ENGLISH 198 COURSE OUTCOMES


    This course has enriched my knowledge of the various disciplines that make up English Studies at BSU.

There are many choices of emphasis that I could have chosen to study but I chose writing, and this is why:  

            

"I enjoy the craft with such passion that I will dedicate my life to it."


    However, this does not suggest that I haven't invested interest in other areas of English study.  I have studied many other areas of the English discipline:


  • Literature I have studied just as thoroughly as the craft of writing.  I feel it is important to have an INTIMATE understanding of the history of literature, the writers who have shaped it, and the works that they have written.  Then and only then can a writer truly master his craft.  Literature has helped me understand a purpose for my writing -- to enrich this world with compassionate or at least evocative ideas that humanize our struggles and shine a little light on the ambiguous reality that defines what it means to be human.  Sometimes the greatest knowledge is beyond definition and only those like the poet can bring us closest to it.
  • Linguistics has introduced me to the study of human language.  Without language there is no writing.  Linguistics expanded my perception of what words really mean, where they come from, how words have different meanings cross-culturally, and how my mind translates a thought into language.  Breaking down the study of language has magnified my awareness of the power in a single word.  If one wants to build brick houses, would it not seem logical to know what a brick is made of?
  • Technical Communications I have not studied intensively but I have studied a great deal of the graphic arts, web design, speech, and the art of presentation.  Maybe I'll find out, somewhere along the road, that I'd be more adapt to make a living using my skills as a technical writer.  Fortunately I am taking a technical writing class next term to polish my knowledge in the field.  But ENGL 198 has at least reemphasized the reality that technical writing is literally everywhere you look and somebody gets paid to write it.
  • English Teaching is an incredible asset to our society and the rest of the world.  A little time spent learning how to teach others to write or to learn English can take you as far as the other end of the planet.  Every country, culture, city, town, and school needs teachers, enough said.  As for myself, I teach shakespeare to elementary school children in my own community (My Community Engagement.)