Category: Student Posts

Traced Pages here

Stitches and Spinning are both graphic memoirs following the developmental years of David Small and Tillie Walden, respectively. Small grew up in Detroit and regularly became ill during his childhood. His parents and grandmother, who rarely showed David affection, regularly abused him mentally and physically. In Spinning, Walden’s upbringing consists of various trauma in addition to the difficulties of high school’s social pressures. On page 289 of Spinning and 275 of Stitches, Small and Walden are both traumatized and lose someone meaningful. Although both scenes portray traumatizing events, these pages are structured very differently. 

In Stitches, David Small became close with his step-grandfather, Papa John. Papa John was popular in their town and would take David to see the trains, which David enjoyed. On page 275, David’s grandmother and Papa Johns wife, who lacked sympathy and apathy for David, attempted to murder Papa John by setting their house on fire while he was locked in the basement. Papa John survived and David’s grandmother was sent to the state insane asylum. David had to experience the trauma of his abusive grandmother trying to kill one of the only people he felt close to. In Spinning, Walden had an SAT tutor who she believed was a friend of hers. On page 289, Walden goes to her final SAT study session and takes her sweatshirt off because of the temperature, revealing that she is wearing a tank top. Her SAT male tutor then sits next to her in an attempt to sexualize her, making her rightfully uncomfortable. He begins to use playful tactics to touch her and becomes increasingly aggressive until she is finally able to fight him off. Walden was scared and hurt by this experience because she “thought [they] had actually been friends.” In these texts, Small and Walden were each betrayed by individuals that were expected to have enough apathy towards them and others to act differently. 

Page 289 of Spinning and 275 of Stitches portray traumatizing events while being structured very differently. Page 289 contains four rectangular panels in a basic two-by-two formation with short and distant text bubbles for Walden. Additionally, the frame for three of the panels is the same and witnesses the event from behind Walden with no shading in the background. These details were included to slow the readers pace and emphasis the discomfort and fear felt during the situation. To contrast, page 275 of Stitches has five panels varying in four differently-sized rectangles with dense shading for the background. This page also uses lines to represent the motion of the grandmother lighting the match in the center of the page. These details and the absence of text bubbles make this scene feel quick-paced. Despite the opposing structures of the pages, both scenes portray intensity and significance.

These texts use different methods to portray intense situations to determine the pace and effect the scenes have on the readers. This page in Spinning has large panels with distant text bubbles and a lot of negative space, causing the reader to slow down and play close detail to the significance of Waldens interaction with her SAT tutor. In Stitches, Small uses smaller panels and the absence of text boxes for the reader to rapidly view the scene and display that time was a pressing matter during the situation in addition to the grandmother’s actions.

Tracing Pages Analysis here

Traced Pages here

Stitches and Spinning are both graphic memoirs following the developmental years of David Small and Tillie Walden, respectively. Small grew up in Detroit and regularly became ill during his childhood. His parents and grandmother, who rarely showed David affection, regularly abused him mentally and physically. In Spinning, Walden’s upbringing consists of various trauma in addition to the difficulties of high school’s social pressures. On page 289 of Spinning and 275 of Stitches, Small and Walden are both traumatized and lose someone meaningful. Although both scenes portray traumatizing events, these pages are structured very differently. 

In Stitches, David Small became close with his step-grandfather, Papa John. Papa John was popular in their town and would take David to see the trains, which David enjoyed. On page 275, David’s grandmother and Papa Johns wife, who lacked sympathy and apathy for David, attempted to murder Papa John by setting their house on fire while he was locked in the basement. Papa John survived and David’s grandmother was sent to the state insane asylum. David had to experience the trauma of his abusive grandmother trying to kill one of the only people he felt close to. In Spinning, Walden had an SAT tutor who she believed was a friend of hers. On page 289, Walden goes to her final SAT study session and takes her sweatshirt off because of the temperature, revealing that she is wearing a tank top. Her SAT male tutor then sits next to her in an attempt to sexualize her, making her rightfully uncomfortable. He begins to use playful tactics to touch her and becomes increasingly aggressive until she is finally able to fight him off. Walden was scared and hurt by this experience because she “thought [they] had actually been friends.” In these texts, Small and Walden were each betrayed by individuals that were expected to have enough apathy towards them and others to act differently. 

Page 289 of Spinning and 275 of Stitches portray traumatizing events while being structured very differently. Page 289 contains four rectangular panels in a basic two-by-two formation with short and distant text bubbles for Walden. Additionally, the frame for three of the panels is the same and witnesses the event from behind Walden with no shading in the background. These details were included to slow the readers pace and emphasis the discomfort and fear felt during the situation. To contrast, page 275 of Stitches has five panels varying in four differently-sized rectangles with dense shading for the background. This page also uses lines to represent the motion of the grandmother lighting the match in the center of the page. These details and the absence of text bubbles make this scene feel quick-paced. Despite the opposing structures of the pages, both scenes portray intensity and significance.

These texts use different methods to portray intense situations to determine the pace and effect the scenes have on the readers. This page in Spinning has large panels with distant text bubbles and a lot of negative space, causing the reader to slow down and play close detail to the significance of Waldens interaction with her SAT tutor. In Stitches, Small uses smaller panels and the absence of text boxes for the reader to rapidly view the scene and display that time was a pressing matter during the situation in addition to the grandmother’s actions.

literacy narrative part 3

The literacy narrative project has been a long journey. After having a one on one meeting with Dr. Morgen, I had to restart my literacy narrative part one and create multiple rough drafts. I realized that there were many mistakes in my essay and I could improve on several literacy aspects. My first draft did not dive deep enough analytically, and my second draft was slightly confusing. I met the writing as a process learning outcome as this project taught me that multiple drafts would be needed in order to have a successful final text. The second literacy narrative, the comic, allowed me to articulate my narrative through multiple nodes. Through visuals, I had a better understanding of the emotions that were involved in my experience that shaped my reading and writing. It was a different style than I am used to, and it overlaps with the rhetorical composition learning outcome.

After creating my comic, I had a different approach to the literacy narrative part 3 than the first literacy narrative. I focused on different elements in writing and tried to emphasize on the emotions I felt during my story. In my comic, I had to draw facial expressions of my parents and I and it made me realize that there are different aspects to my narrative that I did not know and should include. For example, in my comic I had a panel that was a zoomed in on my face displaying frustration. In my third literacy narrative, I tried to emphasize the frustration I felt when I could not write comprehensible writing pieces. Additionally, the comic process made me realize my first literacy narrative had some flaws in the flow of the story. It was harder to create the comic if I followed everything I wrote in the first narrative, so I had to compromise and change some things in the comic to make the whole story flow better.

I see my story differently now because in my story, I not only grew as a writer, but also as a person. I tried to convey character development in my final literacy narrative by describing the transition of frustration and hopelessness I felt initially to enthusiasm and ambition. My analytical thinking process is different as I have experience now in conveying my story through not only writing, but also through drawings. I feel as if describing emotion through text is significantly different than describing emotion through illustrations.

Creating the halfa kucha was an interesting and new task. I had never done a voice over on any slide of a PowerPoint; nonetheless, the whole presentation. After getting the hang of it, though, I was able to go through rather quick. In the beginning I was doing each voiceover many times, but eventually I became comfortable with myself and it became much more smooth. Giving the argument verbally rather than an essay was actually easy for me. Personally, I am a good public speaker. I tend to do a good job speaking with poise and confidence. Because I was talking, it came out pretty strong after getting used to talking.

I had several thoughts about the construction of my argument. I did not know whether to combine the two books and put a picture of each on each slide, alternate, or split the project in half. Obviously, I went with doing one after the other as I think it strengthen my argument. I wanted the audience to see how each progression went without interruptions, and how both stories were pretty parallel. 

From this presentation, I learned how to manage the time well of what I was trying to say. I needed to condense each argument to twenty seconds. It made it obvious to me that I needed to take out any redundancy or miscellaneous information.  After looking at my classmates slides, it is clear that there really is no “right or wrong” way of constructing this. Each presentation is very unique in the way people formatted it. Overall, I liked the halfa kucha and would definitely like to do it again if given the option in the future for other classes.

Turning the literacy narrative into a comic was honestly a fun task for me. I enjoy drawing, although I am not good at it, and turning into a visual document was fun. Likewise, it helped when creating literacy narrative three as I was able to take away miscellaneous and redundant information. It was different then writing the actual essay as now I had to focus on the elements of art. I did my best to utilize line structure, tone, color, scale, and the different frame sizes. Doing this added a new prospective on my essay. It helped point out the times I was upset – dark color – or happier with more positive space. In terms of the learning outcomes, I successfully composed texts in multiple modes. The literacy narrative solely contained words whereas the comic had a combination of both. The Sunday Sketches where we made comics also contributed as it gave me practice into becoming more fluent in the making of comics. I also feel as if this helped me with drafting. Because it was another form of media, it gave me another perspective when reviewing my other work. Furthermore, I probably went through eight additional pieces of paper as I continuously made mistakes, reread my work and changed it, or simply did not like how the frames were oriented. The collaborative aspect of this is when we were put into breakout rooms and peer reviewed our work. This was actually very helpful as my group gave me a lot of really good insight as to how I can fix my work and change it for the Literacy Narrative Three. Overall, creating a comic helped me become a writer in a unique way. By seeing my work in a visual manner, I was able to learn more about myself and further my writing for the future essay.

­­I had been dreading this day, but finally, it came: the day I started my Common App Personal Statement. I stared at my computer screen thinking, trying to put something on the blank page, but nothing came. I truly had no clue where to begin. I didn’t want to write about my involvement in sports or my love for marine biology, they were too cliché; I had to write about something unique to me. Then it hit me: write about my brother.

Prior to junior year, writing had never been my strong suit. Which was not only a bummer to me but my parents. Both my parents are incredible writers and have put tremendous pressure on me to write well. I was creative but could not put pen to paper in a transparent way. My old essays were filled with misplaced “howevers,” bad transitions, and very choppy sentences. That all changed junior year with a combination of ACT prep and a brutally hard English class. For me, junior year was a writing bootcamp.

I credit my mechanical improvement to my tutor Mikey. The Berkeley graduate spent hours working with me, forcing me to memorize the various grammar rules for the English section of the test. Slowly, throughout the first semester of junior year, I picked them up. I was able to work through the English section with relative ease. I was proud of myself for improving this much. I went from below average to near perfect on the section, it was clear my mechanics had improved. What I had not realized, though, is how it transferred over to my writing.

Ms. Everett is notorious at my high school for having the hardest class. At the end of the semester, kids smiled if they finish with a C. So obviously, I was worried that my GPA would plummet going into her class. And, after the first week, my concerns came to fruition; my first pop-quiz grade earned me a solid 8%, a terrifyingly low score (even for me), which jolted me to my senses and made me realize that I always need to be prepared. Regardless of how prepared I was, it didn’t stop me from getting a C on the quiz the following day. There was little feedback on my short answer questions, so I scheduled a meeting with her. Even though this was the first one-on-one conversation I had with her, she treated me like I was an old student of hers – she got straight to the point. She told me my mechanics are off, that I change tenses, I can’t transition among other things. I knew I had to put in work if I wanted to succeed, and that is exactly what I did.

I spent countless lunch periods and after school sessions meeting with her. After every assignment, I stayed in her room asking for feedback. As the semester continued, I felt my writing anxiety slip away and it was clear to me, that perhaps, my writing was improving. The combination of Mikey’s ACT prep and Ms. Everett’s one-on-one sessions, scary as they were, made me much more confident.

Once it hit me, to write about my brother, I Instantly began to type all ideas I could on the page. My brother has autism, but I knew writing about just that was not enough. I didn’t want it to be a pity, sob story, but I wanted to write so other people were able to understand what it was like having an autistic sibling. I wanted to combine something ordinary and unique to me with a story about my brother. I decided to write about Scuba Diving.

Diving is euphoric for me. I love knowing I may be looking at something no one else has seen: the first to explore a cave or see a lionfish claim new territory. I’ve even developed an interest in underwater photography, taking pictures of scenes that no one would otherwise see. But the most special part of diving for me is the time I share with my family – especially my brother Jack, who’s always my dive buddy. Although Jack sometimes struggles to be understood in everyday life, below the surface his fidgets and social awkwardness disappear. Instead, he joins me in exploring underwater caves, and together we thrive in our own secret world.

Finally, I had finished. It was time for another pair of eyes to read my work. Before showing my College Counselor, Ms. Everett, or Mikey, I wanted my mom to read it. I knew the risk of showing her first. I could already hear the “I don’t like this, let’s do another topic” before I handed her my laptop. I was prepared for failure. But that didn’t happen. In fact, she didn’t say a word. She looked up with a tear in her eye, hugged me, and said “I love you.” 

That was the main moment that brought confidence to my writing. Mikey and Ms. Everett were pivotal to my growth as a writer, but it was my mom’s approval and love that put me over the edge.