Three years had traveled by since my last in-person English class as I entered the basement of Swift Hall one January morning. As a lifelong learner, avid reader, and lover of storytelling, I was excited at the thought of diving into the world of literature and paragraphs once again through this course. My time in Honors English 2089 this semester enabled me to sharpen my creative writing skills and challenged me through new methods of academic research.
Some of the essay writing assignments in this Honors English class gave me the opportunity to practice my strengths. The first paper I was assigned involved narrative storytelling of a personal literacy. I have always had a passion for poetry and creative writing, and took the opportunity provided by the essay assignment to spend seven and a half pages telling the story of my literacy of poetry. After three years of scarcely practicing creative writing, I seized the opportunity to paint pictures with words, penning image-filled sentences. I wrote a visual narrative of my childhood writing experiences, using detailed language to convey a scene. Writing a creative, first person narrative about a lifelong passion for words and poetry allowed me to reconnect with my dormant love of creative writing and storytelling.
The class stretched and challenged me as well, specifically when it came to academic research. Three years had passed since I last ventured into the world of academic reading and writing, and using online academic research tools was new to me as well. Although I am no stranger to checking out physical books from the public library, I had yet to use the online database tools provided by my college. For my second essay examining the impact of genre on various authors’ narratives on the prosperity gospel, I watched videos online in order to learn how to use the academic databases within the University of Cincinnati’s library. Utilizing the library database search engine was a new research experience for me, and I discovered that I had free access to New York Times articles as well. Thus, my research skills were broadened and sharpened this semester, as I was exposed to new tools for discovering sources in the form of academic research databases and journals.
Through Honors English this semester, I sharpened my existing creative writing ability and developed new skills. Through the narrative essay on my literacy of poetry, I progressed in creative writing, a field in which I had been dormant for three years. Through academic research for essays, I flexed my critical thinking muscles and delved into databases that were previously foreign to me. As my writing skills had become rusty, this Honors English class helped polish up my literary skills. Within my field, it is rare to find an industrial designer who can not only design elegant forms, but who also can express the story behind the technical process of designing a product in an engaging manner. Thus, by bolstering my creative writing and research skills, the Honors English course enabled me to hone my design research ability and improve my product and process storytelling for my technical career as an industrial designer.
Below: An example of my work from this Honors seminar. My professor recommended that I submit this essay to the University Writing Contest. I submitted this essay to two separate writing contests at the University of Cincinnati.
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