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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Entry #11


When class first began I had a felt overwhelmed thinking about all the genres and how little I knew.  Literacy was always something that made me uneasy, especially learning about different genres.  I was always intimidated to walk into a library to find a book.  I could hardly pinpoint a genre if I tried.  As this class began I wondered how I was going to remember all of the genres and be able to tell them apart let alone know characteristics of each.  I quickly began to be amazed at how much I was retaining and how easy it all was to figure out.  Although there are many different genre names, I learned that many of them can overlap.  This put my mind at ease, knowing there is not always a single right answer.   As I was learning about each genre, I also realized that they are not always in a specific format as I had previously thought.  There is a large amount of flexibility within each genre.  For example, an expository text is not always an essay. It can also be in the form of a textbook, or even a poem.  If an expository text is a poem, then it includes two genres which is the overlapping I was introduced to.  
At the start of this class I felt as though I had an understanding of each genre, but not necessarily a deep understanding.  I knew what a poem looked like, or could pick out an expository text, but I wasn’t sure that I could create one of my own and feel confident. Once I was introduced to the endless formats and uses of poems, I felt as though creating one would be more manageable.  I think this was my largest growth throughout the semester.  That being said, I can't necessarily pinpoint a single genre I grew in.  Overall my eyes were opened to the variety that I had not previously been exposed to.  I now feel more confident in each genre, that I can mold it to what I need and express myself without feeling restrained.  I hope to teach my students to feel this way as well.
Just like my growth, there isn’t a particular genre that still intimidates me.  Descriptive writing is my weakest point still, but this is incorporated in all genres.  As a writer I do not easily convey my message with descriptors.  I often leave too much to the reader to infer, as I leave out the details in my writing.   This is a part of my writing that I have always struggled with, no matter what genre I am writing.  I tend to get to the point and not elaborate as much as I could.  This is my goal as I continue to grow as a writer, to incorporate descriptive writing more prevalently within any genre I write.  

1 comment:

  1. This is an interesting challenge you have set forth for yourself Jennifer. As you look back on this entry (as well as the others you have done this semester) what could you do to enrich the details of your thinking and reflecting in these entries (if anything)?

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