Experience #1

Never did I think I'd be back in English class after high school, but here I am.

After crossing that stage and shipping myself off to college, I, a freshly graduated high school student, thought I had mastered the English language. I had studied the classics, the non-classics, and everything in between along with about as much rhetoric to kill a non-writer. Yet coming to college made me realize I had no idea how to apply it. Entering the world of political science was a rude awakening of dense readings, long exam essays, and the eerie looming promise of research papers in my future. I quickly became apprehensive, doubling back on my false confidence that has not prepared me for an academic, non-fictitious study of English. Through structured essay assignments and short readings, Honors Intermediate English helped reduce this anxiety and mold my abstract writing abilities into concrete skills I will undoubtedly use in the future. Throughout the semester, I found myself becoming more engaged with my work, writing not just to receive a good grade or check off a box on my to-do list, but to deepen my understanding of both myself (Essay 1) and what I enjoyed researching (Essay 2). My professor, Dr. Vaughn, encouraged my effort and allowed me to investigate niches that genuinely excited me; those that are topics I hope to extrapolate into my studies throughout my future at UC.

Linked below are two essays I was assigned to write throughout my time in Intermediate Composition. I chose to include these two as I had the most fun writing them and, in turn, think they represent my best work. 

Essay #1 required me to write a personal narrative outlining experiences throughout my life that contributed to the development of a literacy unique to me. While one can be literate in reading English, it goes far beyond that. For instance, one could have extremely good literacy of a football field, reading the plays of the teams and predicting what would happen next. For me, I reflected on my grasp of the German language and how my understanding of both speaking and grammar as well as cultural customs and confidence developed greatly throughout my time in Berlin.

Essay #2 allowed me to investigate a topic extremely intriguing to me: the public-approval side of politics. While many different genres of text (think newspapers versus scholarly articles versus social media posts) can look at the same subject matter and even make the same claims, different styles and elements of rhetoric can be employed to prove a point. I looked at just this in terms of Kamala Harris' 2024 Presidential campaign in which her appeal to younger and first-time voters was boosted tremendously by pop culture, memes, and social media.