Portfolio 2: According to Confucius Reflection is Noble—That’s What I’m Doing Here

Now that I’m in the swing of things and better understand the University mind-set, I am able to focus more on my entries themselves and also on my reflections.  From EL 150 Introduction to Literary Study, not only do I learn from my own blog entries, but also from reading my classmates’ blogs, and then re-thinking the texts.  Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, opined that: “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”  Learning how to write a blog back at the beginning of this semester was, in a way, a type of imitation.  We would read each other blogs, and make corresponding changes to our own.  As the semester has progressed, I have slowly been gaining experience, and I have been reflecting on my own thoughts and my classmates’.  I’ve also learned about punctuation from Eats, Shoots and Leaves; I’ve obtained a better understanding of literary terms from Hamilton’s Essential Literary Terms; journeyed into poverty and toyed with social reform with Ehrenreich’s  Nickel and Dimed; discovered the depths of Flannery O’Connor’s short stories; and argued with Tim Lemire’s opinion in I’m an English Major—Now What? Below, I have broken up my entries into categories for ease of reading.

Coverage: These entries are examples of my ability to correctly link my entries to the course webpage.