Friday, May 22, 2015

Dear Reader,

Process:
I started off the process by reading blink, by Malcolm Gladwell. I had read one of his other books, Outliers, beforehand but had heard (from Benedict, actually) that this was a must-read. Although I was disappointed with the lack of focus and conclusive statements in the book, I learned a lot about the process of decision-making and thin-slicing. I would still recommend it, 100%. From here I was nervous about choosing a topic for my expository essay (that is obvious from my second blog post). I was wondering if I should go broad, rather than specific. I ended up deciding on a more specific topic (to prevent falling into the same trap as Gladwell). To decide on this topic I reviewed the anecdotes that stuck out to me the most throughout blink, made a list and then did some basic research on all of them. Once I found out how relevant the Cook County Hospital story was, mainly in the past two years, I knew I had my topic.

Outcome:
I decided to focus on Analysis vs. Intuition in the area of medical decision-making--whether protocol or instinct should be the structure of health care. Because I am interested in going into public health (although not necessarily be a doctor), this topic really spoke to me and I enjoyed my research. This made the project a rewarding experience instead of a requirement, and I was thankful I found such an interesting area to focus on. This idea of "Intuition vs. Evidence" translated unbelievably well into my four genres. I will talk about my golden thread more later, but I hope you can see the dichotomy being explored throughout my project. By the end of writing my essay and genres, I came to the conclusion that there can be a middle ground between the two. It is when people use both forms of thinking that they truly flourish.

Golden Thread:
"Art and science, intuition and analysis, gut instinct and evidence, experience and knowledge.” 
- Donald Woolever

This quote is my golden thread. I found it while researching for my expository essay and used it in its conclusion. I think it was the perfect way to express all forms of the spectrum I was attempting to explore throughout my genres and loved all of the options for interpretation it presents. I used these parings in all of the titles of my genres and embedded them in the creative writing as well. My goal was to use each genre to highlight the different parings. For example, my double sided poem worked with analysis and gut instinct, my painting worked with intuition and evidence, my haikus worked with art and science and my quality worked with Judgement's relationship with experience and knowledge (I choose Judgement as my main subject because I thought in embodied much of the other focus points of the project as well).

Overall Reflection: Thanks for everything, Ms. Romano, including this final project that gave us one last push. I know I wrote this in my thank you letter to you, but this class has revolutionized my views on English classes. I can't thank you enough. See you soon, Aly

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