Module 2 Short Story Self Reflection Essay

 

Annette Trejo

Joan Dudley

ENGL 1312

25 March 2024

 

Self- Reflection #2: A Study of Short Stories

            Self-Reflection number two is about analyzing short stories. My English Composition professor gave the class short stories to choose from. We had to pick a short story to analyze. Our first assignment was to have a phone conference with our professor discussing which short story we are going to analyze. However, I chose Stories from the tenants downstairs. There were elements that we had to cover in our analysis. The elements in Stories from the tenants downstairs was in Harlem at an apartment complex called Banneker Terrace. Banneker Terrace was in a run-down part of Harlem. Furthermore, Gentrification was an issue with the tenants causing them to become neglected or marginalized.

            There were brainstorming techniques I used for Module two: A Study of Short Stories. The first brainstorming technique was imagery. Imagery is when you imagine a picture that goes with the title. I made a vivid imagery of where this story takes place. It is downstairs of an apartment complex. Another brainstorming idea was building characters but, in this story, it clearly states that it is about the tenants having stories to tell about being downstairs. The tenants of this story could be anybody. In Stories from the tenants downstairs, the story had protagonists. The protagonists are major characters of the story that is telling these stories about being downstairs. Also, academic scanning is a brainstorming technique. Academic scanning is scanning the beginning of the story and then scanning ahead to see if you are on the right path or if you missed something from the beginning. Lastly, the brainstorming technique that was most used was evaluating the topic. In Stories from the tenants downstairs, the topic was gentrification. The starting point was to define the topic. Once you define the topic, explore the topic in other contexts. Therefore, if it comes out the same in your short story, you will know what the story is talking about. The tenants are dealing with gentrification on a personal level. Each tenant in the story used as a protagonist, had their own story and battles against the social issue.

            For this project, our assignment was to design a book jacket for our selected short story. The format of this module was simple. To design book jacket, our professor let the class use a generated design platform, Canva, Adobe, and Microsoft Word. If you are familiar with the designing platform, the assignment should be easy to understand. When it was time to do my flaps of the book jacket, I simply used Microsoft Word to create my flaps. All you had to do was insert a vertical table and enter the information. To be more complex, research on how book jackets look, and you would know how to position your flaps on Microsoft Word. In addition to my design, I could print it out and put all parts together like a book jacket and put it on a book. Module two was complex in the beginning but all it took was to carefully read the instructions. English composition classes are meant for you to read and write effectively.

            Once I turned in each part of Module two, the professor gave me feedback on how I can improve my book jacket. The first feedback I received was on my analysis of the story and cover idea. Instead of doing an analysis, I did a plot of the story. The idea of my book cover was much more like the book. My professor asked if it could be more original; however, at that point I knew what I needed to do. I needed to explore my computer, so I used to paint app plus Adobe to create my book cover. Therefore, designing a book jacket and cover should be in your own taste of creativity. The second feedback I received was about the biography of the author. The professor mentioned that it was unusual that the author’s style was not included. I had to beef up my sources about the author. Yet, the sources had to be credible. I used sources from Google Scholar. The last feedback I received was on the rough draft of the book jacket including all parts. My professor gave the grade but also asked, “Where is the rest of it?” I could not do anything but laugh because I had all the parts (book cover, front flap with the summary, back flap with the author’s bio, and the back cover with credible sources). However, I was stuck on how to submit it. Like I mentioned before, Module two was complex so I had to carefully read the assignment. First, I did not know what a book jacket was. I had gotten a grasp of what I needed to do. I had to play around on the computer. It was hard for me to SEND THE DOCUMENT in FULL through blackboard. In Adobe, there is a feature that you may or may not have to pay for. In my case, I was a tad frustrated so I paid for a free trial feature that allowed me to merge all the parts of my assignment into one. This Adobe feature is called Merge PDF (Portable Document Format). You would have to upload all parts of the assignment into one pdf file to send. Once I figured out the problem, it came together as an “Awe” moment.

            In conclusion of Self- Reflection Essay number two, it was simple yet challenging. Although, my worries on how to do the assignment faded because if I knew what I book jacket was, I would know how to design one without the instructions. My hard work paid off because I received an impressive grade. I had put forth the effort in analyzing the assignment!