Dear Readers,

After taking this course on visual rhetoric, I have realized that images aren’t quite as daunting as I originally thought. Yes, Thuy still are scary and I wouldn’t dare touch them with a twelve inch pole. Still, they are like a wild animal caged in a zoo, fun to look at, not necessarily safe to touch. There are times you need to touch images though, times where eyes aren’t enough. Sometimes, in this class I needed to let go of my practical side and be more of an abstract thinker. There is always a message, a metaphor behind each poem I read. There is certainly one behind each image.

The most valuable skill I have learned from this endeavor is the art of thinking beyond the binary. When designing a catalogue or conducting a reverse engine search, there needs to be creativity. Frequently, that is in front of me is what I try my best to work with but often, that is not enough. In this class, I have learned the art of expansion. Research takes time. Exploring the different filters and backgrounds in Google Slides takes time. But at the end of the day, time is what yields the best results.

I have done a lot of writing this semester between my personal writing and the more scholarly writing I’ve created for this class. My favorite poem I’ve written during the grind of getting papers in is impossible to name. I have written one poem for the three months I’ve been in class which is close to a hundred poems to add to my repertoire. As for actual schoolwork, the illustrated essay minus the catalogue was my favorite. I loved the creativity it gave me from not acting as a redundant MLA or history paper. The topic I chose was fascinating and I felt quite in tune with the project and my own thoughts as I worked. The catalogue was a different story but that essay was for lack of better words: magical. 

Now, I embark on my next journey. I wasn’t able to get expository writing on my schedule (curse my alarm never going off) but god knows, I won’t stop checking for an opening until there is no chance. The plus of this? No English class next semester means more room for my personal work and my work on New Paltz’s literary magazine. Still, I’m going to miss having classmates and a teacher to guide and inspire me next semester.

It’s been fun,  y’all!

With love,

~Emma