The Secret Language of Comics

If the freshman chooses their First Year Writing class next year, I recommend taking the Secret Language of Comics. From my experience, this course not only introduced comics, a novel literary medium for me, through several class readings, but the various writing and sketching assignments also helped me grow in my writing. Through these assignments, I learned more about my advantages and disadvantages in writing. I also accumulated more skills and improved through the progression of one assignment to another.

The first major writing assignment in the class was the Literacy Narrative Part 1, a personal narrative in which we analyzed the experiences shaping our reading and writing process. For this assignment, I tried to incorporate every detailed experience, every book I read, and every writing I created. However, after rereading the essay several times and receiving the professor’s feedback, I realized that the paper is too compact with loosely connected information, making it lose focus. I was glad that the project has multiple parts, which inspired my wish to revise and improve on the idea based on the problems spotted. On the other hand, After the professor’s reminder in class, I paid particular attention to incorporating citations when I included quotes from other authors’ works. 

The Tracing Stitches and Spinning assignment introduced me to several new skills while exposing a similar problem in my writing. Since the genre for this assignment differs from the first personal narrative, the audience, or the professor who makes the assignment, might expect to see an essay that displays more about one’s ability to analyze others’ works and less about one’s personal experiences. Thus, in comparison to having more freedom in structure for the personal essay, I used a more standard ABT (and, but, therefore) organization for this essay to more clearly analyze the similarities and differences between the two comics and expand on how their characteristics contribute to the works as a whole. In this genre of more academic writing, I also have to eliminate figurative language and attach to a more formal and interpretive style. In addition, this assignment also trained my visual thinking ability when I interpreted others’ graphic works to assemble my own essay. For example, I wrote in my essay how an increase in the number of panels on the page could “induce the readers’ curiosity. Also, the compact configuration might at the first glance give the audience a sense of quickened pace and intensified emotions. “, showing how I learned to infer the mental effects that specific structures of comics can elicit in the readers, which helped me understand the authors’ purpose when using certain structures. However, sometimes I found myself lacking in providing visual interpretations, which reveals a similar issue in my literacy narrative: crowding my essay with too many pieces of information but not providing a deep enough analysis for each of them. I compared multiple elements from the two comics, such as the panel sizes, the perspectives, and whether the authors drew out their imaginations. However, I sometimes merely contrasted how the authors utilized the elements visually on the surface without analyzing why the author had chosen to incorporate them, their effects on the readers, and how they contributed to the entire narrative. Similar to the Literacy Narrative Part 1, these flaws disclose the need to find a focus, condensing my essay into just a few points and providing profound interpretations for them. 

The second part of my Literacy Narrative project gave me the opportunity to revise the loose and obscure structure of my essays. Learning from my mistakes in the previous draft and from the professor’s advice, I extracted certain parts of my experience and focused mainly on how moving from China to the US affected my process of reading and writing. Concentrating on one component of my experience allows me to organize how specific details have influenced me and to better conclude a theme or message that expands on that particular experience than when dealing with multiple loosely connected sections. Through this process, I also further realized how writing is indeed a long process involving numerous revisions to learn from and resolve past mistakes. I also obtained certain unexpected discoveries. Knowing how comics are a genre that differs mainly from alphabetical narratives and that the audience might expect them to be more attractive to read, I borrowed specific techniques from my class readings and past analytical assignments. For example, I varied my sample sizes to emphasize certain significant moments, a method that I learned from the book Spinning. Also, like how David Small designed Stitches, I drew out what happened at the moment and how I interpreted these moments in my own imagination. Aside from obtaining new techniques, I also discovered that, personally, this assignment was the most significant part of this course. Because English is my second language, visual mediums provide more accessible and more vivid ways to portray my ideas than alphabetical mediums. Thus, I found creating a comic more intriguing than writing an essay. Through this project, I tightened my narrative and discovered a new, more compelling medium to express my ideas. 

Having fixated my narrative around a central experience in Literacy Narrative Part Two, I was able to incorporate a main theme and message after returning to the alphabetical form in Part Three of the narrative. When drawing the narrative in Part Two, I discovered how my evolution in reading and writing revolved around the central theme of communication. I noted this finding when revising my essay in part one and developed the theme that “the language barrier after moving to the US taught me how much value effective communication means to me, which inspired my growth in reading and writing.” I reorganized my experiences mainly around how my wish for communication has inspired me, through which I clarified the structure of the essay and interconnected the initially separated parts about reading and writing. The Literacy Narrative project taught me how writing improves by revising problems and concentrating on the highlights. Still, it also enhanced my knowledge about personal narratives, that they can convey specific lessons and messages through descriptions of personal experiences. 

This class not only allowed me to accumulate new skills but also exposed many problems I  intend to focus on improving in the future. I organized my Halfa Kucha presentation the same way I would format a regular essay, and I did not pay particular attention to how I would arrange the pictures on the slides. However, after viewing my peers’ works, I recognized how insufficient my project was. Some of my peers started with a relatively shallow claim and then profoundly investigated the characters’ mentality as their presentations progressed. At the same time, others organized their slides in constructed ways, such as circling the emphasis or incorporating symbols. Many also included speech-like tones and gestures even under the pressing time limit. Their outstanding works showed me how presentations, as a different genre than essays, adopt a specific structure and tone. I also realized it takes a lot of time to practice presenting my ideas efficiently. 

In addition, I also found myself needing more knowledge about how to use others’ works correctly. I learned from many sketch assignments that I can not simply search for images on Google and use them for my use. Instead, there are certain websites filled with public domain images. When searching for images for my ECS presentation, I used these websites rather than searching on Google. 

Overall, I am glad this course guided me through my first year. Not only did I accumulate multiple skills, but most importantly, the class taught me through various assignments that writing is a process of exploration and growth. Through practice and drafting, I spot my issues and improve them; by exploring novel mediums, I identify my advantages and shortcomings. It is a course that elevates my interest and knowledge in writing. 

If the freshman chooses their First Year Writing class next year, I recommend taking the Secret Language of Comics. From my experience, this course not only introduced comics, a novel literary medium for me, through several class readings, but the various writing and sketching assignments also helped me grow in my writing. Through these assignments, I learned more about my advantages and disadvantages in writing. I also accumulated more skills and improved through the progression of one assignment to another.

The first major writing assignment in the class was the Literacy Narrative Part 1, a personal narrative in which we analyzed the experiences shaping our reading and writing process. For this assignment, I tried to incorporate every detailed experience, every book I read, and every writing I created. However, after rereading the essay several times and receiving the professor’s feedback, I realized that the paper is too compact with loosely connected information, making it lose focus. I was glad that the project has multiple parts, which inspired my wish to revise and improve on the idea based on the problems spotted. On the other hand, After the professor’s reminder in class, I paid particular attention to incorporating citations when I included quotes from other authors’ works. 

The Tracing Stitches and Spinning assignment introduced me to several new skills while exposing a similar problem in my writing. Since the genre for this assignment differs from the first personal narrative, the audience, or the professor who makes the assignment, might expect to see an essay that displays more about one’s ability to analyze others’ works and less about one’s personal experiences. Thus, in comparison to having more freedom in structure for the personal essay, I used a more standard ABT (and, but, therefore) organization for this essay to more clearly analyze the similarities and differences between the two comics and expand on how their characteristics contribute to the works as a whole. In this genre of more academic writing, I also have to eliminate figurative language and attach to a more formal and interpretive style. In addition, this assignment also trained my visual thinking ability when I interpreted others’ graphic works to assemble my own essay. For example, I wrote in my essay how an increase in the number of panels on the page could “induce the readers’ curiosity. Also, the compact configuration might at the first glance give the audience a sense of quickened pace and intensified emotions. “, showing how I learned to infer the mental effects that specific structures of comics can elicit in the readers, which helped me understand the authors’ purpose when using certain structures. However, sometimes I found myself lacking in providing visual interpretations, which reveals a similar issue in my literacy narrative: crowding my essay with too many pieces of information but not providing a deep enough analysis for each of them. I compared multiple elements from the two comics, such as the panel sizes, the perspectives, and whether the authors drew out their imaginations. However, I sometimes merely contrasted how the authors utilized the elements visually on the surface without analyzing why the author had chosen to incorporate them, their effects on the readers, and how they contributed to the entire narrative. Similar to the Literacy Narrative Part 1, these flaws disclose the need to find a focus, condensing my essay into just a few points and providing profound interpretations for them. 

The second part of my Literacy Narrative project gave me the opportunity to revise the loose and obscure structure of my essays. Learning from my mistakes in the previous draft and from the professor’s advice, I extracted certain parts of my experience and focused mainly on how moving from China to the US affected my process of reading and writing. Concentrating on one component of my experience allows me to organize how specific details have influenced me and to better conclude a theme or message that expands on that particular experience than when dealing with multiple loosely connected sections. Through this process, I also further realized how writing is indeed a long process involving numerous revisions to learn from and resolve past mistakes. I also obtained certain unexpected discoveries. Knowing how comics are a genre that differs mainly from alphabetical narratives and that the audience might expect them to be more attractive to read, I borrowed specific techniques from my class readings and past analytical assignments. For example, I varied my sample sizes to emphasize certain significant moments, a method that I learned from the book Spinning. Also, like how David Small designed Stitches, I drew out what happened at the moment and how I interpreted these moments in my own imagination. Aside from obtaining new techniques, I also discovered that, personally, this assignment was the most significant part of this course. Because English is my second language, visual mediums provide more accessible and more vivid ways to portray my ideas than alphabetical mediums. Thus, I found creating a comic more intriguing than writing an essay. Through this project, I tightened my narrative and discovered a new, more compelling medium to express my ideas. 

Having fixated my narrative around a central experience in Literacy Narrative Part Two, I was able to incorporate a main theme and message after returning to the alphabetical form in Part Three of the narrative. When drawing the narrative in Part Two, I discovered how my evolution in reading and writing revolved around the central theme of communication. I noted this finding when revising my essay in part one and developed the theme that “the language barrier after moving to the US taught me how much value effective communication means to me, which inspired my growth in reading and writing.” I reorganized my experiences mainly around how my wish for communication has inspired me, through which I clarified the structure of the essay and interconnected the initially separated parts about reading and writing. The Literacy Narrative project taught me how writing improves by revising problems and concentrating on the highlights. Still, it also enhanced my knowledge about personal narratives, that they can convey specific lessons and messages through descriptions of personal experiences. 

This class not only allowed me to accumulate new skills but also exposed many problems I  intend to focus on improving in the future. I organized my Halfa Kucha presentation the same way I would format a regular essay, and I did not pay particular attention to how I would arrange the pictures on the slides. However, after viewing my peers’ works, I recognized how insufficient my project was. Some of my peers started with a relatively shallow claim and then profoundly investigated the characters’ mentality as their presentations progressed. At the same time, others organized their slides in constructed ways, such as circling the emphasis or incorporating symbols. Many also included speech-like tones and gestures even under the pressing time limit. Their outstanding works showed me how presentations, as a different genre than essays, adopt a specific structure and tone. I also realized it takes a lot of time to practice presenting my ideas efficiently. 

In addition, I also found myself needing more knowledge about how to use others’ works correctly. I learned from many sketch assignments that I can not simply search for images on Google and use them for my use. Instead, there are certain websites filled with public domain images. When searching for images for my ECS presentation, I used these websites rather than searching on Google. 

Overall, I am glad this course guided me through my first year. Not only did I accumulate multiple skills, but most importantly, the class taught me through various assignments that writing is a process of exploration and growth. Through practice and drafting, I spot my issues and improve them; by exploring novel mediums, I identify my advantages and shortcomings. It is a course that elevates my interest and knowledge in writing. 

Benny Schuchat

Reflection Letter

Professor Morgen

12/11/23

Throughout the semester I composed texts using multiple modes to engage in writing exercises and assignments that required me to explore different genres within the context of comics. This included creating narratives, and critiques, making my comic, and even experimental forms of comic storytelling through the use of our weekly sketches. To analyze the ideas of others I often had to put myself briefly in their shoes, especially for comics like “Spinning” and “Kindred.” While stirring in the author’s shoes, in an attempt to see their viewpoint as clearly as possible, I found that comics are an exceptional medium that relates on a personal level. The incorporation of illustration is criticized for ruining the reader’s imagination, but for me, it helped me peak into the mind of the author. This dip into another mind was not different from traveling to other worlds. What I was able to bring back from those journeys helped me produce my arguments in a more sophisticated, academic, and standout way. 

Breaking down pages and even single frames in the Tracing Pages assignment helped me understand how the author works and influenced some of my future work. For example, I had hoped that the influence of my traced page from “Stitches” was obvious when looking at my Literacy Narrative Part Two: 

The drawing by David Smalls depicts himself as being overwhelmed, hence the gigantic tidal wave. However, I took his work and put a positive spin on it. The panel before reads: “I felt like I could fly” about my first acceptance letter for college. Stitches had a profound effect on me, in particular, the cruelty and misfortune David faced as a young boy and his relationship with his parents are unthinkable for me. Also, as a singer, I sympathize with his loss of voice. I am upset when I get sick and lose my voice for a week and can not even comprehend the horror of cancer and the scar that was left behind. 

The literacy narrative assignment also forced me to improve my revising skills. I honed my skills in formulating my arguments based on the insights gained from the constant revision process. Additionally, the process of writing a reflection assignment, creating a comic, and then turning the same thought process back into writing, allowed me to completely dissect my thoughts. While the first part was hard because it forced me to write in the first person, as I said in my comic, “I found it hard to write personal statements,” the second part of the literacy narrative was exponentially harder. My respect for the authors we read in class ballooned – their ability to be an author and an illustrator at that high of a level, just wow. Creating the comic took the most time and effort of anything I did for The Secret Language of Comics and, in the end, I am proud of it. The class fostered a recursive approach to my writing and refined my work and writing process.

I also learned to relax in my work and not worry about perfection. Most of my work in college will not be published and while I am not saying to throw in the towel, it would be unfair to compare my first comic ever created to that of the work we study and read in class. Keeping this in mind, I was able to think about my audience for my comic, my peers, and my professor, and adjust the piece accordingly. Therefore, I spent more time on the layout and concept of the comic and less time on the illustration, opting to go black and white instead of wasting time on coloring because I knew I was a horrible artist. Also, the comic was a short piece closer to the triptych and other sketches I had to do for class. So, it would not make sense to have a well-illustrated comic that did not evoke any emotions from the reader when instead I could create a low-production comic that would hopefully make the reader feel some connection. 

Although group projects were not common in this class, peer evaluation did occur and I benefited from the extra set of eyes on my work. Showing someone your writing or in this case, comic, can bring you down to earth if they expose any flaws or potential shortcomings. When I was still in the drafting phase of the comic version of my literacy narrative, I realized, after reading my peer’s comments, that I had accidentally compared myself to Shakespeare. While we both did create works of art, I am in no way, shape, or form on his level, nor did I ever think I was. If not for a collaborative learning environment fostered by classroom discussion and peer evaluation, my work would have come off as brash and laughable.

Public speaking is difficult and presenting your original thoughts for the first time can be unnerving. So, practicing the skill of making a PowerPoint presentation and presenting in front of my peers is something that I will take from this class with me into my future learning. In particular, classes like Business Communications that I will have to take if I continue on my journey to graduate with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration give class grades based entirely on presentations. Even the final exam is a presentation! While this might seem daunting to some and easy to others, presenting in The Secret Language of Comics showed me that public speaking is no joke and is a skill that should be trained and fostered throughout my college years.

In summary, my experience in The Secret Language of Comics has given me a well-rounded set of skills, encompassing both the academic and practical aspects related to comics. Not only have I developed a deep understanding of the subject matter but I have also honed my critical thinking, writing, revising, and presenting skills. As I step back and reflect on my writing this semester, I notice improvement not only in the revision process but also a shift toward using examples to promote themes as the backbone of my essay. Incorporating larger patterns is tricky, but I try my best to subtly wind every piece around some recurring message.

This site is an archive of the work that I completed as part of ENG101 at Emory University during Fall semester 2023

Syllabus

At the start of this course, we were introduced to five course outcomes that would be developed throughout the semester. The first is to compose texts in multiple genres, using multiple modes. This was achieved over the course of the semester with the progression of our Literacy Narrative as well as the various sketch assignments we completed. While most of our writing consisted of creative writing in narrative form, we also analyzed autobiographies such as Stitches and Spinning, which are nonfiction. Our literacy narrative started out as an alphabetic narrative, then we transformed it into a comic, and then back into an alphabetic narrative. This process was unique to anything else I have experienced in any English class due to the fact that it required me to consider which images would be most effective to tell the story of my narrative. I found that I was able to express more emotions with the use of images. I took a different approach from the rest of my peers and used entirely photographs instead of drawings, which in hindsight definitely limited my ability to express my narrative fully. If I had the opportunity, I would go back and recreate my comic with drawings and compare the two to determine which one was more effective in telling the story. Translating the comic back into an alphabetic narrative helped me make my writing more cohesive. The progression of the literacy narrative was essential in fulfilling the third course outcome as well: to practice writing as a process, recursively implementing strategies of research, drafting, revision, editing, and reflection. Having the opportunity to compose and edit multiple drafts of our narratives, with feedback from peers, allowed us to produce our best work by the end of the semester. Our growth throughout the course can be represented by the progression of our literacy narrative, and can be symbolized by the growth of a plant. We all started with a simple foundation of dirt, and at the beginning of the course we had five seeds planted in our brains – the five course outcomes. The readings and various assignments we completed throughout the semester are symbolic of water and sunlight. The multiple drafts of the literacy narrative are representative of the plant growing over time, until it eventually blooms into a flower. Writing in multiple genres and both the alphabetic and comic form allowed me to be creative in the writing process and express my writing in different ways.

The weekly sketch assignments were essential for our growth throughout the course, as it helped us build up to writing our own comic – literacy narrative part two. In the earlier weeks of the course, we started with a singular panel comic. We increased to two, then three, then four panels. This process increased our comfortability with writing comics and what stylistic choices to make depending on the length of the comic. Other sketch assignments, such as the Visual Note Taking sketch assignment, have helped me outside of this course and will continue to do so in the future. For this specific sketch, we were instructed to take our notes from another class, and turn them into visual notes. I used my biology notes for this assignment, and found the visual note taking strategy to be extremely effective in enhancing my understanding of the content. I continued to utilize visual note taking outside of this specific assignment as a study strategy. 

The next course outcome is to summarize, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the ideas of others as we undertake scholarly inquiry in order to produce our own arguments. This was achieved throughout the various texts we read throughout the year, including works by Hillary Chute and six comic books. Each book fell under the theme of trauma and healing, however every book varied in artistic style and literary expression. We had multiple assignments throughout the year to compare texts, such as the Tracing Pages and Halfa Kucha assignments. The Tracing Pages assignment gave us the opportunity to compare the artistic styles of two authors. We presented our argument in both a written and visual form by retracing the panels and analyzing the use of images and text throughout both books. When comparing the two storytelling styles in the assignment, I argued that “David Small uses more dialogue and sound effects throughout his novel, as opposed to Tillie Walden who consistently utilizes narration in order to tell her story. While Walden’s illustrations were descriptive and powerful, her narration was the more significant aspect of her storytelling. In contrast, Small included less narration and utilized his illustrations to leave the reader to interpret his story. Oftentimes, Small would have an extensive number of pages with solely illustrations, and no text or dialogue”. Assignments like this one forced us to not only take the writing into account, but the visual aspect as well. Through analysis of the dialogue and visuals, we composed arguments regarding the central themes of the books, as well as the emotions the author intended to convey. In contrast, the Halfa Kucha assignment was presented in an oral presentation format. These varying assignments allowed us to pose our arguments in a multitude of different ways, which will be helpful for other classes moving forward.

The last two course outcomes are specific for our specific class: demonstrate collaborative skills in classroom discussion and while working together on projects and presentations; and use technology rhetorically and appropriately, and engage responsibly in online spaces. The nature of the class was very collaborative, especially as a result of the small class size (16 people). As the semester progressed, our class became increasingly comfortable with one another and with expressing our ideas. I for one am very shy in nature and felt nervous to speak up in class discussions, but as the course advanced, I grew comfortable enough to make points in discussions. The utilization of websites in this course aided in collaboration and technology use. I had never made my own website before this class but now I feel comfortable in navigating the process of creating and maintaining my own website. This will be helpful in the future should I ever need to create my own website for my career. We had access to each other’s websites via our teacher’s website, therefore we were able to see each other’s work and offer feedback. The website format of our class allowed for easy collaboration and ability to give feedback on each other’s work. 

As the semester comes to an end, the compilation of my work is representative of my growth as a writer over the duration of this course. Starting off with little to no experience in creating my own website and comics, the assignments throughout the semester built up my knowledge and experience into full bloom. Throughout the course of my life, I will continue to grow more flowers in my garden as I continue to acquire knowledge in different subject matters.

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.” 

Link to Literacy Narrative Pt. 3: https://spacecowboyjosie.wordpress.com/literacy-narrative-pt-3/

This literacy narrative project has made me use multiple modes and methods of expressing myself. Using the visual comic was a really helpful way of making my narrative more cohesive and giving me ideas on how to push and pull the timing on the narrative (where to focus and spend more time, where to spend less time on). I also learned to be able to take inspiration from, not only my memories, but advice and past readings, such as Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue.”

Returning to the alphabetic literacy narrative felt like returning to “home” in a way. I feel more comfortable writing alphabetically as I feel like it gives me more space to be detailed as I want to be. Working in the visual narrative is interesting and something I want to continue doing, but I haven’t found exactly what I want to do with it yet.

I have always seen my Literacy Narrative in a visual way, so it was frustrating when I couldn’t reflect the entirety of what I saw in my brain on a paper, but it forced me to be more realistic about what is important in the story.

For this final sketch, I wanted to use the same thing I used for my first sketch as an ending—Taipei 101.

Throughout the semester, I felt like every exercise and assignment were little pieces of puzzles that helped me build the final product, which is my Halfa Kucha and final reflection. In each section of the building, it was an assignment from this assignment that I felt contributed a lot to my change and improvement as a writer and reader. The X-pages exercise was the foundation of everything. Jotting down ideas in my head reflected my most authentic writing. From that exercise, I realized my most original writing style and the events that impacted my writing journey. Later, visual note-taking was the beginning of my combining my ideas with drawings. Both of these assignments—one on writing and one on drawing—built the base for the rest of my work, holding up the whole building.

The same goes for all of the other sections of the building. Without a section, the building would not be complete. The skills from tracing pages helped me learn the analyze visual writings and understand the author’s purpose behind each choice. I used the skills I observed and applied them to my own project, which is the second Literacy Narrative. Recreating a movie scene helped me pay more attention to details, which influenced the changes I made to my first and second Literacy Narratives.

To construct Taipei 101, none of these elements could be ignored. Over the semester, these assignments stacked up to create the tip of the building.