Author: Kidist

At the beginning of the semester, I found myself uncertain of what to anticipate for First-Year Writing Class, ENGRD 101. Similar to any freshmen student, I was intimidated for the first day of class, doubting my skills and unsure of what my professor would have expected from me. Over the course of the semester, one of my favorite assignments helped me regain confidence in my writing proficiency. Reflecting on the assignments, I despised the concept of outlining, revising, and starting my progress over again. It became similar to past experiences, where I consistently put greater effort than classmates to reach the minimum requirement. However, I soon realized I learned to appreciate the gradual process of revision and witnessing my work become polished with each critical feedback. 

My first attempt at the alphabetic literacy narrative required numerous revisions and reconstruction. There were several areas of improvement that were necessary, for example ; misinterpretation of the prompt, the vagueness of claims and the lack of academic tone. I asserted numerous claims without specification, which caused my audience to not fully grasp specific events that shape the way I write. For example, I expressed, “When I began high school I started to lose my passion for writing…” ( Literacy narrative Pt 1) yet I never explained the underlying obstacles that hindered my loss of love from writing. One of my main goals was to ensure my audience knew how the events I went through shaped the way I write, speak, and even read. Still, I failed at conveying that message in my first attempt. However, when I began my second phase of turning my essay into a comic, I learned which areas I needed to revise. Throughout the creation of my comic, I found it easier than composing an alphabetic version. Because I was able to “Incorporate my visual component to my narrative, it became much easier for me to interrupt my story”. ( Literacy Narrative Reflection)I was able to give an image to my story and allow my audience to fully understand how my environment shaped the way I write. After completing the comic version, I established the amount of elaboration, the tone, and the structure of my essay. In addition, I understood “Drawing as a thinking process” rather than an artistic process, a famous quote by Dan roam. Instead of worrying about the complexity of drawing, I focused on the flow of each panel and exact memories I should emphasize. This later helped me on my third and final phase of revision on my alphabetic narrative. 

In the final revision of my literacy narrative, I was able to perfect what I lacked in my first draft of the alphabetical. Composing a comic was an eye opening process, viewing both my narratives and comparing it to a standard essay, showed me what I need to incorporate or de-emphasize. When completing my final draft, I was able to fix the vagueness, substitute  the tone to academic casual, and elaborate and give details on my claims. Overall, the literacy narrative assignment changed my perspective on writing as a process and I demonstrated my own visual thinking by creating a comic. Through the different comics and graphic novels I read, specifically Stitches by David, I was inspired by his flow and use of panels. Being influenced by his work, I used the similar structures of panels and designs on my own work. For example, onef my panels I used a similar dark/eerie drawing technique to emphasize how my environment resembles the dark color scheme and drawing style.

Moreover, my visual thinking  came to live throughout my note taking for Biology. Earlier in this course, I completed a sunday sketch assignment which required me to take visual notes. Reflecting on the past assignment, I recall disliking the idea of visual note taking, however as finals are pending, I learned that visual note taking ironically helps me retain information better. 

In addition, my second favorite assignment, the Halfa Kucha, helped me overcome my fear. Like the majority, my experiences with public speaking has always brought me anxiety. I constantly, “Practiced with the wall, the mirror, to my family and to my friends.” ( HAlfa Kucha Reflection) Yet, despite this obstacle, I was able to speak confidently and articulately explain my argument. Throughout the assignment, I incorporated the inductive style that I became familiar with this semester. The frame of my argument began with the observation of trauma, the analysis of both texts /the stage of recovery, and my final overall theory/thesis. Using this structure helped me execute my presentation without the repetitive deductive style I used previously in highschool. For future papers, I will choose to incorporate inductive writing style rather than deductive style. This strategic approach allows me to dive deep in my analytical skills and derive meaningful conclusions. Overall, this assignment helped my oral communication skills and my ability to analyze and synthesize two different texts and create my own argument. 

Moreover, I constructed various sunday sketch assignments and that’s where I saw many rhetorical compositions that I was able to build different text, media, and even auditory format. Two assignments that specifically stood out were, the production of mixtapes and the recreation of movie scenes. During the combustion mixtapes, I chose to create a playlist of multiple songs that reminded my audience of nostalgia specifically from the years of 2012-2016. For the other assignment, I recreated a movie scene from a recent movie that I disliked but found comedic. Essentially, throughout the course of this semester, I was introduced to many texts that can be composed through different genres. I wrote my own arguments, synthesized different texts, and even learned about web literacy by making my own website https://lifeofkidu.wordpress.com/ . Although the learning outcomes were the main motive for the frame of this course, I also learned the significance of comic and graphic novels. Initially, I had the association of superheroes with comic books. However, my learning journey beyond superheroes revealed the broader capacity of comics and graphic novels  conveying unique messages such as the lack of representation of women in the comic/graphic novel industry and trauma that are presented through different reasons. 

Reflecting on my first semester at Emory University, I am grateful that I had the chance to work with an amazing professor such as David Morgan. Not only had he exhibited patience and understanding regarding my upbringing, but helped me build a bridge the barrier I had with my relationship with writing and reading. 

Citation:

Stillman, Daniel. “Draw to Win with Dan Roam.” The Conversation Factory, The Conversation Factory, 26 Oct. 2020, theconversationfactory.com/podcast/draw-to-win-with-dan-roam#:~:text=“Stop%20thinking%20about%20drawing%20as,an%20idea%2C%20draw%20it.” 

Presenting an argument rather than writing an essay was considerably more difficult. When writing an essay, you have the freedom to elaborate to whatever extent you desire. It can be very detailed and you can dive deeply into evidence. Whereas doing an oral argument, you have to focus on one agreement and make sure your audience can fully flow your argument . Especially doing a Halfa kulcha, where your time is limited, you have to make your argument very precise and easy to understand. However doing an oral presentation gave me the advantage of having visual aids that can allowed me to focus more on my argument and let the visuals speak for themselves.

Making a structure for my argument wasn’t too difficult because of how precise the prompt was. I structured it similar to an inductive writing, where I have my observations , analysis and finally an ABT thesis. However, choosing which books to choose was a bit difficult. Majority of the books we read after Sabrina, didn’t appeal to me as much as the first half of the books we read. I eventually chose Sabrina and It’s lonely at the center of the earth because I understood them more and it was fairly easy to understand how the steps of recovery happened in each story.

Yes, Ever since i learned about the Inductive writing style, it helped me evaluate my writing style. So continuing the inductive stye instead of deductive is what i can make use of in my written work or any of my future oral presentations.

I don’t think my analytical thinking process was any different because it was a written assignment i would’ve have 100% used the same structure.

For visuals, I wanted to put specific images of panels so my audience can have a reference. But for some of the slides, used images that I found on google. I wasn’t thinking to much of the images because majority are from the specific panels and the audience were well aware of the stories and images.

I learned that practice does indeed make perfect. I spent my whole Thanksgiving break practice to the wall, the mirror, to my family and to my friends. It also important to cut any unnecessary detail that is not needed and to focus on your main claim and elaborations, since you don’t have enough time.

One of my classmates presentation that really stood out to me, was the approach in storytelling. In comparison to me, he had more energy and a narrating voice, whereas I was mono toned.

I could have been more deliberate in how I used images. I recall being asked about one of my specific pictures and how I came to choose that image. I “failed” to answer that question since I chose that image just for visual sake, whereas my audience may have assumed I purposefully chose that image to convey a message.

Throughout the entire literacy narrative project, I thought about my writing as a process. I did multiple drafts and revisions to get to the final product. I used the writing center as a tool throughout the process to help where I lacked. I was also able to compose texts in a different mode, such as a comic and in alphabetical text.

After finishing the comic and returning back to the alphabetic literacy narrative, I was able to expand on my essay. With my first paragraph, the feedback I received was about my vagueness and how I needed to use certain example to show my readers how my experience was. My thought process was to explain as much I could without the visuals. For instance with the comic I used visual and less explanation to show how my experience was. In the alphabetical, I used more explanation to substitute the visuals that are missing. It was interesting doing both alphabetic and comic style. I got to see my writing come to life and share piece of my story with my audience through visual components.

I continued the same structure I used in my first draft. Starting from coming to America/elementary school, middle school, high school, and current life.

It was in the 4th grade when I first came to America from Ethiopia.I attended a predominantly white school with a majority of ignorant kids who questioned if I could speak English or not. Being one of the only students to not speak, read, or write in English was very intimidating. I hated the idea of bringing any more attention to myself because I already stood out by being one of the five students who were of color. I used to sit in class wondering about how great America would be, the education I would receive, all the new friends I would make, and so on. All the time I spent fantasizing about my future home was crushed when I stepped into a classroom where I couldn’t find any other kids who resembled me. My teacher, Ms.Nelson, constantly pressured me to speak aloud to the entire class, solely for her amusement in hearing my distinct accent .She would use me as an example to teach the kids that if that didn’t practice they would eventually become like me. Consequently, from that day forward until my time in middle school, I refrained from acquiring skills in reading, writing, and speaking English within an educational setting.

 However, I never stopped practicing outside of school. My love of writing never faded away completely; I just avoided practicing in class to avoid being bullied. I spent countless hours practicing reading and writing until I felt I had mastered it. I used writing as a way to express myself easily because I found it hard to speak in English. I practiced every day until 6th grade and that’s when I felt comfortable enough to start getting out of my shell. I even started to sign up for writing and poem competitions. Despite the fact that I never fully committed to the competitions because of fear, little Kidist would have been pleased  for having the bravery to sign up. However, the process of learning to read was very challenging due to my lack of knowledge of the alphabet, grammatical conventions, and vocabulary. It wasn’t until middle school when I started to learn more about grammar, sentence structure, and so on. Regardless of this development, procuring resources like books, computers, notebooks – vital tools for practice – remained a challenge for me. I constantly found myself at the library watching random “How to pronounce English words” youtube videos and repeatedly reading one of my favorite children’s books, The Very Busy Spider.

 Yet, when I began high school I started to lose my passion for writing. With the gradual disappearance of my heavy Ethiopian accent and the nurturing companionship of understanding peers,I felt more at ease in my social group. It eventually caused me to abandon the craft that had formerly provided me great joy.  Although this was when I gained proficiency with the language and felt confident, I stopped using writing as an escape. I began viewing writing as a chore rather than a way to express myself. Trying to balance school work, writing supplements, and my personal statement, I was tired of writing.I discontinued journaling because it began feeling like an assignment rather than something I could do to destress or for my pleasure. I was constantly hitting the burnout stage and having to force myself to write and write just to complete the assignment. Often feeling discouraged, I began to stop writing for fun and only when necessary for school. 

Even to this day ,the true stance of my relationship with writing and reading is uncertain. I’ve overcome this big obstacle that hindered me from learning, but does it necessarily mean that I have to enjoy writing and reading because I finally understand how to? As future semesters unfold in my college years, I anticipate my journey with writing and reading to grow as it is an essential part of being a student. While I’m unsure of how my growth will change my opinion of reading and writing, I hope I gradually regain that passion I once had in middle school. 

Link to my playlist

My mixtape is a collection of “songs that bring back memories.” I compiled a list of songs that reminded me of the years 2014-16.

I didn’t have any rules when making the playlist; I simply remembered the majority of the music I enjoyed when I was younger. I first wanted to do Ethiopian songs that gave me a nostalgic vibe but that wouldn’t be something I can be graded on.

For the album cover, I was inspired by old video games I used to play on my Ipad when I was younger, which also give me a nostalgic vibe, so it was  fitting.

Cite for my album picture:

I miss the early 2010s : Genz: 2010s nostalgia, Nostalgia Aesthetic, childhood memories 2000. Pinterest. (2022, March 31). https://www.pinterest.com/pin/230316968436341428/

My thesis statement was: Through the different zoom in and out effects, color schemes, number of panels, and the common theme of isolation, they highlight the universal human struggle to connect with people and having to navigate their adolescence independently. I argued that Walden and Small used similar themes, and  techniques to emphasize the larger theme of isolation that is depicted in both comics. 

Most of my thoughts came from tracing and annotating, and it helped me design my outline structure for the analysis. While tracing the panels, I was able to make a list of similarities and distinctions that helped me identify my bigger theme/thesis. It was distinct from my previous writing in that it anticipated what I would write about and the format of my writing. In comparison to other types of writing, I would have taken my time and worked it out as I went rather than having an outline and efficiently executing it on paper.

I do feel like I got to understand the “secret language of comics” when doing the close reading exercise. I was able to pay close attention to each panel and different or similar techniques each author uses to analyze the theme.It helped me understand why the authors chose various options in each panel to invoke specific emotions or to make a general theme. Although I cannot relate to both situations, I believe I have a better understanding of Stitches and Spinning.The single biggest insight I gained was how both authors have a common theme and they convey that message using similar techniques in some panels. For example, the use of zoom in effects Small uses to emphasize his emptiness and isolation and zoom out effects shows the isolation Walden is facing.

 It was challenging for me to shift my writing style to an inductive essay because I forgot to develop my thesis statement and just started writing. In the past, I would have my thesis statement planned out first and would easily execute it with both paragraphs. After writing each paragraph, I had to find out what my thesis was and then go back and change the paragraphs to align with my thesis statement. 

Link to my analysis: https://lifeofkidu.wordpress.com/2023/10/17/solitude-tracing-stitches-and-spinning/

Link to my tracing ; https://lifeofkidu.files.wordpress.com/2023/10/thinking.pdf

When reading Spinning by Tillie Walden and Stitches by David Small, there is a common theme of isolation that the main character feels. In Stitches, David had to deal with a lot of childhood trauma that stems from his dysfunctional family. One of the main reasons why David was isolated from his family and the outside world, was due to numerous medical treatments and appointments. In Stitches, the sketch I chose to trace, there are three panels of Small zoomed in lying on the medical table.  Similar to Spinning, you also see three panels of Walden lying on the ice. Walden was secluded from her family and friends because of the significant amount of time she spends in the skating rink practicing and weekends competing across states. In both sketches, you can see where the phrase “All at Once” by Hilary Chute comes to play. Both authors illustrated three panels that are similar so the readers can engage with the story on multiple levels simultaneously. Through these three panels,  Small and Walden share a common theme of isolation, allowing readers to understand through visual elements. 

In addition, two thought-provoking patterns I have seen in both sketches are the color scheme and the zoom in and out effects. Small uses mostly dark colors like black and gray, whereas Walden uses three primary colors: navy, yellow, and white. However, in these exact panels, both authors use the color white to emphasize their isolation. Small uses the color white and special zoom-in effects of himself as a child in the three panels to highlight how his isolation and trauma emanate from his childhood. Walden uses white and the zoom out effect in Spinning to depict how one of her isolations stems from her ice skating career. The panel is zoomed out making Walden seem smaller which looks similar to her other panels in the book,that display stars and the moon to depict her solitude, as if she is the only one in the universe.Overall, Small and Walden use the similar  technique, albeit in different styles, to demonstrate how their isolation manifests itself in various ways.

Despite the fact Walden and Small have gone through different experiences they both share a profound feeling of isolation. Through the different zoom in and out effects, color schemes, number of panels, and the common theme of isolation, they highlight the universal human struggle to connect with people and having to navigate their adolescence independently. 

 Work Cited:

Chute, Hillary. Why Comics?: From Underground to Everywhere. 2017, openlibrary.org/books/OL28723757M/Why_Comics.

link to tracing pages

Click to access thinking.pdf