After the first term in ASTU100, I can see how the course has trained me intensively to become a better scholarly writer.
When coming into the program, I had no idea how to included ‘other voices’ or to put them into discussion (Firstly, I didn’t even know that that style of writing existed!). I would say that through all the essay writings in the three CAP courses, my essay writing skills have improved greatly since high school.
The theme of this ASTU course was ‘autobiographies’. Throughout the span of the first term, I learned many perspectives and complications with this form of writing that I had not really considered in-depth before. Interestingly, when I was young (grades 5~8), my choice of book when were autobiographies. I remember reading “The Child Called ‘It'”, and “The Diary of a Young Girl” (although I did not appreciate the book at the time due to its historic background I did not understand). Through this course, I gained some more understanding to ‘why’ I chose to reads these books. For me, I chose these readings because it fascinated me of the fact that these people were so in a sense, ‘legendary’ and thought provoking to the public that they their life stories were being published to be read by everyone. I also had the desire to know what these people did/experienced that was so significant that people had to publish their stories. This perception slightly underpins what we learned through reading Carolyn R. Miller and Dawn Shepherd’s Into the Blogosphere on how there is “voyeurism” involved in reading autobiographies for ‘wanting to know other people’s lives.”
Through blogging, I was able to further expand on my perspectives of autobiographies. The blog posts I enjoyed writing the most were on the post of how Google and Skype use autobiographies as tools, and my analysis on Humans Of New York as they allowed me to explore contemporary examples and see the trends we analyze in class in practice. However I feel like I could have investigated further about what Gillian Whitlock explores the “commodification of life narratives” in these examples since it is so prominent.
Throughout this course we are reminded of the power and influence of consumer culture and the dominance of the West of how it shapes our lives and perspectives. The producers of books and mass media decide on what should be released to the world and what should be kept hidden. This control that these factors have remind me how as ‘Global Citizens’ we must be aware of everything that is happening, and to question what we are provided. It is integral to think on our own, and come to our own conclusions rather than simply consuming what is filtered by the producers of the world.
At the end of the first term, I have just started to get the hang of how to analyze the system of autobiographies. My goals for next term is to explore and develop my own personal perspective on this genre of writing, and explore and apply this knowledge to research sites in the real world.