The Unspoken Lesson

At the beginning of the semester, I was very nervous. I’ve always been told that my writing was never good enough when it came to college level writing. Having a professor such as Dr. Lucas who is always editing her work and spoke proper, I was feeling very intimidated. Little did I know that she would help my writing through multiple exercises such as the workshop essays, monthly letters, and conveying to us how we needed to step away from the screen to correct our work.

The workshop essays was an exercise to edit our writing and have a peer-review assignment. This lasted the whole semester and the narrative had to be about something we either enjoyed and our outlook on the subject. Hannah Saunders was the discussion leader for my workshop was to fix grammatical errors, and not to posed questions and give the answers to the readers. This helped me figure out what I needed improve on in my writing. Many of the comments I hadn’t even learned from my high school teachers that other students were saying that they learned in high about their writing in general this was

The monthly letters were also another way to allow my writing to student and a full-time employee I’ve learned time isn’t always on my side, but taking time to slow down and a handwritten letter, thank-you note or parcel to someone they know, via the good old-fashioned snail mail (Connrick). This is shocking to understand because mail used to be the communication of the world for the longest time throughout history and now every message is now processed through their phone. Another lesson that Dr. Lucas taught me in English 131 and how I can improve my writing is stepping away from the computer screen. Stepping away from the computer screen allows for students to see their mistakes. students to figure out the mistakes.

My time in English 131 has taught me some important lessons. These lessons include what I needed to do to improve my writing, how to write letters and use old-fashioned “snail mail”, and how to step away from the screen when writing. English 131 has been a challenging yet rewarding class to have taken here at Lenoir-Rhyne University and the lessons I have learned will impact my future classes in someway and on to my adult life.

Work Cited

Connick, Tom. “43% Of Millennials Have Never Used Snail Mail.” Metro, 18 Sept. 2017,

metro.co.uk/2017/09/18/43-of-millennials-have-never-used-snail-mail-6935647/.

Myrberg, Caroline, and Ninna Wiberg. “Screen vs. Paper: What Is the Difference for Reading

and Learning?” Insights, UKSG in Association with Ubiquity Press, 7 July 2015,

insights.uksg.org/articles/10.1629/uksg.236/.

Annotated Bibliography

Beatty, Robert, and Cassandra Campbell. Serafina and the Black Cloak. Unabridged. [New

York]: Listening Library, 2015.

Serafina is a child who lives in the basement of the Biltmore with her pa. While she roams the house at night she discovers a clock and how children are being taken by the man with the black cloak. In order to save the children from the man and the back cloak, Serafina has to use things from her past to help her defeat the man.

Kichener, Caroline. “Why So Many Adults Love Young-Adult Literature.” The Atlantic,

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/12/why-so-many-adults-are-love

-young-adult-literature/54734/, 1 Dec. 2017, Accessed 9 Apr. 2018.

This article is describing why adults are loving young adult literature when it is intended for young teens and teenage audience. Some say that it is because the characters are one dimensional anymore while others say it is all because Harry Potter was so famous. This is an opinion-based article from multiple authors and readers of Young Adult Literature.

Mankant, Jordan. “Thought Twice; It’s Not Alright.” Impossible Angles. Main Street Rag, 2017.

Jordan Mankant examines Bob Dylan’s 1963 song “ Don’t think twice it’s all right”. The narrator in Mankant’s poem claims that Bob Dylan was lying and questions it as an act of true love. The narrator also questions dylan on what would happen and how he would feel when he would see his love out somewhere.

Richtel, Matt. “Blogs vs. Term Papers.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Jan.

2012,www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/muscling-in-on-the-term-paper-tradition.html

The article discusses the differences of having students write term papers by hand or having the students write blogs about their assignments on the computer. The idea is discussed by multiple professors with different opinions. While there is still opposing opinions, it is the preference of the student and how they complete their work.

Smith, Zadie. Swing Time. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2016.

Swing Time follows an unnamed narrator throughout her life. With multiple relationship problems with her mother, her childhood best friend, Tracey, and her boss Aimee the narrator faces many challenges in her life. While trying to figure out why she lost her job the narrator takes the readers through her life switching from past and present until the reason she lost her job is realized.

Twenge, Jean M. “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media

Company, 4 Aug. 2017,

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destoyed-a-generation/534198/.

The question that is expressed when discussing smartphones is “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” This article details the facts and how explains how big the problem is and what we can do to prevent the situation from worsening. This is an opinion-based article which depicts the generation as a whole through the statistics as a generation that is destroyed by smartphones. The statistics are interesting and show how technology is affecting everyone.

Coming out of the Shadow

In Zadie Smith’s Swing Time, an un-named woman who is also the narrator tells of how she lost her job. She accomplishes this with the use of flashbacks of her childhood. Throughout the novel race is evident in the narrator’s childhood and dominates her adulthood and dictates her.
The narrator’s mother portrays a key role in the narrator’s development and how the narrator sees race. On multiple occasions when the narrator is seeking comfort and the motherly love from her the narrator’s mother counters with struggles from slaves and historical figures of color. When the narrator’s mother has activities planned for the girls when they come over the narrator’s mother also refers it back to race. “Yes, you could make something ornamental. That’s your freedom! Take it! Who knows? You might be the next Augusta Savage!” (63) This is demonstrating how the narrator’s mother can take a simple art project for the girls and make it about race and the struggles the multiracial and African descent population. The narrator’s mother would only let the narrator acquire certain books in her room. Instead of the dance books that she would want the narrator would pick out biographies from prominent dancers who were also colored and hang the pictures on her wall. These instances begin the long journey of how the narrator will let the issue of race dictate her like and make her a shadow in her own life.
The narrator is not only influenced by her mother but also by her childhood friend Tracey. One instance that Tracey influences the narrator‘s view on race is when the girls are invited to Lily Bingham’s birthday party. “Nah,’ said Tracey casually, looking away, out of the window, “Khurshid‘s a Paki.” (78) This is displaying how an adolescent child around the age of ten is discriminating another schoolmate. Race is shown in many ways throughout the narrator’s childhood with her friend Tracey. This occurrence starts multiple occurrences in the narrator’s life where race is evident and will last throughout her childhood and into her adulthood.
Another instance, for example, is when Tracey tells stories of how her dad is a back-up dancer for Michael Jackson. The narrator, on the other hand, tells of her white sister. “My cruel white posh sister went there, and was very successful but refused even to wave to me from the window, can you believe that?” (47) This shows how the narrator through her childhood looks at race. The narrator never really met her sister and she is assuming that her sister is bitter and cold because she is white.
The realization of how racism is in the narrator’s life is only shown when she is in Africa for the school for girls project. This is pointed out at her by Fern who is helping with the project. “You think far too much about race did anyone ever tell you this?” (251) The narrator was saying that “we” didn’t have to accept circumstances in Africa. She was referring to herself as one of the civilians in the country. This is showing how her mother’s influences of fighting for the right for racial equality have been shown throughout the narrator’s life. The narrator has grown into this shadow of herself and a shadow to the issue of racism.
This novel Swing Time is a powerful piece of writing. It displays issues that are relevant today such as race with the movement BLM (Black Lives Matter) and other racial equality movements as well. This novel can attest to multiple issues as well. It brings the hard things to talk about to light and shows people not of color that read this novel all the unjust things that have happened while being relevant to the times. It also shows how far people of color have come.

Home is where my Heart is…

My name is Kristin Damron and I am a freshman at Lenoir-Rhyne University. Two major things you should know about me is that I love music and I love where I came from. I graduated from East Burke High School and I have made many memories there with my friends. The bottom picture is some of my friends that I have made throughout my time at EB. We recreated the picture we took from our junior year this year at our homecoming football game. At East Burke, I was in Chamber Singers. The picture at the top left is the last time I sang with the Chamber Singers and it is the last time I sang in general. I am seen hugging one of my good friends in the picture. My experience in the group has helped me not only in music but in friendships as well. The top right picture summarizes the major things that I hold dear to my heart. My friends and my love of music. These girls that are with me in the picture are from Chamber Singers and we are also at prom together. We made time to snap a picture while we were everywhere that night. Looking back I know that these girls and everyone in my pictures are going to be there for me and I’m going to be there for them and we made some good memories together and I can’t wait for them to continue throughout life.