ENG 111: The White Imagination in "The Help": Before taking ENG 111, I knew I was a good writer. An exceptional writer, in fact. At least that's what all my teachers in high school continued to tell me up until graduation. But taking ENG 111 allowed me to realize that there was, indeed, room for considerable improvement. My writing was lofty and weighed down by flowery adjectives, making my essays cumbersome for my reader. I was no longer praised for trying to be verbose. Rather, I was graded down for attempting to disguise weak arguments with big words. I could no longer get away with what I used to in high school. My thesis had to be clear, my claims well-supported, my textual evidence weaved in with my own compelling analysis.
I believe that this essay, examining race relations and power structures in The Help and who has the right to represent race and history in the Deep South, accomplishes all of the above criteria. This is one of my best and most insightful writing samples, and one that I can truly be proud of.
I believe that this essay, examining race relations and power structures in The Help and who has the right to represent race and history in the Deep South, accomplishes all of the above criteria. This is one of my best and most insightful writing samples, and one that I can truly be proud of.
JSIS 201: The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt & US Reaction: JSIS 201, or States and Capitalism, was one of my first international studies courses at the University of Washington, and this was one of my first research papers for the Jackson School. Reflecting on this paper, I remember feeling very proud of the way in which I was able to take an event (in this case, the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt), research its origins, and synthesize evidence to support my conclusions. I had never written something that involved such intensive research and analysis, and in this moment I realized that this is what I was interested in.