Blog 5

When the semester first began, my assignment one paper lacked any real thought or structure. I came down with the flu and missed a few classes, leaving me at a disadvantage to the other students. However, prompted to redesign an area on Temple’s campus, my second essay shows significant progress in my writing. I also enjoyed writing this essay because I had the ability to be creative and express my own ideas. I took the time to truly revise this essay as well, although there is always room for improvement. With a new assignment, we had to connect the film Man on Wire to the September 11th terrorist attacks, I was quite disappointed with the outcome of this paper. Although my thesis was interesting, this essay lacked organization as well as fully supported ideas. I should have taken more time out to revise my third essay and regret not doing so. In contrast, I believe that my fourth essay turned out well. I tried my best to revise it as much as I could and consulted the “Pocket Style Manuel” as well.

Throughout the course we have learned how to perform semiotic analysis, for instance, in films or in essays. From our readings in “Signs of Life” and “Everything Bad is Good for You,” we took a look at today’s popular culture, which surrounds us all. With the help of our “Pocket Style Manuel,” we were able to properly cite our sources, format our papers in MLA, and touch up on some grammar techniques.

All in all, I think that this course taught me how to better analyze not just writings, but the world around me. For example, I am constantly witnessing people taking the “invariant right” mentioned in one of the Signs of Life essays. I also believe that it will be beneficial to me next semester when I take Mosaics I.