English 1102: Television and Feminism

Dr. Casey Alane Wilson • Georgia Institute of Technology

Tag: 1102tvfem (Page 7 of 7)

“We need to remember what’s important in life: friends, waffles, work. Or waffles, friends, work. Doesn’t matter, but work is third.” – Leslie Knope

Hello!  My name is Landon Eisenhut and I am an Aerospace Engineering major from Evansville, Indiana.  Fun fact: Parks and Recreation is based on my hometown!  I’d love to be able to graduate by 2022, but I can’t ignore the possibility of that extending into 2023.

As with most Yellow Jackets, I’ve largely been a STEM student throughout my academic career.  The two AP English courses offered at my high school were pretty much the only AP classes I didn’t register for.  I did take an English course at a local college over the summer, but this is my first GT English exposure.  In my experience, I feel more satisfied after effecting my verbal communication.  However, it has not always been my strong point.  Occasionally I become difficult to understand when my low voice combines with my often-lazy annunciation.  I hope to improve in this area this semester.  I’ve already made attempts to be more social and enhance my vocal abilities.  In addition to verbal, I enjoy written communication because I love to create things.  I like to look at a piece of my writing with my name on it and see my voice.  My devotion to creating things goes beyond my writing…as seen from the attached video, I love to make videos capturing my life!

I’ve always been passionate about a few TV shows.  I don’t have a large collection of shows I watch, but I’m well versed in the ones I do watch.  References to various TV episodes make the way into my every day conversations.  While I’m not a TV fanatic, I can watch episodes of certain shows and never want them to end (Stranger Things, Silicon Valley, sometimes Parks and Rec or The Office).  Netflix is never a bad way to spend a weekend, even if it’s in solidarity.  It’s fortunate that my roommate was out of town during my binge watch of The Good Place at 1:00am!

I have chosen to review The Middle for this class.  The Middle encompasses an Indiana middle class family and the experiences that arise with home life, work, and raising children.  Being from Indiana, I’m excited to be able to relate to the situations depicted in the show.  I’ve always loved the Midwest, and perhaps this show will almost make me feel at home.

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Me when I come home to watch The Middle as homework.

The only sample I have of The Middle is the episode portraying Sue’s Indiana college search.  I fondly connected with the moments in this episode, and I anticipate more of this throughout the series.

Scandalous Intro

My motto is pretty similar to Mel’s: sit back, snack, and talk some smack.

Hello, fellow gladiators! My name is Callie Anderson, and I am a business administration major with an anticipated graduation date of 2022…ish. My overall experience with English classes has been quite enjoyable. I always learn new aspects of literature and communication, and I look forward to furthering my skills this semester. This is my second English class here at Georgia Tech. Over the summer, I took English 1101 with Dr. Rose and absolutely loved it. Her class had an urban sustainability focus which I got to implement into my life here at Tech. In both English 1101 and 1102, WOVEN serves as the platform for communication development. Written and visual forms of communication are where I thrive. I love depicting stories through artful language or by providing fun and helpful visual aids. Although I believe WOVEN is a great foundation for growth in composition and communication skills, I struggle with certain parts. Oral communication is my real-life version of Eli Pope (for all you Scandal fans). Every once in a while I can outsmart that sucker, but he always comes back to get me in the end. I rehearse, prepare, recite, and sometimes I am actually successful. But most times, even when I think I excelled, I stumble and stutter through a presentation, receiving a disappointing grade. I know my oral communication skills will not transform magically overnight, but I am hoping Professor Wilson’s class will “handle it” over time.

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Whip that communication into shape, Dr. Wilson!

My experience with the theme of this class is both limited and extensive. Many of my nights have been spent watching countless hours of Netflix shows. If the Ghost of Christmas Pasts came to see me, he would probably focus on the boat-load of hours I have wasted watching mindless Netflix shows, eating the best junk food on the planet.

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Mhmm I ain’t lying.

However, and here comes the scandalous part, I have almost no experience with feminism…

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Say whaaaaat???

Yes, you read that right. I do not consider myself a feminist. I do wholeheartedly support equal rights for women across the globe, but I hate taking on the victim mindset which I believe “feminism” embraces, especially in American culture.

This is why I chose Scandal as my TV show to analyze throughout the semester. I believe Olivia Pope, Melly, and other female characters fight to be treated equally without ever feeling sorry for themselves. Instead of stopping their jobs to protest unfair treatment while hoping for some government intervention, these women power through and fight for what they want. Not only do they fight for themselves, they usually succeed, which is quite refreshing and satisfying to watch. Therefore, I plan to demonstrate the real “feminist” work being done by these women in my blog posts over the semester. I hope that my blog posts will inspire the women that read it to put down the victim-focused protest signs and pick up their intelligent mental weapons to go get want they want and deserve.

New Semester, New Girl

Hi, my name is Wendy Yao!  I’m a first year majoring in chemical engineering, and like most other freshmen, I hope to graduate by 2022 … but we’ll see.

Me in 2022 when I’m supposed to graduate

English has always been one of my favorite classes, though they’ve generally been “traditional” English classes filled with reading quizzes and poetry discussions.  My high school English classes were generally chill because strict memorization was less important than synthesizing creative arguments or debating the virtues of Shakespeare’s antagonists, though there were still assessments to worry about.

Out of all the categories for communication in WOVEN, my most favorite would be written, and my least favorite would be oral.  After all these years of practicing my writing skills, I’d like to believe that they’re at least semi-decent.  I enjoy using written communication because of its permanence and because of the time I’m given to compose and collect my scattered ideas.  Even when writing this blog post, I’ve been jumping around, writing some sentences first before going back to fill the gap.  As a result, my issue with oral communication is that I like having time to gather my thoughts, whether it’s presenting a coherent response to “How may I help you today?” or contributing thoughtfully to a group discussion.

English 1102 is my first and last English class at GT, so it’ll definitely be memorable, especially because of the course theme.  I grew up watching some TV in the form of PBS Kids and CW4Kids shows, such as Clifford the Big Red Dog and Yu-Gi-Oh.  At some point in my childhood, TV just kind of faded away to a distant past.  One constant in my life, though, has been Chinese dramas.  Wuxia dramas were integral in my upbringing, and I still manage to find the time to fit in each remake that happens every few years to bask in the nostalgia, unless, of course, the remake is terrible, in which case I just binge my favorite version, all 60 45-minute episodes.   Now, besides c-dramas, I’ve also added Korean dramas to the mix, which tend to average at about an hour long for each episode, so procrastination occurs whenever I’m sucked into the productivity-eating vortex that is Asian dramas.

When you think you have enough time to finish your homework after binging a drama

I’ve chosen to review New Girl, which is a sitcom that finished airing on Fox this year about a zany teacher named Jess in Los Angeles who suddenly moves in with three guys because of a break-up.  I chose this show because the premise and the first episode seemed cheerful and quirky, and I’m interested in learning more about how the relationships among the main characters will play out.  Once I get into a TV series, I can’t stop, so the 20-minute episodes and the definite ending to the show are going to be a blessing.

Who’s That Girl? It’s Zoe!

Hi! I’m Zoe Maisel. I am an industrial engineering major from Cumming, GA. I am so excited to take on my first English class at Georgia Tech! I enjoy written and electronic communication, so this project is pretty exciting for me. A great combination! I can’t wait to spread my thoughts, opinions, and ideas throughout my own personal cute lil blog. I struggle with nonverbal communication during public speaking, so this is a great way for me to hide behind my computer and avoid working on that… just kidding! kinda. But for real, I truly do hope to improve on my body language, accenting, and tone throughout the semester.

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Hashtag excited for all the electronic communication in this class

I chose the television and feminism theme mostly for the feminism side. It is something I am very passionate about and I can’t wait to delve deeper into the history and evolution of it. I want to make sure I am thoroughly and properly informed so that I can spread the knowledge and importance of feminism. And fight for equality!

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Be prepared for plenty of feminist rants during class discussions.

However, I am not an expert on the TV side. I have a history of starting shows and never finishing them. I either get bored or can’t find time to continue them. Don’t get me wrong, I have my favorites that I have finished and obsess over (One Tree Hill, How I Met Your Mother, The Office), but TV is just not really my thing.

But this semester, I am determined. It will be my thing. I am going to integrate it into my new college life.

Image result for new girl gif it's perfectly fine to watch tv all day

I will be reminding myself these wise words from Nick Miller

I have chosen New Girl to review, specifically season 6. I was a big fan of seasons 1-5. This is actually a perfect assignment because I had not watched TV in a while, and I did not know that there was a new season of New Girl until I logged in to Netflix to watch The Good Place. It was exciting news! New Girl is about a quirky and fun-loving woman who moves into a loft with 3 very fun and interesting men. They go on many crazy adventures and each of them is hilarious in their own way. I chose this show because I enjoyed the previous seasons and watching them for comedy, and now I get to analyze this new season and discover new information about the show’s characters, writing, gender roles, and so much more.

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Me when I realized I get to watch more New Girl AND make a blog about it

Insert Creative Introductory Blog Title Here

Hello world! My name is Adam Lederer and this is my first time blogging so please bear with me. I am currently a class of 2022 Public Policy major here at Georgia Tech and am planning to minor in Law, Science and Technology. My goal is to go to law school and pursue a career in either law or politics. Whatever I end up doing, I want to make a positive impact on the lives of others, which is one of the reasons I was so excited to take this course.

Aside from me being a pretty avid consumer of television, the feminist aspect of this course really appealed to me when I was deciding which ENGL 1102 section I wanted to take. I feel that gender issues are some of the most pressing of our time, and examining the modern TV landscape through a feminist lens seemed like an invaluable way to delve into these issues.

Yay for equality!

For years I have watched TV shows that infuriated me with their portrayal of women as mere objects to be chased after by men, lack of intelligent female characters, and insertion of “toxic masculinity” into common dialogue between characters. I am looking forward to this class because I will now have a space to voice my concerns with a group of open-minded people who are also interested in studying television.

In past English classes, I have had mixed experiences. I took both AP Lit and Lang in high school, and thus was exempted from ENGL 1101 at tech. I always enjoyed some aspects of English classes like the class discussions and thought-provoking pieces we read, but constantly wished the subject matter was more consistently interesting. As someone who enjoys discussions, I feel that oral communication is a mode of communication I particularly enjoy. However, I am aiming to better my written communication this semester, as I often struggle to communicate messages in a concise manner through writing.

The TV show I have chosen to review through this blog is Portlandia. This show was created by Carrie Brownstein, who also stars as one of the main characters alongside SNL alum Fred Armisen. The series takes a satirical view of life in Portland, Oregon; each episode explores a different aspect of life in the city and takes ideas to their logical extremes, thereby exposing their absurdity. I was especially excited to review this show because it is one that I have heard a lot about but have never had the chance to watch. It also provides an interesting cultural commentary through satire – a style of comedy that I am quite fond of. Lastly, the show is easily available to watch on Netflix, which makes it a great choice for me. I cannot wait to begin watching this hilarious show and sharing my experiences through this blog. Thanks for your time in reading this and good luck to the rest of y’all! Get blogging!

I Sense a gr8 TV Show

Hello everyone! I’m Sierra Villarreal. I am currently majoring in Biomedical Engineering and hopefully graduating in 2022.

Even though I am an engineering major, English class has always been one of my favorite classes. English 1102 will be my first English class at GT, and I am super excited to see the analytical twists that it has to offer. A large part of most English classes are analyzing different mediums while in this class we focus more on the communication aspect. I see so many exciting applications for this because communication- whether it be written, oral, visual, electronic, or nonverbal- is an incredibly important skill for a successful life. I enjoy written and visual communication the best because those are the two mediums that I practice most frequently. I would love to improve on my nonverbal and oral skills because I believe that conversation is a lost art.

As far as television and feminism goes, I have a newfound appreciation for both. Television is one of the most influential aspects of society since TV shows have the ability to reach people in masses. I love binge watching a good series, but I love even more when a series defies my expectation or leaves me contemplating unanswered questions. My favorite thing to look for in a show is something confusing that will hopefully give me a new perspective or absolutely absurd satirical comedy.

For my TV show that I will be analyzing this semester, I chose Sense8. Sense8 is an American science fiction drama in which 8 people all over the world share a random connection. This connection is a strong emotional, sensual, and intellectual connection. I chose this show because it represents many different types of people all over the world and will hopefully provide me with some interesting perspectives. The show has also been recommended to me several times and now I have an excuse to watch it! Stay tooned to go on this journey with me:)

Netflix Is The New Homework

Hello! My name is Lauren Garrett, I am planning on double-majoring in business administration and international affairs, and hopefully I can somehow manage to graduate in May of 2022 (we’ll see though).

This is me right now, stressing about how stressed I am going to be.

I love English, and every English class I’ve ever taken has been a personal favorite! I took AP Language and AP Literature in high school, so I didn’t take English 1101, and now I’m here. I also wrote for an online Buzzfeed-type website for about a year, submitting articles weekly that ranged from coffee shop reviews to rants about our modern society. Although I cringe now when I read them, I feel like I am fairly apt at writing, and this is definitely my favorite mode of communication. My least favorite would probably be nonverbal since I tend to be sort of twitchy.

 

Honestly, I was never raised watching television with my family beyond sports games or the news, so I didn’t ever really get into binging shows. When I watched Netflix, it tended to be mainly for the cultural relatability – aka, I watched only the mainstream shows so I could understand the references and pretend that I knew what people were talking about. I also went for the lower commitment shows, like The Office or Parks and Recreation, where the episodes were fairly short and didn’t require a ton of previous knowledge of other episodes. Even shows that I loved fell into the void of “never to be finished”, so getting into The Good Place was a weirdly exciting event for me. I’m excited to continue to spend evenings in my dorm with my roommate watching shows for this class!

 

However, I do know a bit about feminism. In high school, I formed a feminist club that was aimed at bridging divides between the missions of feminine empowerment and common misconceptions (such as trying to end the stereotype that “feminists hate men!!1!”), and we experienced enough success for the club to be continued on into this year. We did multiple service projects such as professional clothing drives for a local shelter that helped victims of domestic abuse get back on their feet, and we led discussions in high school English classes that were reading feminist literature on how these themes carried over into modern-day society. I am definitely no expert, though, and I certainly never really thought to consider feminism in the context of mainstream media – this class calls to me!

I have chosen to review Orange Is The New Black this semester, a show about a woman getting through her prison sentence in an all-female prison, mainly because I’ve been wanting to watch it since it first came out and never got around to it. Based on what I know about it, however, I am excited to see how each woman is portrayed through the lenses of not only gender but sexuality and background stories. I believe that this show will make for great analysis and discussion of many of our course themes.

Let’s get watching!!

Philippe Lamarche in 341 Words

Hi, and welcome to my first blog post. My name is Philippe Lamarche, and I’m a Quebec-born Biology major projected to graduate in 2022. This is my first experience in an English class at Georgia Tech, and there are a couple reasons as to why I’m looking forward to this course. English classes in the past have taught me important lessons that go far beyond the walls of the classroom, and I believe this will be no exception. They have greatly improved my quality of writing, given me valuable public speaking practice, and pushed me out of my comfort zone with multimedia projects. However, my development as a multimedia content creator is far from over, and my gut tells me that I will be getting plenty of opportunities to improve.

Additionally, this class will introduce me to a variety of television shows that will expand my understanding of the genre. I have never been an avid television viewer, so I feel that this is a media outlet that I can learn from. Clearly, people put lots of passion into television shows they produce, so it’s only natural that they would contain insightful themes or interesting comments on the state of society. I’ve picked the television series Jessica Jones in the hopes that it will contain just that. I’m choosing it based on positive reviews I’ve heard from my friends, as well as an interesting premise that I think will keep me captivated throughout all the episodes. It’s a show about a ex-superheroine with a dark past who becomes a private investigator in NYC dealing with people who have remarkable abilities, like herself. The protagonist is really interesting because she is both clearly flawed and clearly powerful, so seeing how she will handle her obstacles in the show should be very interesting. On top of that, she doesn’t seem like the generic strong female lead that we see in certain blockbusters like the Divergent trilogy.

Below is my Common First-Week Video, if you care to learn more about my expectations for this class.

Empowerment Through Blog Posts

Hello, my name is Emily Sheng, and I’m from Lubbock, a Decently-Large City in the Middle of Nowhere, Texas. I’m a first-year majoring in Chemical Engineering (that might change) and I’m hoping to graduate by 2022. I’m a minority in many senses of the term, unafraid to speak my mind and passionate about combatting discrimination, so I’m incredibly excited for English 1102!

Just like many others, I’ve had a pretty average high school experience with English classes. I wanted to improve my writing and my attitude toward it, so I joined the IB program, which is notoriously a lot of writing. Through two years of constant research and essay-writing, I can confidently say that IB, although it didn’t give me many college credits, improved my writing and was worth it. As I am taking my first semester of English at Georgia Tech, I need to push myself out of the mindset that English is just about reading classic literature and writing 5-paragraph essays. In 1102, I will challenge myself to speak out in class without rehearsing what I’m going to say ten times in my head. I will also challenge myself to consider multiple perspectives, even perspectives that go against my values. Lastly, I will challenge myself to give English class my all, even though the visual and oral aspects of it will be challenging. Utilizing my strengths with electronic communication, I hope I can improve the forms of communication I find more difficult.

One of my main traits is analytical/introspective, so I constantly work on “knowing myself”. I know that once I start watching a show, I will ignore reality until I finish the show and everyone around me has forgotten who I am. So, I stay away from most TV shows and don’t have that much experience with them. However, this summer, I started watching The Handmaid’s Tale, a dark Hulu series based off Margaret Atwood’s novel. Set in a military-ruled US, fertile women are forced to bear children for their “Commanders” or face torture and death. The central themes about the lack of feminism and oppression seem to be perfect discussion points, but I wanted a platform and a reason to express my thoughts and opinions. The moment I read this course’s description, I thought of this show I started, but never finished. From the episodes I have seen, the show is not light-hearted and is difficult to watch at times but conveys an important message that I am excited to discover more of in the upcoming months.

One of the sayings I live by; also directly contrasts The Handmaid’s Tale’s idea of the future being run solely by men.

A Semi-Boring Introduction to my Boring Self

Hi! My name is Navya Katragadda and I am a first-year Biomedical Engineering major from Smyrna, Georgia.  I expect to graduate in 2022 from Tech (hopefully). I have taken English courses consistently since Kindergarten which has been interesting since English was not my first language. In high school, Literature classes were always my favorite and to be exact, I have always loved reading and analyzing poetry. This is my first English class here at Tech and I couldn’t be more excited. I definitely prefer reading and writing as forms of communication over speaking up in class, which is something I struggle with. Since I prefer writing/electronic communication, I am very excited to use Twitter this semester. This semester in English 1102, I hope I can improve my speaking and use it more efficiently as a way of communicating with my classmates and professor.

Even before this class, I have always been an avid watcher of television. I have seen every show from an 80’s sitcom to a 2018 drama series. Watching TV and sharing opinions with my friends has always been something that I have enjoyed, especially in the past few years. Not only do I watch many American series’, I watch many shows in multiple languages, such as in Hindi, Spanish and Korean. Considering that I love television, I am very excited about this course.

The awkward hilarious female lead that I am very excited to see on screen (:

This semester, I have chosen to review New Girl. New Girl is about a young teacher who moves in with three single guys into an apartment and documents her adventures with love, life, and friendship. The show follows the relationships that form between characters and their unique personalities. I chose this show due to a few reasons. First, the main character is a woman and three of the other main characters are men. It seems to be an interesting watch as how the female is portrayed in relation to the male characters throughout the show. It also seems like a fun and comedic show so I am very excited to watch and continue to document my thoughts on the show throughout the semester!

A Short Story of Someone Who Managed to Stay Under the Word Limit!

Hey there! My name is Aniket Venkatesh, my major is Biomedical Engineering, and my anticipated year of graduation is 2022. Throughout my school years, starting from India, due to English being the secondary language at the school, I was only an average student in English classes. When I moved to the US during 5th grade, I was still only an average English student due to its increase in difficulty, while at the top of math and science classes throughout middle and high school. However, the breakthrough occurred during 12th grade, when I decided to take my first AP English class, AP Literature, simply because one of my friends took it. Not only did I do well in the class despite its difficulty, but also learnt from the teacher herself that I’m better at English than I thought before. With the newly gained skills and increased confidence, I put in the same full effort in the English 1101 class during summer semester at Tech and was rewarded an A.

As stated in my Common First Week Video, I’d say that the part of the communication that I struggle with the most would be oral, especially forming complete chains of thoughts on the go while orally presenting them with as few hesitations as possible. Although I had several opportunities to practice it throughout high school, and have significantly improved since then, I’ll always appreciate more opportunities to keep improving upon the hesitations in this class, be it in the form of oral assignments, projects, etc.

I don’t know if admitting this is a good thing or not, but I don’t watch much TV. This can again be partially traced down to my childhood in India, where playing outside with friends took way more time off each day than sitting indoors and watching TV, although watching Tom and Jerry once in a while was irresistible. After moving to the US, although I didn’t play outside too much as I didn’t have many friends, I still only watched some of the old nostalgic cartoons and tennis occasionally and began watching some news as I began high school. This class will therefore be a brand-new experience for me, and I am excited to see what all I have missed out on in the past when it comes to television.

I’m still always down for more Tom and Jerry.

Finally, the TV show that I’ll be reviewing is Jessica Jones, mainly because of my love for Marvel and many of its superhero-themed movies. Jessica Jones is about a private investigator with the same name whose primary goal is to simply get through each day in the bustling New York City more than saving the world. Her detective agency, Alias Investigations, which she herself founded, focuses primarily on people who have special abilities, inspired in part by her own short-lived career as a superhero in the near past. I’m excited to see how this show turns out, while learning more about television and feminism along the way!

                              Jessica Jones

 

An individual’s English 1102 Introduction

Hello to all passersby, I’m Nelson Jiang. I’m currently a Material Science and Engineering major (subject to be changed with little notice), and I’m expected to be a 2022 Graduate (might be a bit of a stretch).

English 1102 is my first English class at GA Tech as I had taken the standard AP English (AP Lang & AP Lit) pathway in high school and was lucky enough to get the credit for English 1101. As I’ve struggled with languages in my early life, my relationship with English has not been good often being the class I struggle the most in. I enjoy and would like to improve my written and oral communication. However what I most struggle in would be nonverbal and visual communication, those are two communication skills that I still haven’t quite got the hang of yet. Interpretation of nonverbal and visual communication is a bit hard for me, and I’m often unable to understand the meaning that the author had intended. I really hope to get better with the entire spectrum of WOVEN communication.

As with the theme of the course, I haven’t watched television in perhaps four to five years and even then most of what I had watched were kiddie educational cartoons. I did really like Curious George and Martha Speaks as a kid. Most of my viewing screen time goes to YouTube. Most of what I know from television, I’ve picked up from conversations with my friends. As for feminism, I have a habit of wanting to stay in the middle as a moderate and avoid the two divisive sides of politics, so I don’t know much about feminism. Though I do hope to learn more about it, if possible in a nonpolitical sense. My experience with feminism is mostly limited to the Feminist Critique from AP Lit and learning about feminism in history classes.

I’ll be reviewing Fresh Off the Boat for my blog entries. The show is loosely based on Eddie  Huang and his book Fresh Off the Boat. It’s about Chinese-Taiwanese family, from Chinatown in Washington,DC, that sets up a restaurant in Orlando, Florida with a dad that loves the American Dream, a mom that struggles to understand the culture, and kids that try to fit in. The family tries to fit into American cultural; whilst struggling to maintain a sense of their own Taiwanese culture. I choose this by looking through the entire list of recommended shows, looking through their synopsis, and watching the first 10 minutes of each show that interested me. I choose Fresh Off the Boat over the other shows on the list as I felt it was the first time I’ve seen a show try to connect with the upbringing of a first-generation Asian-American family. I connect with it as my sibling and me are first generation Asian-Americans with an immigrant family from China.

This was my parents at the end of each term during most of my school career.

The First of Many

Hello readers! My name is Michael Zimmerman Lemus, and I am an aerospace engineering major with an anticipated graduation in 2022.

In high school, I took a wide breadth of english classes. I took everything from  traditional literature classes to Future World/Dystopian literature and creative writing classes. This has allowed me to learn a lot about myself as a writer and reader over the past few years. Thus, I’ve learned that I can do quite well when it comes to some aspects of communication, and not quite as well in others.

I’ve found that I’m quite comfortable when it comes to analytical writing (sadly, that doesn’t exactly mean I enjoy it…), public speaking, and visual/technological communication. However, when it comes to aspects of writing creatively, I tend to encounter some hurdles. I often have trouble getting myself out of the “analytical writing box” and into the “creative” one. Over the years, we’ve been so trained to analyze someone else’s writing that, when it comes to creating our own from scratch, I often run into trouble pushing myself to take a different perspective. Nevertheless, I hope that in ENGL 1102 this semester, I’ll be able to push myself to merge both analytical and creative writing to do assignments such as these upcoming blog post assignments, and I hope to push myself beyond my analytical limits.

I’ve definitely had my share of TV shows which I’ve binged and fallen in love with (Breaking Bad, Stranger Things, 3%, to name my favorites..), but I don’t consider myself a TV fanatic. If I get into a TV show I tend to find it difficult to put down, but I haven’t exactly had time to put myself in that position these last few years so it’s been hard for me to get to that point. I guess, in many cases, I’ve tried to avoid getting into that position out of my desire to focus on other things.

The TV show I have chosen to watch is called Westworld. The show is about a futuristic amusement park where high-paying guests go to indulge in their wildest fantasies without repercussions. I chose this show because I have always enjoyed futuristic literature and television, and I know HBO tends to produce high quality stuff. I’m excited to start!

(Here’s my senior picture which apparently doesn’t look like me..tough)

WHO AM I

Hey! I’m Frank Ketchum, a BME major here at tech. I’m looking at graduating in 2021 if I keep up the current pace.

I took English 1101 here last spring because I made the mistake of skipping out on AP Lang/Lit in high school. In the past, English courses have been like pulling teeth for me, which was a big part of my reasoning behind this choice. I’m in the STEM field for a reason- I don’t do well with digging into deeper meaning behind works of writing (just tell me what you mean!). I have to say I didn’t hate English 1, which was unexpected considering how much I usually dislike English classes. It forced me back to the roots of the composition process and allowed me to be a lot more free and involved in composition than English classes in the past, which I appreciated. I also enjoy how English classes here break away from the mold of traditional classes and focus on new things.

Me in high school English classes >:(

When it comes to communication, I’m pretty lacking. I especially struggle with written communication. Sometimes I can’t even bring myself to read over what I’ve already written because I hate it so much. However, this semester, I’m looking forward to improving all of my communication skills. Specifically, I want to improve on my oral communication. I enjoy speaking and talking with people, but I also feel like my oral communication skills could use some work. A proficiency in oral communication is very impressive in my opinion, and it would help me out a lot in the future.

Having an English class on television is going to be interesting, to say the least. I used to watch a lot of TV when I was younger, but more recently it’s lost its effect and television just hasn’t been doing it for me. I can’t find a series that keeps my attention for more than a couple episodes. I think this has to do with the fragmentation of the television industry and the move away from larger, higher-budget channels to more smaller networks, like Netflix. I’m also pretty new to feminism- I get the general idea and I’m down for it, but it just goes so much deeper than I initially expected. There are so many things to consider through the lens of feminism that I had never thought of.

I’ve chosen to review Fresh Off the Boat for my blogs this semester. It’s been on my list of things to watch for a while now, so this is the perfect opportunity to force myself to go ahead and watch it. It seems like a pretty funny and entertaining show, and I think it’ll also provide me some insight on how my experiences have differed from others’ based on my upbringing.

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