Reflective Essay

Reflective Tag:

Below is the reflective essay for my capstone project. This assignment shows me demonstrating my ability to reflect on multiple learning experiences in order to synthesize knowledge. This assignment reflects that learning objectively perfectly, as I had to explain how my capstone project had been an amalgamation of every learning experience from the major. It also shows me using rhetorical strategies in an academic setting, as I argue and provide examples for how each strategy is used in my essay.

Ben Outland

ERH-481W

Major Brown

12/9/18

My English Major Capstone Experience: Painfully Valuable

Regardless of learning objectives and course outcomes, the principle goal of any academic course is to teach. At first, I didn’t view my Capstone project as something that would teach me anything new. Coming into infamous the Senior Capstone course, I wasn’t looking at ERH-481W the same way as I had other courses in my previous six semesters at VMI. I viewed the class as one intimidating assignment and a final test of everything I had learned as an English major. While this is true, until I completed the project and felt its weight in my hands, I did not realize how much I had learned during the semester-long writing process. Though I had written many papers before, the diligence and care put into the project meant something more to me than usual. As I look back on the hours I spent in (and out) of the classroom this semester, I realize that I have used my prior experiences and skills, such as researching and distilling information, work ethic, learning new information, and fostering relationships, to create a capstone project that I am proud of. These skills were learned during my time as an English major, but put to the test and mastered during my project. Because of my success, I now understand that I am capable of utilizing these skills in my future endeavors, including in my immediate goal of an entry-level position in the business world.

My capstone project focused on the marketing tactics of a new electronic cigarette called the “Juul” released by PAX Labs in 2017. Since the product has become virally and massively popular, especially among consumers in my age demographic and younger, debates have sparked concerning the marketing tactics of Juul, questioning the companies ethics and use of deceptive marketing. After taking Major Idding’s systemic functional linguistics course, and having had marketing experience during my communications and marketing internship in Smith Hall, I decided to conduct a systemic functional linguistics analysis of the texts and images on Juul’s website. My analysis uncovered that Juul has moved away from targeting the youth, but still markets unethically to sway consumers into joining and sticking with an unhealthy and addicting community.

One major skill that I developed over the course of my project was researching and distilling information. One of the most intimidating aspects of my project was the methods section, where I had to read and fully comprehend two dense linguistic theories: Reading Images Theory, presented in Drs. Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen’s Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, and Appraisal Theory, from Dr. James Robert Martin and Peter RR White’s The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. Even though I had completed my introduction, thesis, and literature review, after weeks of reading and studying systemic functional linguistic theories, I was still leery of starting the methods section. After mastering the theories, I had to distil  the most pertinent information, explain it to my readers briefly and clearly, and then teach my readers how to understand the results of my analysis based on these complex theories. I had already done research papers and projects as an underclassman, but I had never taken on the challenge of teaching others a complex theory. After a lot of tough research, I believe my methods section was a success:

Figure 5. The image from Juul’s website above showcases the human participant engaging in the image act, as the direct eye contact with the viewer constitutes a demand of social affinity. This demand is reinforced by the participants gesture in the form of a smile, which also demands a relationship of affinity from the viewer. The shot is medium-close, as the participant is cut off at roughly the waist. This distance indicates a far-personal distance, where personal involvements and interests are discussed (Outland 12).

This excerpt from my essay is an example of me reading and understanding a theory, then providing an example analysis of an image to my viewers. I also went further than before with distilling and re-explaining the research by creating charts and graphs to help readers understand. I believe that these skills will be useful in a wide variety of positions that I may work in the future. From business analysis to market research, most job functions require the ability to read and understand information, and then explain it to co-workers or customers. The methods section was intimidating at first, but in the end I realized that I had the skills required to complete it, and it was up to me to apply myself and exceed my own expectations.

Work ethic was another skill that was built at VMI and as an English major, which fully came to fruition during this project. While English majors sometimes get jeered at by other cadets for our lack of expertise with algorithms and formulas, no one denies us the struggle of writing countless papers every semester. Success as an English major can often boil down to effort, and though specialized and detailed, this project was no exception. I had never taken a course where the main goal was to write one single paper, especially one that needed to be so complex and fleshed out. No matter the amount of technical skill, research materials, and faculty help I had at my disposal, at the end of the day, a solid work ethic was the only way to do this project well. For the capstone paper, this meant a lot of research, thoroughly reading my sources and theories, and counting and analyzing every word on Juul’s website. This mental skill has been forged over three years as I tackled papers I thought were above my skill level. Showing myself that I can commit to an undertaking of this stature and succeed proved to me that I am capable of handling whatever daunting projects life or future jobs throw at me.

One important aspect of a liberal arts education, which I found to be imperative to my success in the capstone course, is the ability to learn new things. A major benefit of earning a degree in the liberal arts is that you have proven an ability to synthesize and apply yourself to new concepts. Before classes even started, this was something that Rats had to learn right away. In the major, I figured this out by trying new things: understanding difficult theories in philosophy classes, using digital media to create video and photography projects, and writing my own creative poetry. Doing a project about systemic functional linguistics, I knew I would need to apply this skill quickly. Though I had a 101-esque knowledge of SFL, I was applying two complex and high-level theories to my research questions. Before writing my literature review, methods, and results sections, I needed to learn theories in the research via autodidactism. My success in quickly understanding these theories, being able to explain them to others, and utilize them in an analysis is something that I am particularly proud of in my capstone project. I believe this is a paramount skill that English majors possess. Entering a new job where you don’t know exactly what’s going on right away will shake my other peers, but I believe as a VMI English major, I will be prepared to learn and apply job functions quickly.

Fostering relationships with faculty is one of the biggest takeaways I have from my capstone project. As a Rat in Major Knepper’s American Literary Traditions course, one of the first lessons I learned about being an English major was to ask your mentors for help. I approached Major Knepper early in the semester, terrified because I was seated in between two of my Rat Disciplinary Committee’s leadership — two guys who took their job seriously, and genuinely hated Rats. Adding to this roster was the Regimental Commanding Officer of the Corps and numerous other members of the 1st class leadership. I was the only Rat in the class, and after the first lecture, I felt as if I had no business taking the course. I told Major Knepper I wanted to drop the class, and that it was too high level. He convinced me to stay, and I brought him all of my assignments for extra comments. By the end of the course I had earned an A, doing better than most of the 1st and 2nd Classmen. As a third and second, I felt confident enough to try and tackle most projects on my own. But coming into the Capstone project, I was reminded of the very first class I attended as a Rat. The feeling of being overwhelmed struck me once again. I went to work with Major Brown and Iddings, meeting with the latter at length almost weekly. I fostered relationships with my professors and used their expertise and guidance to help me achieve results that were impossible on my own. This lesson is very important to me looking back on my time at VMI and as an English Major. In the job field, learning as much as you can from your mentors and not being afraid to ask for help will certainly pay off. Stepping back and admitting that you need to humble yourself is something that many of my peers may not have learned at other schools and in other majors. Reflecting on my project and my time in the major, I am glad that I don’t think I can do everything on my own.

As I reflect upon my time as an English major and think about the capstone experience, I realize that there have been countless lessons learned. Researching, work ethic, learning new things quickly, and fostering relationships with faculty are just a few of the important takeaways from this process. Despite the pain required to learn the lessons, each one has bettered me and will serve me well after graduation.