My Reflection

I am very glad I took this course with Professor Brady. The material challenged me to think deeper and more critical. I've always loved reading and I have always been an observant person, so to bond the two in one course was very intriguing for me. One thing I learned that bettered my writing was how I now write in just one tense, usually past. I've been going over my writing more in depth and have been looking for differences in tense. I will now also go through and look to correct any comma-splicing I may have done. Even though I have always thought about things on a deeper level, this course helped me to look even more analytically at meanings and themes. I know in the years to come I will be able to look deeper at not only literature, but events that happen daily, and will be able to understand them better. I feel like the skills I have learned in this class will also help me continue to progress as a writer for many years.

What I liked best about this class was the fishbowl conversations. They really did spark conversation and I really liked how Professor Brady did not really call on people who didn't raise their hands to speak. It was interesting because the people who wanted to and were prepared to contribute really heightened the conversations. Those who did not come prepared for the day did not stop the flow of the topic(s) at all, so it was nice for us to get our ideas across and to be able to explain them in depth. What I will take away from this course and apply to my life is the work-ethic I have worked on forming in this class. The readings, published writings, papers, and regular homework assignments truly helped me think much more critically and helped me learn how to budget my time.

The ideas that resonated with me most were from our fishbowl discussion about true love. On May 3rd, Professor Brady asked us what true love meant to us and we explained what we each believed. It was something I could relate to in multiple ways, in both romantic and familial ways, and it was great to contribute my own personal thoughts and feelings to the conversation. A lot of times in high school and college, you are not asked questions that spark an emotion inside. There are usually clear-cut right or wrong answers, so this was an interesting conversation because not one person who gave a definition was definitely right or definitely wrong. It left much open to interpretation and made it easy to feel comfortable to contribute such a personal emotion.