Reflecting on ENG 210: Navigating Literary Studies

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Before I took ENG 210: Foundations of Literary Study 1, I was not sure what I was going to expect. In the past, I have taken English or literature courses that were either really easy or really hard, making it difficult for me to predict this class. For many students, including me, having to read books assigned for a class seems very intimidating and stressful at the same time. Seeing the initial reading list, I was worried about how I was going to read eight books in one semester. I’m sure that you will feel just as overwhelmed when you first see the syllabus and notice all the papers and books that you will have to cover in sixteen weeks. Looking at the course schedule, however, I knew that I was going to be able to stay ahead of all the …show more content…

The course reading list covered the following literature topics: essays, short stories, dramas, poetry, and novels. Just within the selection of novels, there were a variety of genres: graphic novel, fantasy, realistic fiction, utopian/dystopian, and science fiction. As I explored all these various readings, I learned that I could appreciate all kinds of literature. I used to only like to read short stories, realistic fiction novels, and utopian/dystopian novels. During this course, however, I learned to appreciate and enjoy reading from all different forms and genres of literature. Specifically, I even learned to appreciate poetry more during the course’s poetry unit. During this part of the course, I realized the significance of every literary and stylistic choice in a poem and how it affects the poem’s entire meaning. Not only was I becoming more familiar with all of these written works, but I also was learning how to look more deeply into the writing itself to find more meaning. By writing reading journals and participating in class discussions, I realized that there are details in literature that we, especially students, often overlook when we are

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