How To Properly Read Literature

The journey that has brought me to this class has been dependent on my academic drive. I am currently a dual enrollment student and this class is one of many steps along the path to receiving an AA degree. I am taking advantage of the opportunities that dual enrollment offers and furthering my understanding of literature with this course.

Foster discusses the idea that when two characters eat together, that moment acts as a bonding experience and causes the characters to come together. I had never noticed the significance of a meal between characters before. After reading this chapter, I can think of so many moments in stories when the characters share a meal together to form friendships or come to a peace. In one of my favorite novels, Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, Picoult writes that “Emma Alexis- who was one of the cool, beautiful girls…she rolled her wheelchair right beside Justin. She’d asked him if she could have half of his donut” (367). Splitting the donut between one of the popular girls and one of the quieter, nerdier boys was a representation of the deformation of the high school social classes. After reading this chapter, I could recall the significance of meals together in so many novels and movies but I never noticed this pattern before.

Reading “How to Read Literature like a Professor” by Thomas C. Foster changed how I analyze literature, forever. This being said, I chose the work of one of my favourite authors for this homework assignment. Toni Morrison is a brilliant author, with countless of fantastic literary works. She, among other amazing authors were mentioned in this book, which brought me to focus on her work even more carefully. I choose “I Was in Love with a Woman” and “Beloved”. They both of love, loss and self-discovery. Morrison’s work is known to be passionate, full of life and death, all that I learned how to analyze.

Today, I have become a better critical and visual thinker since taking this class. I have noticed the different types of writing styles and tones used in the stories and are able to make better connections to the stories. This gives me a deeper and better understanding of what I am reading. Walden had provided me with a lot of tools to help me along the way. They provide student support and amazing advisors to help with anything you need to do not understand. They have writing centers and people willing to help proofread and correct papers to help you become a better writer. From start school until now, I have grown so much in so little time. I am able to communicate with different people from all over the world.

In the duration of this course, I was more informed on how English literature was started. I became more educated on how the styles and tones the authors utilize have an affect on the readers. Although I had already read many of the stories we studied, I became more enlightened on the background history of the authors of those stories. Becoming more cultivated on the authors enabled me to view their accounts in ways that I wouldn’t have usually considered.

I learned so much in this course from literary element to my personal being. In this class, it's not a boring class with long lectures and the professor gives bombards the students with homework. It's about growing and developing your writing, using skills and element to prepare for the college and real life ahead,

Reading and writing about literature can come hand to hand, understanding the initial text that you are reading in your literature is the key to being able to develop a well written paper about the literature. Without understanding the fundamentals that come along with understanding literature, and taking in appropriate steps into developing a understanding of text will result in an easier transition into developing appropriate organized writing about the literature with appropriate details because you are understanding the text being read.

During my undergraduate studies over the past year and a half I’ve been able to hone my focus on the aspects of literature that I not only excelled in but, also had an affinity for. Some of those classes were: at Northwest Florida State College, English Composition 2 with Dr. Price which introduced me to Seamus Heaney and Franz Kafka both writers I have come to greatly appreciate and it was the class which started me on this path. Another, also taught by Dr. Price was Contemporary American Literature and this is the class that drove me to work harder. The class was a humbling experience, but it affirmed that I did in fact have the mental hardware to analyze works critically. More than

Overall, this class has taught me a lot. It has pushed and stretched my writing abilities to the limit, and has helped me grow as a writer. I was able to learn how to construct a strong, valid thesis, do extensive research on a topic, and do a deep analysis on different material. Although this course was a bit tricky for me because I do not care for writing, I feel that this course will help me conquer my writing endeavors in the future.

I took this class because the class description sounded like a good fit for the type of reading I like to do. The books I like to read are newer and easier to understand. I have taken an Early American Literature class before, and it was difficult because I could not read the text quickly or understand the text easily. We will most likely be reading some texts that might be difficult, but a challenge is not always a bad thing.

The first thing that surprised me when taking this class was the idea of Gothic literature. Before taking this class I had never read gothic style novels and had never considered it an important genre. However, after reading all the books we read in class I realized that gothic novels are extremely good at analyzing important themes like humanity, morality, and religion. I also really liked the way that they used sarcasm in a lot of the book or exaggeration to point out the problems in our society. I also learned a lot about analyzing form and looking at things like context, intertext, and subtext which I had never done before. It was also important to analyze different modes like watching blade runner and comparing it to the book as well as

Literary Imagination class allowed me to explore the meaning of books. I’m appreciative of the class because it opened my eyes to reading books. My original opinion about books are that they are pointless to read and a waste of my time. I could not have been more wrong. Before taking the class I would not want to read more than a paragraph of any kind of story.

I’m Anna, a 19 year old that currently live in the more northern parts of our country. I currently work as a saleswoman and other than that I usually spend my spare time searching for new books to read. As I strive to become a publisher, I need several literary courses before it is possible to get into the program that I want to get into. Therefore, I decided to take this course among a couple of others because it seemed to be interesting and fun. I have not yet read any of the books that we are going to read in this course, which I am exited to do.

In this class, I learned about the significant field of reading and writing assessment. There are running records, which are assessments that are done all throughout the semester to monitor a student's reading process. There are also assessments to be done near the start of the year, such as the Garfield Survey, to find out student's attitudes towards reading. All of these assessments will help me in the future better tailor my lessons to fit my students' needs. A second area of knowledge I gained in this class is a better understanding of lesson plans. I became more familiar with the Madeline Hunter format. I also learned the format for Guided Reading Lessons. This will help me be more organized in my lessons in the future.

After taking this course I still do not necessarily enjoy reading novels, poetry, or non fiction, however; I do see these writings in a new light. I have a deeper