Final Reflection

I would like to think of myself as a fairly capable writer. I came into college with the desire to write creatively and turn those words into images on film. I have taken writing courses for advertising, feature films and the Web and I worked as a newspaper reporter for a year. Each discipline presents it's own challenges and restrictions but one idea is universal: in order for a piece to be effective its elements must be harmoniously composed.

This course has made me think of composition as the writer's voice. Throughout the semester the class has been presented with an arsenal of weapons such as rhetoric, the Toulmin Model and logos, ethos and pathos. Each of these methods of reasoning provides the writer with a framework for effectively communicating an argument or idea.

One aspect of the class that I never gave any thought to before was the Selfish Gene Theory and the idea that language is the great technology that separates us from animals. It makes sense that a species that has developed an advanced system of communication could suppress it's cannibalistic instincts. That said, I agree with Lanham to the degree that the use of language has digressed in recent years. Lanham says that jargon can be a joy, but more often than not it merely serves to separate people more. Watch an interview with the average famous musician or athlete and you soon realize why they do what they do and don't have a career in public speaking. I suppose it is true to say that language separates us from animals, but some people act like talking animals on a regular basis. So maybe what really separates us from animals is simply the ability to express our animalistic instincts more clearly and with greater detail.

I think language and writing should unite people. This is the reason behind the strict structure of newswriting. It's all about the who, what, when's with very little flair. This type of writing can be easy to read, sometimes boring and almost never offensive. This is not the type of writing I am interested in. During my time as a reporter I tried to give my writing some "juice" every chance I got and usually those specific lines of text were highlighted and deleted by my editors.

Scriptwriting takes language to the other extreme. Now the writer is allowed, even encouraged to be creative and write something nobody has ever heard of before. The formatting may be rigid, but other than that anything goes. No matter what type of writing is being attempted, the key to effective communication is the composition.

As a mass communications student I have always been technology savvy, but I never gave much thought to its place in English classes at any level. Kamerin did a presentation on interpreting poetry using digital media that explained it well: kids comprehend things better through the use of multimedia because that is what they have grown up with. Sounds, images, colors and movement stimulate students who are accustomed to this type of entertainment. Simple words on a page, beautiful in their own right, aren't enough to excite many students.

Technology can also be counterproductive, as we all learned during the MOO experiment. If anything I think we proved that under normal circumstances there is no substitute for good old fashioned face-to-face discussions. The great thing about it is the ability to link teachers and students in real time from miles apart.

The blogs we have kept over the semester were a great supplement to our discussions. Without really realizing it, they were a great weekly exercise in composing with limited space. This was often a struggle of mine while newswriting. It's challenging to cover even the smallest subject with a couple hundred words. I think a weekly blog would be a great way to mix things up in a high school English class.

As a non-English major squatting in a class full of future teachers, it was interesting to see how concerned the class was with the student-teacher relationship, whether it had to do with grading systems, gender issues or simply being able to get some honest reaction out of them. I'm very encouraged by what everyone has had to say.

Composition can basically mean any type of arrangement of items that forms a whole. Through my endeavors with photography, I have learned how framing my subjects in a certain way attracts the eye and how different colors and shapes can affect the overall composition.

Writing requires even greater attention to detail. The elements at the artist's disposal are vast, almost endless. Even with photoshop, a photographer is limited by the physical world and what he can and cannot achieve visually. The writer's only limitation is himself and how finely he can hone his ability to compose words into something meaningful.

Glad I signed up...

I signed up for this class because I needed a 3000-level english class and it fit my schedule. I would have never imagined I would get so much out of it, both educationally and personally.

I had a healthy respect for the power of language before and this course has only strengthened my respect. During my time as a newspaper reporter I learned how stating something incorrectly causes a million voicemails before 10 a.m. or how going to extra mile to make something genuine and sincere will make people you have never met seek you out for a hug. Unlike spoken words, which often fall from our mouths and die soonafter, the written or printed word is there forever and must hold its own.

I was happy to take a class with mostly future teachers. I think our generation has a lot of fresh ideas for teaching young people. As a big bro with two little sisters in the Texas school system, I'm encouraged to hear at least the young ladies in our class talking about how they want to mix things up in the classroom. The way kids are bombarded with images and ideas these days, they need teachers who were once in similar shoes and can reach them.

After absorbing all the theories we have discussed in class, the biggest thing I will take away is an increased awareness of subtext and underlying meaning in a literary work. I might want to write for a living and I think this course has added a new aspect to my juice. I have found myself thinking about the words I choose more carefully and it has made my writing projects this semester evolve into something more meaningful...I hope.

I'm not sure that I've taken a class outside my major where I had so few complaints, but honestly this course was fun. Not to sound too suck-uppy but I think the English dept. loses a great instructor when Dr. Garrison departs.

Lanham's anti-text

I haven't quite decided whether or not I actually like this book. I enjoyed much of it, but it was also tough reading. My favorite chapter was The Delights of Jargon. There were plenty of excerpts from other works, both literary and as simple as an office memo, that showed how the use of language can affect (or not affect) the reader. Lanham quotes Northrop Frye who says, "Literary education should lead not merely to the admiration of great literature, but to some possession of its power of utterance." It seems that Lanham would like to see English student speak with more tact and rhythm (learned from the great texts they study) that students of math or science. I've started to notice more when people use "like" or "you know" excessively. I'm guilty of it myself sometimes. I won't name any names, but I do it in class sometimes when someone is talking. I count the "likes." No one is that bad about it.

While Lanham bashes some for their "mumblespeak," he also seems to revel in interpreting it. As a man who obviously enjoys the literary arts, why wouldn't he. He notes that America is the king of jargon, which makes sense given the diversity of the country. Language is only getting older and the only logical progression is the advent of new words.

I think this book is worth assigning in composition classes. It can be tiring to read, but the payoff is usually pretty good and I will definitely remember some of the concepts presented by Lanham and the authors he quotes.