After my first self-designed experience, I took an honors seminar, which is an Intermediate level English class. Although this is a required class for any student who goes to UC, I find my class is one of the most interesting courses I have ever taken.
The experience took place in the Fall Semester and all the students in the class were honors student, which interested me because they all had strong points of view and good academic results. In this class, I was able to improve my English writing skills as well as research skills and analyze skills. Unlike many lower level English classes, the Intermediate English class required us more intellectual knowledge, experience and research.
The class started with a simple yet interesting project about the “development of literacy”. It was a small starting project, but the teacher wanted to know how our literacy had developed through time and what inspired us to read and write. Although the project did not ask for many research findings, but it helped me look back and reflect on my own development. If it had not been for the essay, I would not have had any chance to reflect and think about it. I realized I had gone a long way to improve and hone my literacy. I realized all the reasons that inspired me to read more, and write more was to express myself – the same reason as when I chose my major.
“I love writing because I love people around me, the nature activities that happen everyday, and generally the world I am living in. My literacy grows together with my love for the world around me without any forces. Literacy grows to connect myself with everyone. And my literacy grows as a kind of ruler to measure my maturity through out time, as a diary to keep track the development of the level of my profound thoughts, and as well as a friend who walks next to me my whole life. Not only in the past, or right now, but I know that in the future, writing will always be a part of my life that no one can ever take away. It is like you can never abandon your memory, because it is already in your blood, that it is everywhere in your body and nurtures your existence.”
The second project that we did was the Genre Analysis. When we mention “Genre Analysis”, we usually think of a literature analysis. However, the teacher allowed us to analyze our favorite books, or even movies. We were able to look into details, such as why the director chose that genre, and why it fitted the plot. I thought this was interesting because I could have a movie night on my own while doing homework at the same time. I watched this contemporary Vietnamese movie called “Blood letter” as I had heard a lot of good reviews about it. We were also required to give additional comments and what we thought could have been improved in the movie. The project overall gave me another whole new perspective when watching movies, that I should look more into the visual and contextual language they use. This helped me a lot with my Kinetic Communication course (one of the required course in DAAP for my major) as I started to be more conscious and pay more attention to all the elements.
“Overall, the “Blood letter” is a good cultural and historic movie. Not only telling the audiences one of the most well-known events in the feudalism society, the movie gives its audiences a joyful moment with all the well-chosen conventions, well-written scripts, and well-chosen actors and actresses. It explains how the historic and fiction genre work together, and how historic genre can also bring entertainment in an approachable way instead of being serious and boring. Furthermore, it treasures Vietnamese culture, history, and people by showing the truth of the story, the beauty within every person, and the grandeur of the nature.”
The third, and final, project was the “Discourse Community Ethnography”. For the project, the teacher asked us to find a community that we found close-knit and related to, or a community that we were interested in understanding. Then we had to do research on the community and interview the members the advantage of joining the community. I chose AIGA, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, as my community. I had been a member of AIGA UC student group for more than a year and been loving it for what it brought to me. It was even more interesting to go around and ask people how the community helped them grow and develop as a designer, why the chose to join AIGA, and how it gave them a huge resource of inspiration and motivation. For each person I asked, I received a different answer that, at the same time, amazed me how a community could impact on each person differently. I also analyze how literacy still played an important role in such a heavily visual language communicated community. In the end, I learned more about my graphic community and gained more confidence in the career choice I had made.
“The AIGA is one of the biggest graphic communities in the world, in general, and in the United States, in particular, that has had a lot of impact on the graphic field. The community itself is huge and diverse, yet it has many small chapters and student groups to maintain the flow. At University of Cincinnati, we also have an AIGA group for graphic communication design students, and it still has the same role as the main organization. Although it is a visual language based society, verbal language is significantly involved to bring out the best benefits it bring to the members.”
If I could recommend this course to any potential student, I would say this course helped me develop more than just my English writing skills. On one hand, it gives me a better idea of how important English is to have access to a bigger source of knowledge, inspiration, and motivation. This makes me want to go back to Vietnam at some point of my life to help the orphans have better and more proper English learning. On the other hand, it helps me understand myself better (that I write for my own expression), pay more attention to detail and learn how to properly critique a piece of art work (critiquing movies and their genres, in particular), and have more respect for the Graphic community I am committed to.
I attached my "development of literacy" essay below because I want to share my experience with literacy since I was young. I hope you like it!
The experience took place in the Fall Semester and all the students in the class were honors student, which interested me because they all had strong points of view and good academic results. In this class, I was able to improve my English writing skills as well as research skills and analyze skills. Unlike many lower level English classes, the Intermediate English class required us more intellectual knowledge, experience and research.
The class started with a simple yet interesting project about the “development of literacy”. It was a small starting project, but the teacher wanted to know how our literacy had developed through time and what inspired us to read and write. Although the project did not ask for many research findings, but it helped me look back and reflect on my own development. If it had not been for the essay, I would not have had any chance to reflect and think about it. I realized I had gone a long way to improve and hone my literacy. I realized all the reasons that inspired me to read more, and write more was to express myself – the same reason as when I chose my major.
“I love writing because I love people around me, the nature activities that happen everyday, and generally the world I am living in. My literacy grows together with my love for the world around me without any forces. Literacy grows to connect myself with everyone. And my literacy grows as a kind of ruler to measure my maturity through out time, as a diary to keep track the development of the level of my profound thoughts, and as well as a friend who walks next to me my whole life. Not only in the past, or right now, but I know that in the future, writing will always be a part of my life that no one can ever take away. It is like you can never abandon your memory, because it is already in your blood, that it is everywhere in your body and nurtures your existence.”
The second project that we did was the Genre Analysis. When we mention “Genre Analysis”, we usually think of a literature analysis. However, the teacher allowed us to analyze our favorite books, or even movies. We were able to look into details, such as why the director chose that genre, and why it fitted the plot. I thought this was interesting because I could have a movie night on my own while doing homework at the same time. I watched this contemporary Vietnamese movie called “Blood letter” as I had heard a lot of good reviews about it. We were also required to give additional comments and what we thought could have been improved in the movie. The project overall gave me another whole new perspective when watching movies, that I should look more into the visual and contextual language they use. This helped me a lot with my Kinetic Communication course (one of the required course in DAAP for my major) as I started to be more conscious and pay more attention to all the elements.
“Overall, the “Blood letter” is a good cultural and historic movie. Not only telling the audiences one of the most well-known events in the feudalism society, the movie gives its audiences a joyful moment with all the well-chosen conventions, well-written scripts, and well-chosen actors and actresses. It explains how the historic and fiction genre work together, and how historic genre can also bring entertainment in an approachable way instead of being serious and boring. Furthermore, it treasures Vietnamese culture, history, and people by showing the truth of the story, the beauty within every person, and the grandeur of the nature.”
The third, and final, project was the “Discourse Community Ethnography”. For the project, the teacher asked us to find a community that we found close-knit and related to, or a community that we were interested in understanding. Then we had to do research on the community and interview the members the advantage of joining the community. I chose AIGA, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, as my community. I had been a member of AIGA UC student group for more than a year and been loving it for what it brought to me. It was even more interesting to go around and ask people how the community helped them grow and develop as a designer, why the chose to join AIGA, and how it gave them a huge resource of inspiration and motivation. For each person I asked, I received a different answer that, at the same time, amazed me how a community could impact on each person differently. I also analyze how literacy still played an important role in such a heavily visual language communicated community. In the end, I learned more about my graphic community and gained more confidence in the career choice I had made.
“The AIGA is one of the biggest graphic communities in the world, in general, and in the United States, in particular, that has had a lot of impact on the graphic field. The community itself is huge and diverse, yet it has many small chapters and student groups to maintain the flow. At University of Cincinnati, we also have an AIGA group for graphic communication design students, and it still has the same role as the main organization. Although it is a visual language based society, verbal language is significantly involved to bring out the best benefits it bring to the members.”
If I could recommend this course to any potential student, I would say this course helped me develop more than just my English writing skills. On one hand, it gives me a better idea of how important English is to have access to a bigger source of knowledge, inspiration, and motivation. This makes me want to go back to Vietnam at some point of my life to help the orphans have better and more proper English learning. On the other hand, it helps me understand myself better (that I write for my own expression), pay more attention to detail and learn how to properly critique a piece of art work (critiquing movies and their genres, in particular), and have more respect for the Graphic community I am committed to.
I attached my "development of literacy" essay below because I want to share my experience with literacy since I was young. I hope you like it!
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