Hello, my name is Hasher and in this reflection I will speak about my experience and the knowledge I was able to obtain through taking the ENG 112L course. When I first began going through the material of this course I was not the most confident in how things may go. This was because I knew reading and breaking down bodies of work was never my strong suit. I expected things to be difficult but I knew if I applied myself I would be able to get through it with no problem. As time went on I was able to find a a groove and learn how to get better at something I wasn’t very good at. And surely enough, that is exactly what happened.

One thing that really helped me was doing the formal reading and breaking down what is being said. One assignment that comes to mind is the Formal reading assignment #1. In this assignment, I was required to focus on what was not being said directly and focus on breaking down the story with my own interpretation. This was extremely helpful in me being able to understand the story because putting my thoughts of the story on paper helped me understand and break it down much better than I could just in my head. Along with this, going through and annotating other stories such as Copy of Trifles: Susan Glaspell also played a great role because it helped me breakdown every important part of the play and be able to understand it much better.

The story of Dorian Gray is certainly something I don’t believe I would have read on my own. This story was certainly surprising because as I was reading it I was actually enjoying the whole plot of the story. The entire story of Gray and how he is wanting to be young and handsome forever was very interesting. Along with him regretting his decision of him being young and beautiful being his downfall also stood out. I found it to be a great read which I would have never known unless I went through and actually read it. I can confidently say the Dorian Gray novel was certainly my favorite of the semester.

The hardest body of work for me to interpret was certainly the Copy of Trifles: Susan Glaspell. This may be because it was a play rather than a story but it was definite a tough one to understand ad decipher. One thing that helped was the annotating assignment because it allowed me to breakdown each sentence and put it in my own words. I am not sure if it was tricky due to it being a play or not but it was definitely something I had a bit of trouble understanding.

1 work I would definitely recommend for anybody out there to check out would have to be Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. I recommend this novel because it is the one that I enjoyed the most. I recall it really grabbing my attention in the very first chapter and keeping me hooked all through out the story. I completed my photo project on this story as well and had as good of a time as one can doing school work. The entire story is pretty dark so if you are in to drama you will probably enjoy just as much as I did but if you are a big reader, you will appreciate it much more than I could.

Inconclusion, this class has been great for my reading development. Before taking this class, I was never really able to picture what I was reading in my head. Now, I am fairly confident that I can sit down and read a book and enjoy it. I have yet to put that to the test aside from Dorian Gray which may be the closest thing to enjoying a book I have ever had but I plan to try it out on my free time very soon. All in all I am very glad I was able to take this class and go through the motions. I plan to retain everything I have learned and apply it all to the rest of the courses I have coming up next semester.