Employ techniques of active reading, critical reading, and informal reading response for inquiry, learning, and thinking.
For all the annotations that I’ve used for both my papers and blog posts, I often held one idea in mind always when reading and reflecting upon them. That being “How can this relate to me?”. Now I don’t mean this in a self-centered or self-absorbed manner, where I’m placing myself at the center of the universe. I do this to attempt to make my work and writing as personal and relatable as possible. To try to avoid a superficial and surface level skimming of the material with a simple regurgitation of key points and facts, with nothing added to it other than a simple yes or no to its ultimate point. I rather attempt to make a connection and investment in the piece often attempting to connect it to my life and or aspects of it. An example of this is attempting to relate my life experiences to that of Lins daughter which I do in the first annotation above. Or the example from the second image where I consider my heritage and its effect on me just as Lin was doing. When you consider a piece and its ideas and the possible relations and or connections that it may have to your life you have an eye-opening moment of sorts. Where your able to break down the barrier or level of disconnect between you and the subject you’re writing and its contents flourish. Your paper can escape the doldrums of regurgitation and become far more personable and engaging and even relatable to the reader. Or even at times make your position on a topic or argument more profound and hold more traction. For example, below here are some examples of how I’ve attempted to implement personal connections into my essays and paper to either strengthen a point or connect to its content.
“These are examples of “Covering” or “Marketable”, these people are open with who they are yes, but they downplay it and minimize it till it’s almost nonexistent. I’ve experienced this firsthand I’m gay, yet I would say that I’m heavily covering for it. I do so because it is essential to be successful which is sad but the reality. I know that if I was open with my sexuality on a broad level I would most certainly not be where I am today. Hiding my true self and even lying to others has and most likely will be better for me for the foreseeable future. Often people are viewed as one thing or have one thing define them. Like having the fact that your gay be your personality or effect every decision in your life. This simply is a ludicrous idea to even consider, so much more than one thing influences a person and their actions and to assume otherwise is simply false.” (Jackson Schuyler).
“I’ve had some personal experience with all of this. I should first mention that I’m gay, but not gay presenting or outwardly gay. I’ve come out yes, but this information is not exactly in the public domain so to speak nor hopefully will it ever be. I try to hide myself away for fear of what backlash I may receive for being the way I am, not meeting the role that society expects of me and thus being a failure in its eyes. I’ve tried to change myself to be someone else. I tried to speak with a deeper voice and wear more straight looking clothes, to try and compensate for my hidden difference yet I’ve never felt happy doing this. All I feel I’m doing is putting a painting over a hole in the wall, yes it will hide it but at the end of the day the problem is still there. Yet I know my situation is not unique by any means there’s probably millions of others just like me in this work going through a similar personal conflict of trying to express themselves.” (Jackson Schuyler).
With these personal connections and points I’ve been able to make my writing more personal and even enjoyable. It’s always better to read a well formatted and engaging piece of literature than it is to read a boring surface level reflection. Yet also by doing this I’ve become a better writer and reader. Through these connections and reflections, I feel far more engaged and considerate of the contents. With me often catching more meaning from it and seeing other points of views and or points. This has also helped me to further question and inquire about the text with me more often finding myself more inquisitive and reflective on the work and its contents. I’ve used this level of personal reflection to try and fully fulfill all the key points of Learning Outcome Three. With me becoming a more engaged reader and writer because of it, with seeing a sharp increase in quality and complexity of my work.
