McKnight 1

Aubrey McKnight
Brittany Stephenson
English 2600
Self-Assessment
Introduction to Literature is a class that I am so glad that I took. As an avid reader, I have
had some experience reading across the genres but this class really helped me to look at fiction,
nonfiction, poetry, and drama in a much deeper way. By becoming more aware of the different
aspects of poetry, I was able to complete the Poetry Project. Imagery, figurative language,
sounds, rhythm, vocabulary, and structure are used by the poet to tell a story. The way that they
are put together adds to the meaning of the work. By looking at each of these aspects
individually, I was able to read more into the poem and to understand it on a deeper level.
Using literary criticism really helped me to understand and interpret Terry Tempest
Williams essay The Clan of One-Breasted Women for the Rhetorical Analysis assignment. In
order to understand the authors purpose and how she went about achieving it, it was helpful to
look at her past and what was going on in her life at the time she wrote it. The message and call
to action of the essay became that much more powerful when put into context with her life and
experience. Writing about the essay was an important part of the process because it helped me to
improve the ability to perceive rhetoric and it helped focus my critical analysis skills.
One of the course goals for the class was to be more rhetorically aware of individual
strategies for reading and analyzing texts, as well as the ideologies that influence interpretation.
For me, the attainment of this goal was most reflected in the Frankenstein project and the

McKnight 2

discussion questions posted for week 7. The books themes and messages have been interpreted
many different ways by many different people. This was reflected in the way that each student in
class took something different from the book. I am not a religious person so the God vs. science
theme was not an interpretation that I made. However, the books theme of power and
responsibility is one that did speak to me. It was fascinating to see that personal beliefs and life
experience play a large role in how I read and analyze a text.
The weekly discussion question posts and the response posts helped me with
interpretation. It was helpful to see the readings from many different points of view. Each student
in the class brought their own experience and ideologies into their interpretations and then
presented them to the class. By being involved in the class discussions, I was able to broaden my
interpretative skills and then use those interpretative skills to write better and more informed
literary research papers.