Connor Thomas

Coming into this semester off the backs of two English AP courses that were supposed to help
me prepare for college essays, I was ready to see for myself what college essays were going to
be. To my surprise, it was not what I expected for this class, for better and worse. Writing a
narrative, visual analysis, and research paper for ENGL1103 was not what AP English prepared
me for. To some degree, I was grateful because essays for those classes were hell, but at the
same time, that does not mean there was some difficulty in writing. However, that is not to say
that these assignments were not productive for evolution in writing.
The narrative assignment has the most significant difference in writing between the beginning
and end of the year. I started that assignment with much joy since I was able to talk about a
personal story to me and what I cared about, so film was the obvious way to go, hence the long
story about my upbringing with film. In the beginning, I was all over the place and was not as
personal as I should have been, choosing to go a route I usually do where I speak about films
without any real meaning behind them to the actual topic at hand. After guidance, I condensed it
down and focused on a select few films without going all over the place, making the essay more
personal and why film impacted me and changed me.
Assigning a visual analysis essay made me think about film posters differently. Using John
Carpenter’s The Thing’s theatrical poster for my image allowed me to sit down and look at a
movie poster as an image to be examined rather than something I pass by on my way to a
screening or online. It also improved my writing. The visual analysis was more condensed and
streamlined, and I consider it my best personal essay for this class. I wrote a cohesive essay that
was straight and to the point. The only edits needed at the time were a couple of spacing issues
and fixing the final body paragraph, where I went into more logistical details rather than keeping
with visual analysis.
I dreaded the research assignment, primarily because I do not usually follow issues, or I take an
opposite stance that is not considered mainstream. However, even though I did find a problem, I
was afraid my original idea would not work given the nature of the topic of social justice.
However, luckily with confirmation from others, I could switch and complete the assignment
with the subject of media bias and alternative news. Another essay that is straight and to the
point, it showed how far I had come since the beginning of the year as the essay was the least
edited essay at the time of submission. I thought I made it cohesive and to the point without
much filler, so I left it mostly alone.
In the revision and revisiting of these essays, the most change done was to the narrative
assignment. I found the visual analysis primarily, save for a couple of minor things and a
smoother transition at one point. I barely changed anything in the research paper except for
maybe a couple of phrases and words. Aside from the grammar editing, I cut out two sections of
my narrative that I found unnecessary to the rest of the essay. I reworked the final paragraph to
be more personal and relate to the overall topic in terms of personal interest and who that makes
me a person, fixing some of the personal touch issues I have had with that assignment.
Connor Thomas

Essays like these will become fewer and fewer in the future. Research may become less common
down the line. However, the narrative and visual analysis essays will be the essays that will have
continuing elements as I move along with my degree. Narrative is a critical element of film, and
that essay will be evolved through other stories down the line. Analysis comes with the territory
as studying film means analyzing film as well, meaning that the visual analysis essay can be a
semi-blueprint for analyzing film down the line. I expect the number of essays to diminish as I
continue along my film degree path, but when I do have to write one, I can use the skills from
this class to write those essays better than the ones for this class.