Literacy Project Final Reflection
Literacy Project Reflection: May 28, 2015
For my literacy project I chose to draw a graphic novel, illustrating how I gained a literacy in Greek history and mythology. I
chose to illustrate how Percy Jackson, the movie and books, played a key role in getting me interested and then expanding my
desire to learn more. I think that the most successful part of my project, was how easily it was to put the panels together. I
think my rough draft and description of what would be going on, needed more work. I didn’t really know how to put together
what was gonna happen without first seeing it. I had trouble coming up with ideas for what to put in panels because I didn’t
have a visual of what was going on. Once I started the artwork, the panels just started to flow and it came together really
quick. I think that I could go back now and make a better rough draft that would give the reader a little more to go on than
what I put. I am really proud of how it came together, this is the first graphic novel I have tried to make. I always enjoyed
both art and graphic novels, but for school I assumed it wouldn’t be fun to make. The content of what I had to write about
really helped out and made this a super fun project that I am very proud of. I wish I had more time to work on artwork and
also my thoughts and feelings during all of this. I know that I could probably add more description and maybe focus more on
why Greek history and mythology is so important to me. If a reader read this I suppose the thing I would want them to
comment on is whether or not they could follow the story progression and if it had a good flow. During some of the parts I
wasn’t quite sure what to add in and so I threw something together. I would just like to know if that was a mistake or not,
and if anyone can tell that I didn’t really know what to add. I chose to do a graphic novel rather than writing a paper, because
I am more of a visual learner, I like to see a story come to life. I like to read books, but to be able to see artwork behind that
story makes it more interesting. My literacy was brought to me by reading Percy Jackson, which they have made into a
graphic novel. To be able to see the characters images, and be able to have the scenes brought to life on paper, it just
fascinates me. I didn’t want someone to just have to read about what happened, I wanted them to see it as well.
Genre Analysis Reflection
For my genre analysis I chose to write about the genre of Dragonball, Dragon ball Z, and Dragonball Gt. I wrote about the
three different series within the genre and how they are different and similar to one another. I also wrote about which one
seemed to have more power over the audience and why in particular it did. The paper itself was very interesting for me to
write because it was on a subject I love, and allowed me to delve deeper into the series than I was able to simply watching it.
I was able to take something I love and share it with the audience in a way that anyone, regardless of whether they have seen
the show or not, could understand my views and ideas about the genre.
I first had to insert some background on the show, enough so that people not familiar with it could read and understand it. If I
had simply written a paper on the series without adding any information at all then only the people who watch the show
would fully understand. It was pretty interesting while researching the shows to see the many comments people had about a
particular series within the genre. This helped me with deciding which of the shows had more power with the audience and
which show seemed to lack in strength. While writing I did feel as though Dragonball Gt showed signs of not really being in
the genre. I wasn’t sure that it fit because it veered away from the original work of Akira Toriyama, the artist and writer of
the manga series. However once I delved deeper in my research I found that it still fit into the genre because the universe,
characters, and elements were still the same. The only real difference was that the story was not Akira’s, but one produced
by someone else and signed off on by Akira. Since the original creator gave consent for it to be made, I felt that it still holds
value in the genre as a whole.
My genre analysis was by far my favorite to write because I was able to take something that I love and share it with others. I
was able to look at it in an analytical perspective, rather than just watching the show to enjoy it. Now I understand more
about the show and how and why it was created. In the future I hope that I can write more on subjects that I love and would
be real excited to be able to do it analytically. This paper has helped me learn how to research and write about a particular
subject from an analytical standpoint, and allowed me to acquire a deeper understanding of what I write about.
Final Ethnography Reflection
From the beginning just considering what culture to write about seemed to be a difficult task. This type of paper required extra
work such as interviews and observations, and because of time constraints with the class, it was hard to pick a culture you
could fully observe and gather interviews from in the time frame. In the end I ended up going with the culture of bowling,
explaining the many different aspects of the game and how they work. I chose to write from my perspective on bowling
because I have been a part of the culture and understand it well. While observing the culture you get to see things that you
may not have noticed before and pay close attention which allows you to learn more. This type of research also gives you a
chance to grow by allowing you to interview people. Normally I would never be able to sit down and talk to someone about
their lives or what they do and why. While writing this paper I was able to sit down and talk to someone in the culture and
understand why they love it so much.
While this paper was more in depth than the other papers I have written it was probably my least favorite paper to write. I’m
not a very outgoing person and so interviewing and observing people is not something I enjoy doing. It was a very interesting
paper to write though and gave me more information on the culture as a whole than I knew before. I felt that if I had more
time I could have gathered much more information and wrote even more than I have. In the end though I have to say that
although I felt I did really well on this paper, I don’t like the research involved in it, and don’t look forward to having to write
anymore ethnographies in the near future.