Alishan Jamshid

May 15th, 2021

Professor Furlong

Engl 210

Final Reflection

Throughout English 210 I progressed very much as a writer. In the duration of the semester we had to write four different essays and they were all very different but had a connection to one another. The first essay we wrote was the personal artifact essay in which we had to find something in our daily lives that was a personal artifact. In the process of writing this essay while trying to find an artifact in my life, I learned that anything with history can be an artifact and also that we overlook so many objects in our lives and don’t realize how much history they contain. I discuss my private life and talk about an object in my life that holds a lot of value for me and my family. I talk about my personal artifact which is my family’s car. The whole essay being based on a personal item makes the genre of the essay a personal essay. I wrote about my family’s Corolla because I never thought of it as a personal artifact or of any value other than it being a form of transportation. I realized its value when I took a deeper look into everyday objects around my house because of this essay. I realized it holds a lot of history for me and my family and is also a symbol of my late uncle.  One aspect of class that really helped me begin this article was the mini assignments. One of the mini assignments was to brian storm a few objects that you could use as an example for the paper. That assignment was the only reason I was able to come up with an example, which was my family car back in pakistan. The most challenging part for this essay was probably trying to figure out an object to use. I had never before thought about daily objects for more than their use. The help of in class reviews and talks made it alot easier. We would go over each part of the paper together as a class and it made the process a lot easier because it was broken up into parts. A specific mini assignment that helped make the process easier was “Homework #3 – Response to reading textbook pages 123-137 on cultural artifacts:Everyday Use by Alice Walker”.  Reading this made it easier to understand what a cultural artifact was because I had never before looked into the term. 

The second essay we had to write was the peer interview essay in which we had to interview one of our class peers and ask them a series of questions that we wrote and figure out a subculture that they belong to. The person I Interviewed was found to be a part of the nursing subculture. The interview was in the morning and towards the beginning of the interview it was a bit more awkward and quiet but as the interview went on and we continued talking she opened up and made the process a lot more fun and easy.  The steps I took in order to begin the essay was I wrote a series of 10 questions which started off very generic and simple and as the interview progressed I asked more interesting and personal questions as the person I interviewed opened up. The most challenging part was coming up with interesting questions and being able to interview my peer as professionally as possible. It became easy after an in class assignment in which we read “Iowa 80” from the textbook. Iowa 80 showed me how I should behave during my interview in the way I talk, note take, etc. Another thing that helped me along the way is Professor Joseph proofreading my questions to see if they were appropriate and good enough for me to ask. He gave me a lot of constructive feedback that helped me improve my questions. 

The third essay we wrote was the research study. This assignment was a standard research paper. It involved a topic within the social sciences and had to include at least4 sources; 2 peer reviewed and 2 popular media. It had a clear goal that is explored and supported by evidence. My research paper was about Esports. The stereotype for gamers while I was growing up was nerdy kids that are unathletic and sit behind the tv screen all day. Gaming has evolved from a small community to a now recognized sport with a multi billion dollar industry behind it. In the paper I evaluated what has helped the evolution of Esports from a small community to a multi billion dollar industry. The steps I took to begin this essay was that I came up with multiple topics I could research for the research study as an in class assignment. That assignment helped me figure out that I wanted to talk about Esports. We also wrote this essay in different parts so it made it much easier. We went over each part in class so the process was step by step. Feedback from Professor Furlong helped me perfect what my research would be about. He helped me narrow it down to “what has helped the evolution of Esports”. Before Professor Furlong’s constructive feedback, my research question was too vague and would have been harder to research because there would be too much information to sort through. 

The fourth and last essay that we wrote was the mini ethnography of chosen subculture. This essay was connected to the previous research study essay. You will combine the data from your researched study with your observations and interpretations from the mini-ethnography in order to form a picture of your subculture while keeping in mind your initial research question. This essay had three parts, part 1, part 2 and part 3. In part one we had to interview a person directly/professionally involved in our researched subculture. We wanted to describe everything about the interview so it had to be live and I used zoom. The interviewee had to be a professional, someone with provable experience and involvement in your subculture. I had to compose a list of relevant questions and take notes during the answers. In part two, I had to fulfill the observation of sub-culture interactions. I had to write a one page description about a documentary that I watched that is directly related to my subculture. This was pretty easy because the documentary that I chose was very informative and made it easy for me to evaluate and realize that the film confirms my research. I used a suggestion from Professor Joseph to make it easier for me which was to use double entry notes. Part three of the assignment was a visual representation of my subculture which was Esports based on my research paper and mini ethnography. My visual representation is a collage of all the important things surrounding Esports. For example, I incorporated an image for cultural influence which was the bear brick because of its high resale value due to the hype surrounding the Esports team faze. I also showed an image for Esports influence on fashion by showing a photo with a Faze member wearing a collab merch t-shirt between Faze and the NFL. The collage also shows the progression of Esports from where it started to where it is now, and also included the progression in prize money awarded to players across multiple years. 

The course learning outcomes helped me to progress as a writer. For example the course learning outcome “Practice systematic application of citation conventions.” helped me perfect how I write my citations and do it the right way so I can avoid plagiarism. The most challenging course learning outcome was “Locate research sources (including academic journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles) in the library’s databases or archives and on the Internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias.”. This one was the hardest for me because I am still getting comfortable with using the CCNY database and it is still new to me, but my continuous use of it to locate research sources has helped me understand how to use it. I made use of “Quotation; Summary; Paraphrasing; Analysis of evidence” in my research study. I made use of “Ethnography; culture/subculture; informant; insider/outsider; interviewee; rituals/insider phrases/behaviors/group identity” in my mini ethnography which revolved around the ethnography of Esports. I used citations in all of my major assignments that required research.