I walked into Cavanaugh Hall on August 27, 2019, rolling my eyes wondering why in the world I needed to come in here. Being a STEM major, specifically Biology, I had zero need for liberal arts classes other than the two semesters of English required for Medical School. Having previously signed up for W131, I was sent an email halfway through the summer giving me the opportunity to take W140 instead. When I saw the honors credit, I jumped at this opportunity to take an honors course in order to help me get into the Honors College the following year. When I saw my professor I was thinking “oh boy here we go, another English teacher that will dislike me by the end of the semester.” On the first day I was already prepared for the semester to be over. Come to find out, I was wrong about most everything I originally thought. I have chosen to revise my WIX website and feature article to showcase my unexpected growth as a writer using multimodal discourse strategies. 

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"Come to find out, I was wrong about most everything I originally thought."

 

When Professor Oesch-Minor announced we would be having an “immersion experience” in a new “contact zone” not only was I extremely confused about the terminology but I was a little shocked that this semester would not be what high school English teachers portrayed college English to be like. I was expecting something similar to AP Language and Composition; read some books, write some papers, annotate some poetry, then take a final. Walking in the first day of class and watching a TED Talk about having a “growth mindset,” I knew this would be nothing like AP English. As it turns out, that TED Talk by Carol Dweck would greatly influence my experience in this course.

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Dweck began the talk with an experiment she performed. She gave ten-year olds, "problems that were slightly too hard for them," in order to see how they would react to the challenge (Dweck). Some children immediately shut down, while others enjoyed the challenge. At the beginning of the semester when I did not understand something I began to shut down and give up, however towards the end I refrained from giving up and instead looked at difficult situations with a growth mindset, asking myself "what can I learn from this?" or "how will this benefit me in the future?" Creating my WIX webpage was extremely frustrating but as the semester went on, I began to face this project head on rather than pushing it to the side since it was frustrating me. My professor's expectation of constantly reflecting helped me apply new knowledge to other areas of my life. Nancy Chick's Metacognition mentions that, "metacognitive practices help students become aware of their strengths and weaknesses as learners, writers, readers, group members..." I was able to apply what I learned in this class to other areas of my life. For example, I babysit often and talking to children is not the same as talking to adults. Understanding my audience helps me efficiently communicate the necessary message to them; showing rhetorical awareness.

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I chose to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting as my immersion experience in a new contact zone. Having never been exposed to alcohol or alcoholism previously I thought this would be an eye-opening experience. I walked into the meeting with several preconceived notions, only to have the majority of those notions proven false either during the meeting or in my research afterwards. My favorite piece of writing I read all semester was this article I cited in my immersion narrative. It explains how socioeconomic status relates to alcoholism and the parallels of each lifestyle to how they consume alcohol. I always thought poor people drank the most because they were stressed about financial issues and job instability. After some research, I found out people of a higher socioeconomic status actually drink more than those of lower statuses because their finances allow them to purchase more and attend events with easy access to alcohol. I rode into that meeting on my high horse, thinking I knew it all and that I could never end up in a room with those types of people, but that’s the thing; there is no “type.” In that AA meeting I saw men and women from all walks of life and all different socioeconomic statuses. This was just part of my growth in being able to identify myself as writer.

 

The summer before senior year of high school I moved from North Carolina to Indiana; from the most redneck little country town to a crowded city of industry. I believe the transfer of schools helped me adjust to my surroundings in this class. Back in North Carolina, the place I lived was not diverse at all. We were all pretty much raised the same give or take and our morals/beliefs/goals were all fairly similar. Moving to Indiana, I was plopped in the most diverse high school I’d ever seen. I had to learn how to not only get along with, but work with people who did not think the same or agree with me. No matter whether I thought someone’s major was pointless or their political views did not align with mine, I had to get past that, which was more difficult than it sounds. Watching Carol Dweck’s TED Talk helped me realize that I don’t need to agree with everyone or even support what they think everyone should support, but I need to be open to hearing them.

 

English class is stereotypically full of metaphors. One day as I walked into class I saw Legos sitting on a table. Knowing my professor had a class right before ours I figured she had used those for the previous class. When she began silently putting directions on the board and asking us not to talk, I knew they were for us. Throughout the twenty minutes or so of us Lego building, my professor had given each table a goal for each Lego masterpiece. Having to work together with three other completely different people and not being able to verbally communicate was a challenge. No one really took the lead but there was some disagreement. Our goal was to build tall so I immediately thought “we need a sturdy foundation to be able to build up so it won’t collapse before we are done.” However, the other three girls didn’t show they thought of that. One girl, having the goal of height in her mind, put a car on wheels under the structure as a base. Yes it did add quite a bit of height, but the structure was not able to remain stable and it collapsed halfway through. This exercise tested how I react in group situations, particularly working with people who think differently. I had to learn not to be mad that the masterpiece did not turn out exactly how I wanted, but it met the requirements and that was all that mattered. After the exercise was over I found out the professor had given each group a different goal for different purposes. This relates to rhetorical strategies of having the purpose of writing for different audiences. 

 

Bringing my previous knowledge of writing into this course I had many expectations that

turned out differently than I anticipated. In class, my professor had us read a piece on

metacognition and then continued to use that obnoxiously large word throughout the

semester as she asked us to reflect on our writing after we finished each draft. These reflections

                                                           helped me "develop meaningful questions to engage in inquiry" so

                                                           I can manipulate my writing to the mold I had envisioned. I had

                                                           never had a teacher who made me engage in this process. I really

                                                           did not even have a whole lot of experience peer reviewing until

                                                           this class. Typically what you produce only the teacher sees and not

                                                           your classmates, let alone allowing them to give you feedback on what you should fix. I enjoyed the peer                                                             review and having another couple set of eyes to give suggestions before I turned the final product in.

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                                                          During the semester my writing process has also changed a bit. I learned to write more audience                                                                           specific and give more context as opposed to writing generally. Through the pieces we read in class                                                                       such as "My Terrifying Night" and "Arts of the Contact Zone" I saw various rhetorical strategies                                                                               exemplified which aligned with the three pieces of the rhetorical triangle; writer, genre, and                                                                                    audience. Jen Percy gave background for situations that the common person would not know and I                                                                      applied that to my immersion narrative. Overall I believe this class helped me grow, both as a writer                                                                    and as a person. I walked in not expecting to leave with a single new thing that would benefit me. In reality, I left the class with new writing skills, research skills, and use of multimodal discourse strategies (i.e. this WIX website). I also left with a new mindset of being more open and less judgmental of those around me who think, look, speak or act differently than me.