Inquiry 1:
In composing my close reading of The Green Mile, the biggest lesson I took away was picking a topic that I found important or that stood out to me. This kind of contradicts what I've learned in previous English courses I've taken because instead of all reading the same text, we each got to choose our own. Because it was a text of our choice, it was up to us to decide what were the take-aways or what the text was trying to say. Because I have seen The Green Mile so many times, I take away something new each time. The particular idea I based Inquiry 1 on, the similarities between John Coffey and Jesus Christ, was one I had never previously considered. This gave me the opportunity to watch the movie in an entirely different light. A testimony to that from my Inquiry 1 that I will include in Inquiry 4 is from the last paragraph of my writer's reflection, "I have learned to look for things that I might not have thought about before. Thinking “outside the box” is always something I have struggled with, but by doing a close reading, I learned that sometimes it’s right there in front of you. Seeing things from a different perspective can open your eyes to a whole other hidden theme you might never have otherwise seen." I will definitely take-away the idea of close-reading for any text I am exposed to from here on out.
Inquiry 2:
Inquiry 2 posed a particularly difficult challenge in that I had to incorporate others' opinions into my own writing. Not only did I have to prove my own point, but I had to do so by using other's words and thoughts. This paper was so time-consuming because I had to sift through hundreds of pages of thoughts and reviews to try and find ones that would make my paper well-rounded. I think one of the most important points I made in Inquiry 2 and one of the most important points we've learned in English 112 is stated in my last paragraph, "Depending on personal opinion, personal experience, and personal research, every person viewed this film in a different way." This idea is the one that stands out to me most when I think about Inquiry 2 and this course in general.
Inquiry 3:
When we started Inquiry 3, I had no idea what a "canon" even was. I think that in the traditional sense of a canon was an idea that I started to disagree with very quickly. What I'm taking away most from Inquiry 3 is that a canon is completely subjective to the person who is creating it. Different texts are important to different people for entirely different reasons. The texts that are included on one's personal canon say so much about the kinds of texts influenced, affected, and shape who they are. Canons, to me, are much more personal than scholars make them out to be. My first paragraph of my writer's reflection of Inquiry 3 exemplifies this main idea I have learned very well, " I am a firm believer that one’s experiences and environments shape the way they are. Changing one aspect of someone’s life could change them entirely. For me, personally, I’m reminded everyday how the place I grew up in, my family, my friends, and my experiences have made me who I am today. The struggles I have overcome and the lessons I’ve learned have made me live my life in a better way. I think that this canon I have created is a cumulative way to bring together different texts that have affected me in some way and shape the kind of person I want to be."
In composing my close reading of The Green Mile, the biggest lesson I took away was picking a topic that I found important or that stood out to me. This kind of contradicts what I've learned in previous English courses I've taken because instead of all reading the same text, we each got to choose our own. Because it was a text of our choice, it was up to us to decide what were the take-aways or what the text was trying to say. Because I have seen The Green Mile so many times, I take away something new each time. The particular idea I based Inquiry 1 on, the similarities between John Coffey and Jesus Christ, was one I had never previously considered. This gave me the opportunity to watch the movie in an entirely different light. A testimony to that from my Inquiry 1 that I will include in Inquiry 4 is from the last paragraph of my writer's reflection, "I have learned to look for things that I might not have thought about before. Thinking “outside the box” is always something I have struggled with, but by doing a close reading, I learned that sometimes it’s right there in front of you. Seeing things from a different perspective can open your eyes to a whole other hidden theme you might never have otherwise seen." I will definitely take-away the idea of close-reading for any text I am exposed to from here on out.
Inquiry 2:
Inquiry 2 posed a particularly difficult challenge in that I had to incorporate others' opinions into my own writing. Not only did I have to prove my own point, but I had to do so by using other's words and thoughts. This paper was so time-consuming because I had to sift through hundreds of pages of thoughts and reviews to try and find ones that would make my paper well-rounded. I think one of the most important points I made in Inquiry 2 and one of the most important points we've learned in English 112 is stated in my last paragraph, "Depending on personal opinion, personal experience, and personal research, every person viewed this film in a different way." This idea is the one that stands out to me most when I think about Inquiry 2 and this course in general.
Inquiry 3:
When we started Inquiry 3, I had no idea what a "canon" even was. I think that in the traditional sense of a canon was an idea that I started to disagree with very quickly. What I'm taking away most from Inquiry 3 is that a canon is completely subjective to the person who is creating it. Different texts are important to different people for entirely different reasons. The texts that are included on one's personal canon say so much about the kinds of texts influenced, affected, and shape who they are. Canons, to me, are much more personal than scholars make them out to be. My first paragraph of my writer's reflection of Inquiry 3 exemplifies this main idea I have learned very well, " I am a firm believer that one’s experiences and environments shape the way they are. Changing one aspect of someone’s life could change them entirely. For me, personally, I’m reminded everyday how the place I grew up in, my family, my friends, and my experiences have made me who I am today. The struggles I have overcome and the lessons I’ve learned have made me live my life in a better way. I think that this canon I have created is a cumulative way to bring together different texts that have affected me in some way and shape the kind of person I want to be."