How do you accelerate the learning process?

Research shows that situational interest on the topic contributes to a “more engaged, motivated, learning experience”. [1]  This can also be understood on a personal level: as with many things, the learning process is often enhanced from being genuinely interested in the topic. My work this semester centered around this idea. I was assigned three major assignments that would build upon eight learning objectives and skills. I wanted to reflect on my personal interests and see them through an academic lens, giving me the opportunity to be more engaged with the eight learning objectives as the semester went on. I used my interest in the study of colorism and unseen discrimination to inform my interview on beauty standards. I better understood the nuances of a niche online community through being interested in the subject matter up for discussion beforehand. I used my long-time interest in international studies and treaty-building to begin my literature review, building the bedrock for my eventual senior thesis on human rights treaties.

What is Colorism, abcnews.go.com/GMA/Style/colorism-people-color-overcome-insecurities-biases/story?id=71875856
“Decolonizing Beauty: Dominican Beauty Standards & Colorism at Large.”
An East-Asian friend of mine once told me how she would be ridiculed and bullied by her extended family for having a darker complexion. This was my early introduction to colorism, or a societal construct that discriminates against peers with darker skin tones, often attributed specifically to inter-discriminatory views within the same culture or ethnic group. Colorism can be blatant or subtle, but is regardless present all across America. It is seen through a preference for eurocentric aesthetics via skin care products, resulting in poor self-esteem and damage to one’s heritage. Beauty standards are often rooted around this concept. Interviewee Bragye Payano comes from a Dominican background, highlighting her own experiences as one of many regarding encounters of colorism within her community. For instance, there exists a preference for straight hair in her community as opposed to Afro-dominican hair styles. She refers to curly hair as being pelo malo, or “bad hair”, with there being a generation gap regarding what hair is and is not perceived as “beautiful”. Payano’s unique rhetorical perspective allowed me to achieve the first learning outcome, acknowledging “your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources, [drawing] on [these] resources to develop rhetorical sensibility.” I interspersed Payano’s personal experiences with writers from academia and social justice backgrounds, strengthening the transcript summary with the findings from other writers. Payano’s historical understanding of colorism in the Dominican Republic is given context via the Southern Poverty Law Center, with writer David Knight highlighting colorism as a “global cultural practice” and not just a modern phenomenon. This allowed me to achieve the fifth learning outcome, engaging with “ genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond.”

Serenes Forest Forums, forums.serenesforest.net

“Exploring Serenes Forest Forums: Analyzing Approachability, Community & Sincerity.”
Serenes Forest Forums is a niche online forum focused on the Fire Emblem franchise. The series has always been a favorite of mine, and I found that engaging with the community was easier as a result; I quickly picked up on the culture and lingo while actually understanding the discussions being held. I also approached my analysis with a constant understanding and compensation for my biases. In this way, I was given a genuine understanding of the community dynamics. Being a community I was tangentially associated with (being a fan of the franchise myself), there was a lot of content in my research notes and first draft. Large portions of my findings from the website would need to be cut for the benefit of the paper. I assessed my own writing, decided what elements of my findings were most impactful or important, and made cuts to superfluous content. This made my final draft better as a result. In this way, I achieved the second learning outcome, enhancing “strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment.” I tried my best to account for my own biases, accounting for my own expectations. I also accounted for what an audience might expect the average online community to look like. I believe that my inclusion of the forum having grammar rules and sincerity really distinguished the forum from normal expectations. In the same way, I believe my inclusion of specific examples of comments humanized the analytical nature that the rest of the field observation had. This accounted for the third learning outcome, negotiating my “own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation.” Through accounting for my biases (and particular negative biases towards the immaturity of most online video game communities), I found the community to be surprisingly sincere and caring for the medium. The specific examples of comments highlights this as well; the 1,022 word response from a user wasn’t exactly a rare sight. I successfully achieved the sixth learning outcome, formulating and articulating “a stance through and in [my] writing.”
Serenes Forest Forums is a niche online forum focused on the Fire Emblem franchise. The series has always been a favorite of mine, and I found that engaging with the community was easier as a result; I quickly picked up on the culture and lingo while actually understanding the discussions being held. I also approached my analysis with a constant understanding and compensation for my biases. In this way, I was given a genuine understanding of the community dynamics. Being a community I was tangentially associated with (being a fan of the franchise myself), there was a lot of content in my research notes and first draft. Large portions of my findings from the website would need to be cut for the benefit of the paper. I assessed my own writing, decided what elements of my findings were most impactful or important, and made cuts to superfluous content. This made my final draft better as a result. In this way, I achieved the second learning outcome, enhancing “strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment.” I tried my best to account for my own biases, accounting for my own expectations. I also accounted for what an audience might expect the average online community to look like. I believe that my inclusion of the forum having grammar rules and sincerity really distinguished the forum from normal expectations. In the same way, I believe my inclusion of specific examples of comments humanized the analytical nature that the rest of the field observation had. This accounted for the third learning outcome, negotiating my “own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation.” Through accounting for my biases (and particular negative biases towards the immaturity of most online video game communities), I found the community to be surprisingly sincere and caring for the medium. The specific examples of comments highlights this as well; the 1,022 word response from a user wasn’t exactly a rare sight. I successfully achieved the sixth learning outcome, formulating and articulating “a stance through and in [my] writing.”

Elanor Roosevelt Holding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, roosevelthouse.hunter.cuny.edu/exhibits/my-most-important-task

“The Efficacy of International Treaties on Promoting Global Humanitarian Causes”
The work put into my literature review was maybe the most extensive in scope. I already planned to explore the topic for my capstone senior thesis for the International Studies major, and found the literature review to be a good opportunity to tread the water on the topic. I wanted to see research already done, commonly used statistical models, and whether it was a topic I was even interested in to begin with. Most of my sources for the literature review come from international relations or law journals. I wanted to insert myself into the professional academic discourse, fully understanding different ways of thinking and arguments. I received feedback from my peers on explaining the history of human rights treaties, which is important for a first-time reader for the topic. I successfully engaged with the fourth learning outcome, developing and engaging in “the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.” The sources I chose came from all sorts of journals and academics, attempting to have a well-rounded analysis on the topic. The seventh learning outcome, practicing “using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects.” The sources chosen often were complex and extremely long, making it difficult to touch upon every factor for each article. To account for this, I made decisions on what elements from which source were most pivotal for the direction of my review, providing insight on the various opinions and statistical models regarding the question. As per the eighth learning outcome, I strengthened my “source use practices (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources”.

Through exploring the learning outcomes via my own interests and passions, I have become a better writer. I look forward to using what I have learned from this class in future writing and literature.

Works Cited
Harackiewicz JM, Smith JL, Priniski SJ. Interest Matters: The Importance of Promoting Interest in Education. Policy Insights Behav Brain Sci. 2016 Oct;3(2):220-227. doi: 10.1177/2372732216655542. Epub 2016 Jun 30. PMID: 29520371; PMCID: PMC5839644.