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Raeyonn Starghill
Instructor Hankerson
ENG 1010-012
3 December 2015
Succeeding in English 1010
English 1010 is the first English course that I had to take a Wayne State. Being honest, I
did not really think that I was going to enjoy this class. I thought that the classwork and essays
were going to be pointless and difficult. It turns out that I was completely wrong. This course has
been a huge help in expanding my knowledge in African American literacy and language. I n the
course syllabus, it said that this class prepared students for English 1020 by shaping upon our
diverse skills to help us become serious readers and effective writers at the college level. The
main goals of the course were to:

teach college-level reading practices

teach students to compose in basic academic genres by using an effective writing process
and appropriate language conventions

use reflective writing to strengthen learning

instruct students in how to use digital technology to complete college-level reading and
writing tasks
In this writing, I am going to elaborate on what I learned about African American literacy,

my experiences with writing a literacy narrative, an informative essay, a media analysis, and a
multimedia reflective portfolio.
In this course, we had a total of four writing projects to do. This first one was a literacy
narrative. I think that this had to be one of my most favorite writings that we did. In this paper, I

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had to describe the process by which I learned to speak publicly. I had to actually look back on
the different things and practices that I had to undergo in order to learn how to correctly and
bravely speak in public. During the writing process of this essay, I had to really dig deep into my
memories and give examples of what tools and scenarios I used to help me enhance my speaking
skills. This timeline for this project had to fall in chronological order. I was basically taking my
audience along with me through my journey in becoming a better speaker. In the end of this
specific writing, I had to let my audience know how my experience with the subject at hand
shaped who I am today. I can actually say that writing a literacy narrative really helped me
expand my knowledge of literacy and how it is not only just about having the ability to read and
write.
The next project that we had to complete was an informative essay. The classs task for
this project was to write an informative summary essay about James Baldwins If Black English
Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is? We also had the option of writing about another
article (or book, poem, song, etc.) that addressed another type of linguistic convention. I chose to
write my essay on Amy Tans Mother Tongue. This article, Amy Tan elaborated on the
discrimination and awareness of broken English and how it differs from Standard English. Tan
established her views on how language can make a huge impact on everyday life depending on
how you are able to use it. This project helped me develop my understanding of summarizing
information for different audience and purposes, as well as expand my knowledge of linguistic
conventions and genres.
The third writing project the class was assigned was to pick out one of our classmates and
come together and create a media analysis. This project was designed to help us develop our
analytical skills as well as expand our understanding of media and how it operates. Our task for

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this project was to compose a media analysis about Afrobellas An Open Letter to Hip Hop.
My partner and I created a Prezi presentation to explain "An Open Letter to Hip Hop" by
breaking down the key points and the modes of persuasion (ethos, pathos, logos), as well as the
representation shown in the message to give a sense of how hip hop music would affect the
upcoming generation. The purpose of An Open Letter to Hip Hop was to state how rappers
could, for once, actually make all of their music with an important message behind it. This
project, for me, was very inspirational in a sense of how much the media can really affect the
world either positively or negatively.
Last but not least, we had to create a multimedia reflective essay/portfolio. The goal of
this project was to provide us with the opportunity to use a combination of textual, digital, and
verbal tools to reflect on and show what we have learned about African American literacy,
language, and culture. Another objective that we had for this assignment was to reflect on and
display what we have learned about the process of putting together a literacy narrative,
informative summary, media analysis, and multimedia reflective portfolio project. For this
project, there were two parts that we had to complete. Part one was to create this reflective essay.
Part Two consisted of an electronic multimedia portfolio containing your reflective essay and
some of the writings and even notes that we have worked on in English 1010 that we could use
as evidence of your learning and accomplishments as well as support the claims we made in this
reflective essay. My instructor gave the class the options of creating our portfolios in the form of
a website or blog. I can honestly say that this project is one of my favorites too. It really has
given me a chance to look back at where I started at in this course and now look at how much I
have grown as a student as well as a writer.

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In conclusion, English 1010 was an interesting course to be in. I can honestly say that I
have learned so much in this class. During this course, I was assigned four major projects that
have all helped expand my knowledge of African American culture, language, and literacy. This
course was designed to prepare me from English 1020, and I think that I am very prepared to
take it next semester. If I take everything that I learned in English 1010 with me to English 1020,
then I will have no problems with succeeding next semester.