis of marketing ethics literature.