Right Now

The biggest problem I had with the paper 3 was that my focus wasn’t stayed on my thesis throughout my entire paper, thus making my paper incredibly unorganized. There were many ideas in my head that I was not able to put it together in the paper. Though my teacher had given me the areas that she wanted me to cover, I didn’t stay completely devoted to developing my essay around those areas. Instead, I tended to drift away from my central thesis. But, in the end I was able to stay on track with the idea and have my peers to give me more ideas and revision. In my diagnostic essay, I did not put in effort into because I thought it was the beginning of the semester and the professor did not ask her to write the perfect essay format. But I still rethought the process back then on how would I start the paper. It makes think over and over again that what would be the best way to write this paper? If it wasn't for paper 2 assignment. I believed I would still be stuck at the same question right now. In paper 2 we went in depth the details of how to write a paper. We look at the words, phrases, analyze each paragraph. We even create a fable for the topic of our own. This assignment definitely made me a better writer when it comes to structuring my ideas.  
I was able to learned something new everyday in class. Caitlin always provides us with new activities that will not boredom us. I enjoyed the way she teaches that I can apply to real life lesson and helping others out. One assignment that I thought had the most impact in my life was the invisible narrative essay. I never thought about what is the true meaning behind the message that I've received, the pictures that I've once analyze and turns out to be a different idea. In society we have missed some of the real meaning because some people would not accept it. but in reality, for the long run we should defiantly a step into those ideas. We may have done wrong in the past but we are still on the way to fixing the problems and finding out the truth to many questions. If I was never aware of the situation. I would still sit here and be very clueless W

Reflection

Reflection on English 214 

By 

Nicholas Brown

   This semester of English was a revolutionary experience in my life. Though the transition of the

semester, English 214 has contributed to the ideologies that I have begun to develop concerning life.

My professor, Caitlin Field, introduced me to the invisible narratives in everyday society, but more

importantly the power they posses. I overwhelmingly enjoyed participating in this class and gained

much from the conversations with my peers as well as my professor.

  In the beginning of the semester I anticipated this class to be a reflection of the Eng 114 class I took

during my first semester at SFSU. Although, I did gain much as a writer from the course, I do not

feel it challenged or expanded my mind, like my other classes do. After just a few classes, I realized

this would not be the same experience.  My favorite topic or assignment that we focused on was

analyzing the different readings we had each week. Even if I did not participate in that specific

reading I could still guarantee that I could come into class and expect good conversation. This was

the best part of the class for me. The fact that I could come into an environment and openly share my

opinions, not having to worry about the outcomes, or anyone judging me. English 214, challenged

me to critically think about the built in perceptions we have about certain topics in the world.

   

  After reflecting on my diagnostic essay, I can see the invisible narratives I have accepted without

even knowing. Although, my beliefs might not have changed as much, I can understand the other

point of views. Some of my ideologies, such as my perspective on women in America, media

perception, and power within the US, have changed.  I now realized the way I thought about things

was not necessarily wrong, I just did not  have enough knowledge to come up with the conclusions I

did. Moreover, I know now to lesson the power of these invisible narratives, I need to educate more
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people like I have been. I do this by engaging in conversation and informing others of what I have

learned.

   I am glad Caitlin Field was my English 214 professor. Although, I do not know the specific 

academic guidelines for the course, I do know Caitlin challenged me each class to think from a 

different perspective. Also to analyze the power I have, and understand how it can affect people 

around me. The class also instilled more confidence in myself to speak out against the disparities 

within society, and how invisible narratives can potentially harm us individually. The teaching style 

in my 214 course, was majority of the reason I enjoyed class. Having open dialogue with my 

classmates allowed me to take in a different perspective on the topics introduced. Along with this 

each assignment given to us effectively pushed us to think deeper about English. 

I want to thank you personally Caitlin for the time and effort you put in the class. I have gained 

much as a writer and I have a better comprehension of how to analyze writing. Most importantly 

English 214 has made me a better person.   

   

Great Class

English 214 has been different than any other English class I have taken before. I have learned how to write in different discourses, from ones that I wasn't familiar with at all to exploring the discourse of my major. In a way I believe this class was created to tailor every specific student in their own way because we were always able to write about what we wanted and explore and question our own beliefs.

A major way we were able to learn about our selves was through metaphors and invisible narratives. Through Caitlin’s lectures and the readings I was able to learn a lot about how other people saw things and also made me reflect on why I saw the things the way I did.

I can honestly say learning about invisible narratives has had a direct impact on the way I view life, culture, metaphors and others. It has opened my eyes and makes me look past the obvious of things and wonder why those things are the way they are, the backstory.

At the beginning of the semester everyone had to write a diagnostic essay on something, no matter what, just something that they believed very strongly about. When I first got the assignment I just assumed this was the task to have something to write about, but now that I have seen how the class has unfolded I know that it was meant to look back on later and realize how invisible narratives have shape our way of thinking.

 In my diagnostic essay I wrote about the Hispanic culture. Specifically how Mexicans tend to take full responsibility of their parents when they get older, it is a ways of showing the ultimate respect and gratitude for all the sacrifices that were made to raise them. Versus Caucasian culture where when parents get to an age were they cannot care for themselves they are sent to a home.  Looking back now I see invisible narratives I did not see before. The most relevant being income, although there really is a tremendous love for family most Mexicans in America are hard working and get by while Caucasian people statistically tend to be more affluent and can afford an elderly home.
One time in class Caitlin said she hated culture because it was extremely oppressing. At first I didn't understand but I disagreed, I love my culture I was proud and it was part of who I was. But the more I thought about it I forced myself to look past what I had always believed. I tried looking at it from and outside( Non-hispanic) perspective and realized that culture does have the power to oppress because culture is tradition and language and people everywhere have already formed invisible narratives and stereotypes good or bad about such. If you are associated with a certain  culture, you are a certian type of person kind of thing. Crazy but people do think this way!

Another assignment that I really enjoyed was my final project presentation where I explored truths about the Rosies' of WWII and I found out it wasn’t all glory being a woman in the workforce of a man. How they had to struggle and fight to break the invisible narratives of what a woman should be. Struggling between expressing or suppressing their sexuality and how they would be portrayed (promiscuous or lesbian).

Ultimately I feel that I did a large amount of learning due to how engaging the class was. I can truthfully say I enjoyed the lectures because I would leave the class pondering what was said. I also enjoyed that is was interactive it was not a one way stream. Getting to share what I had to say on a topic and hearing what my class had to say back was a good experience. Either because I was standing up firmly for something I believed in or because I was not certain and wanted to hear other perspectives.

Now I See

In the beginning of this course we had to write a short paper on a strong belief that we hold. My strong belief that I wrote about is giving my best effort in everything I do. I always had this belief, but after a life changing event, my belief became stronger. After re-reading my diagnostic essay from the beginning of this semester, I realized that I also have some invisible narratives. Throughout this semester, we learned about the concept of invisible narratives and uncovered a number of different invisible narratives. We mostly looked at invisible narratives in other's writing, but we never explored the invisible narratives in our own writing.

An invisible narrative I found in my writing was that I depended on my father a lot. The man in the family is dominant and my family also believed this. I think this is why we, as a family, were so affected when my father left us. Although I was not especially close to my father and he was usually not there to support me, I found myself really devastated when my father left my family for his new family. When I found out the news, I automatically assumed that I would no longer be happy or have a happy family. The invisible narrative that a happy family should have a father and mother implies to my situation. I think media has shaped my narratives a great amount. I thought that a happy family is a family with both parents because on television when parents get divorced, the family starts to break apart and every family member becomes depressed. According to society, divorce is not a good thing and media emphasizes the effect of a divorce on children.

In the second piece of writing we did this semester, which was an editorial, I realized that I am attracted to free things like Ariely says in his article. For my editorial, I wrote about discounted or free bus fare for San Francisco State University students. Re-reading my editorial, I noticed that I used the word free about ten times throughout the editorial. Ariely writes about the word free and if the word free is involved we would give up what we actually wanted for the thing that is free. If San Francisco State University did decide to provide bus passes, then a certain price would be added to our tuition, but because the bus would seem to be free more people would chose to have bus passes.

After reviewing my past writing, I noticed that I have a lot of invisible narratives, personal and society inflicted narratives. In paper two I explored the invisible narratives in economics and one narrative of economics is that the master and servant relationship is the only way for a firm to be successful and efficient. I believe that there are still a lot of invisible narratives in my writing that I did not discover. I noticed that in class when we have class discussions about a certain narrative, new narratives always seem to make its way into the discussion. Because narratives have already been placed into society for so long, they have become norms and hard to uncover unless they are addressed. When I was still grasping the concept of invisible narratives it was a bit hard for me to understand and see the narratives, and this is the same way I feel about my writing. I have a lot more narratives that I have to uncover in my writing and I believe that over time as I experience more things I will slowly realize my personal narratives. This class also helped me open my eyes to back stories and become more open minded. Therefore, I think the only way to lessen the impact of invisible narratives is by experience and open mindedness. 

Dream Big Blog 4

Before this class, I knew some things about Invisible Narratives but not fully. After learning and writing a paper that included Invisible Narratives, I started to realize what it actually is. And for my writing, before this class I was extremely confident about my writing up until I started to uncover certain things in this class that replenished and helped me build as a writer. I honestly learned so much in this class in a way that was so interesting and fun that I did not know that I was actually learning. I was so caught up in the mix of having fun with the assignment while I was not knowing that I was gaining knowledge of writing by each assignment I was doing.

As for my diagnostic essay, I was talking about following your dreams regardless of anyone's opinions and thoughts. Also, I included that there will be some road blocks while pursuing your dream but persistence and faith will keep you going to accomplishing your dream. While reading my essay, I don't think that I uncovered any Invisible Narratives but just using different types of metaphors that is relevant in pursuing your dreams. One metaphor that really impacted me from this paper was, "A mind filled with fear, there is no room for success." Now with this being said this can definitely be something to carry out with in the future with almost anything and this can affect other people including myself.

Fear is basically a road block that is getting in the way for you to pursue your dreams. Now if you are weak, you let your fears get the best of you but if you are strong willed and have faith, you will overcome those fears and will continue to pursue your dreams no matter what the outcome is. And this is something that I truly feel strongly about and will carry it on to my career. I know that there will be times where I am scared or lazy to do something but perseverance will be the main asset in fixing that problem of being afraid to pursue anything. This is metaphor that I just described is what I carry inside of me and I know that I will never forget it because I feel so strongly about it.


I feel like the only way to lesson this narrative to others is to share the faith and perseverance to other people that lack it. Another thing that I feel strongly about is to share your knowledge that you gain because the knowledge that you have can spark another person's knowledge to do something incredible in the future. Everyone has to follow their dreams and everyone has a right to have a dream since we live in a society where its built to just survive. We need to start living our life and believe in ourselves to be something in this society to make a change.

My Learnings and My future. BlogPost4

I could pretty much sum up this class in one word, amazing.  This is actually the very first class that I have taken where most of the curriculum motivates and prepares myself for my major. In, addition I have learned numerous aspects and skills that will help me short term and long term as well.  From, the start of the class, I already knew that my knowledge and writing would excel. I already felt the vibe since the very first day.

My writing to begin with was actually decent due to my previous English teacher. I actually thought my writing was really good. I wrote the diagnostic essay as a basic four to five paragraph essay. I also wrote it with an introduction, body, and conclusion.  It was a normal essay. I would also say, I had good transitions as well. But, as I started to engage myself in Professor Caitlin’s curriculum, I started to question if my writing was weak. She has taught me and told me numerous things that no other English teacher has done. For example, invisible narratives and platitudes were all new to me. Writing in my own discourse was new to me. I didn’t even know that there were other ways to write essays.  So, I would have to say I was confused for a while. The start of the class seemed a bit foggy in my eyes, because I was given new information. But, as the semester is coming to an end, I totally understand all the teachings now.

So, as I compare my diagnostic essay to all the other papers, I could see how my writing improved.  But, before I say anything, my mindset about my writing to begin with was already good. I didn’t know how I could still improve my writing. So, as I compare my diagnostic essay to paper two and three, including all the blog posts, all I could say is that I was wrong. My writing has excelled and improved drastically. I have improved on paragraph order, clarity, less sentence fragments, and many more. I found out ways to make my paragraphs work together and flow. In addition, my introductions and conclusions have gotten stronger as well.  I would say that Caitlin is not the only one who has helped me in writing, but my peers helped as well. I’m really glad that she let us have peer editing and grading. It is always good to get other people’s opinions on things.  

Moreover, as we talked about invisible narratives, I am still trying to figure out my own. I am pretty sure I have numerous invisible narratives or I project them some how. However, I do understand the concept of invisible narratives. But a specific invisible narrative that has shaped my assumptions and judgments are the ones in movies. Movies and companies that produce movies will be around for a long time. Meaning that there will always be invisible narratives presented some how.  By knowing that invisible narratives are everywhere, creates an open-mind for me. I always think twice about many things now, which is not a bad thing. By knowing about IN helps me understand the world and the media a lot more. I am also more interested in things as well.

Even though most invisible narratives are bad, at least they are projecting it in a hidden way.  Its not like the people who project these IN are just saying or implying things straight up.  Because, many of these Invisible narratives will go unnoticed if one does not know knowledge about it.  However, I believe we can lessen these invisible narratives by letting other people know about them. I have already educated my family about them as well.  It is crazy how they were surprised as well.  But, as I head out on my career path, I would not let any invisible narrative impact me. Well, I will do my best to make sure it doesn’t. This class has made me more open-minded and stronger in all aspects. I am prepared for what the world has in store for me.

My reflection about Class and Teacher!!!

I had Caitlin before but this is my second year taking English class with Caitlin. I feel like freshman year I wasn’t even trying like Caitlin always give us good ideas but I never wanted to try or to try to learn something new, but that had to change this year for my sophomore years I felt like Caitlin open my mind more why because she was giving us a lot of examples about metaphors. It’s was amazing that I was seeing things differently because of the metaphors. Like every time I watch a movie I always ask why things happen for example in the show The Walking Dead the main character is a “White man” why because they always make them seem that there are in power. Why cant a black man is in power? But that a question to ask and people always going to say that black people always die first in movie. There was a film that Caitlin teach during our class and there was a big ass metaphor why because the African American was always in charge and telling the white man what to do he never like it but he had to do what he had to do why because they change the plot of the movies making the African be the boss and also made him died at the end. I was amazed because it opens my mind. I feel like this overall for English it was amazing and wonderful because I did learn a lot cause of Caitlin I’m thankful that I had more time because I was impress that I could do better in her class like I am doing better for this year. I’m doing better if it wasn’t for her I think I wouldn’t learn the things I learn this year. I’m thankful thank you.

Reflection

Reflection

      Throughout the entire semester in English 214 I have learned many important topics. This was my first semester with Ms. caitlin and I have to admit that it was an amazing class. Thanks to Caitlin I have managed to learn about invisible narratives, something that I had not learned or even heard about on my high school English classes. The activity that I enjoyed the most in this class was when all of us needed to go to the agree or disagree side. It was amazing how we all didn’t agree with a specific statement and we would always get engaged by giving out own opinions.

      When I read my diagnostic essay again this week I realized this semester went really fast. I noticed that it was our first paper for the semester and when I saw my other essays I realized that my writing had evolved a lot throughout the entire semester. I found that my belief was “Do not procrastinate. Try doing your best even if you think that you are not strong as the others”. Throughout the classes I have always kept this belief in my mind and I managed to improve more thanks to Caitlin and my peers. There were times that I procrastinated because I didn’t know what to write about in my essays. Even if it was a first draft, during peer reviews I would read my partners essays and I would always think that their essays were much better than mine. But my peers would always tell me that I did write well and that my essay was good, that made me feel that i wrote an okay essay. When the conferences with Caitlin came I was scared to see what she would tell me. And then I realized that I had been doing my essays well. Caitlin managed to push me more by advising me to give more analysis to my arguments and be more specific. And thanks to the advice I managed to improve my writing and as well to continue following my belief of doing the best I can even if I am not a good writer.

       Thinking about myself and my culture I can notice many invisible narratives. I think that the invisible narrative behind myself is inequality. I am different because I am not as racist as many white officers that think that they are the ones that have power in this country and that they can insult and kill anyone because of a different skin color or clothes. My Peruvian culture as well has the invisible narrative of inequality. I didn’t face it but my father did in his teenage years. He was born in the beautiful region of Iquitos and when he moved by himself for a better life to Lima, he sadly faced the bullying of many people because of his accent. This is the thing that gets me mad from my country because if you weren’t born in the capital of Lima then you will always be consider a minority for many people. This is what people that were born in Ayacucho, Cusco, etc have to face everyday. They are always being called “cholos”, “serranos”, “indigenas” and this has always made me feel mad. Even though I was born in the capital of Peru I had always shown respect to this kind of people but not because of where my father was born, mainly because we are all equal and we deserve to be treated equally don’t matter what part of the country you come from.

        During my upcoming semesters at SF State I will keep following my belief and try to do my best. This English 214 class has been amazing and I thank Caitlin for letting me know a lot about invisible narratives. I am pretty sure that everything I have learned in the class and the improvement I have made in my writings will definitely help me in the future.

Reflection

At the beginning of the semester we had to write a paper on our beliefs are. My belief was pretty much “what goes around comes around,” and I still believe this because people still need to take responsibilities for what they have done whether it is good or bad.

After taking this class, my belief has become much stronger. I discovered the invisible narratives that I have for myself. I make myself feel like an introvert. I make myself believe that I have no power due to my ethnicity and my gender. I discovered that even though I say I am a person who does not conform to the social norm, in reality I follow it down to a T. I speak the language that everyone else is speaking. I write like how I was taught in my English classes. I also act a certain way so that people will perceive me in a certain way.

I follow all of the standards that society has made for us because that is the only thing that we were taught. We were taught our roles in society at an early age. I admit that I don’t follow every role a woman must play, but I do conform to the role a motherly figure that embraces all children. I am also quite submissive in front of authority figures, and I wear make up because I think it will make me look prettier.

All of my life I have been taught to act like a girl and dress like a girl. I of course rebelled because I didn’t want to be defined by what I was taught to be, so I act like a tomboy. Acting like a tomboy is much easier than acting like a girl, because as a girl I must represent cleanliness and organization. As a tomboy I can dress like a boy but still add a bit of a feminine touch to my wardrobe. I also keep my room in disarray, and my mother always gets on case saying, “Girls should be clean and organized rather than a pig who lives in garbage.” I must admit that my room is not something I should be proud of, but I honestly don’t care about being clean or following the rules of being a girl.

I want to demolish the rules that say what we are supposed to do or be. I see no point in segregating the girls from the boys. Girls are not better than boys and boys are not better than girls. I view as equals, so we should treat each other as equals. What was the point in defining us? We all go through the same pain and difficulties but in different ways so there is no one gender being stronger. Its just their character to be strong so that they can be recognized in society that is full if segregation. People must prove themselves because of these rules that some caveman made saying that people are supposed to be a certain way and that it is the only way in the world.

We need think differently from the way that we have been taught and we need to start thinking of what strength we have equal to each other. We need to mend the separation that has been made centuries ago, and we can do that by taking down the social norm and creating a new kind of social norm.

reflection

This class has been really eye opening for me. The discussions were always very interesting and very engaging. They got the whole class to discuss ideas that not everyone agreed upon, but nobody left the class feeling angry or embarrassed. Everyone was able to discuss controversial topics with respect to each others viewpoints. Caitlin did a great job at being the facilitator of all these topics, and she had great insight herself.
The idea of invisible narratives will stick with me for awhile. I already think about the concept on a day to day basis. The only thing is I now know that invisible narratives are everywhere and most people play into them, but I still don't know how to change them, or even which ones need changing. I do not like to judge people, but I find myself doing it no matter what. To rid yourself of judgement would be to stop judging yourself. Without judgment of self our primal instincts would take over. There is a balance between excessive judgement and no judgement. Because of this class I am determined to find the balance between the two.
I also really liked how Caitlin asked us to write in our own voice, instead of writing solely in an academic discourse. To have an english teacher ask us to do that made me feel much more comfortable writing. It also allowed for my ideas to flow more freely from my mind to the paper. The less my brain has to translate, the more fun it was for me to write.
I also really enjoyed the assignments. They were an awesome fun break from traditional boring english class assignments. They were great creative writing outlets that inspired me to have more fun with writing. I specifically liked the fable/parody option. it was cool to choose what form we wanted to write in. I think that because we had so many drafts for each writing piece it made the assignments less stressful to write. It was nice to get to do shitty first drafts before doing major drafts.
Over all, the course was a positive experience for me. I think that this was the best english class that I could have been in, for my style of learning. I hope that there are more teachers like Caitlin who can structure a class that is truly conducive to all of their students style of learning.

Reflection

I have taken my last two English classes with Caitlin, and I learned a lot from her and I had fun at the same time. So, that was the reason why I took her class this semester, because I new I was going to have fun but I was going to learn something that somehow was going to have a major impact on me. And, I was not wrong. This semester in English 214 I learned different kinds of Invisible Narratives within our society, culture, music, social media, and within us.

            First, let me honest with you. I did not remember what I wrote for my diagnostic essay, so I had to go back to ilearn and download it. Once I did that and started reading it I noticed that this entire semester I mainly focused on racism, and inequality in the United States. And so my essay was focused on the corrupt government, racial profiling, what the United States claims to be but is a bunch of bullshit, and by this I mean “For the people by the people”, “Freedom”, and “The land of opportunities”. When I was putting all these things together I filled up with anger because young people, people of color to be specific are been target by the police. It does not mean if you were born here, if you are legally, or if you are not, racial profiling attacks everyone. In addition to that, it is a shame and but at the same time is sad to know that the United States have not progress from slavery and all those inequality. In my paper I also talked about, how the United States goes around and kills people, and takes their natural resources. Yet, other people are the ones being called savages and terrorist when it is the other way around. 

            I have seen so much inequality in since I arrived to the United States to the point where I started to make my own ideologies. Some of my own ideologies are treat people as they treat you, speak you mid even if some people will get mad, upset, don't be afraid to say what you think because you don't want to look like a fool. These are some on my ideologies because this is the opposite society and the government wants you to do. The media wants you to put other people down because their appearance, social economic level, and gender. On the other hand, the government does not want you to speak your mind even if you have the right to express yourself.

            When I was analyzing the invisible narratives within my culture, I was really shocked and embarrassed of my culture at the same time. I am Mexican, and in my culture women are supposed to stay home, clean, take care of the children, and cook for the husband. What this shows is that women are supposed to be submissive to men and they do not have the right to do what they want. I go against everything I just said. I go to school, I do not have children, everything I do is for me and just me, and I do not know how to cook. Even if there are all these invisible narratives in our society, government, culture, we do not have to embrace them. I can make the change my going against it just like I did. You can make a change too, you just have to have courage.

The following photos explain everything that is going on around us everyday.