Annotated Bibliography

 

 

1. Great Books (First Year Writing Requirement) – Paris in The Iliad

 

“Paris in The Iliad” was the first essay that I wrote upon my arrival at the University of Michigan. The assignment was to select a Trojan character in The Iliad and discuss what this character shows about how The Iliad portrays the enemy. I chose to focus on Paris, and argued that as an instrument of fate, he is both the enemy of the Greeks and the enemy of the Trojans. While many of the characters in Greek myths attempt to outwit their fate to no avail, Paris allows his fate to control him. He is the enemy of the Greeks for stealing Helen, and he is the enemy of the Trojans for leading them to their deaths.

 

In terms of how this essay plays into my journey as a writer, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of writing in this piece. I invested time in the writing process, as well as significant time in the editing process. I desperately wanted to stand out to my teacher as a good college writer, not just a good high school writer. However, reading this essay now, it seems entirely “high school” to me. Perhaps this is mostly due to the style of the prompt. Throughout high school, the only writing that I did was to answer a very specific question about a book that we were forced to read for the class. And this assignment follows those conventions. When I think of how I improved my writing in college, I think of my ability to write on my own ideas, outside the boundaries of a specific prompt about a specific book. Finally, the most significant difference in style of writing that I noticed from this paper to where I currently stand as a writer, is the title. I would never title a paper today, “Paris in The Iliad.” In fact, what I now find to be one of the most enjoyable parts of writing a paper is coming up with a creative title.

 

 

2. English 225 – Letter to my mom

 

The last assignment in my Academic Argumentation course was to write a thank you letter to someone who I wanted to thank. I decided to write the thank you letter to my mom. A one-page paper would have been acceptable and fulfilled the assignment requirements, but I ended up writing a four-page letter that I poured my heart into. Once I started writing, I couldn’t stop. I wrote in my bed at night, at the library, in the middle of boring lectures, I wrote everywhere, all the time.

 

This letter is significant in my development as a writer, as it shows the value of expressing things in written form that perhaps couldn’t be adequately expressed verbally. I think the exercise of writing a thank you letter is meaningful and should be done more often. It gave me a more concrete appreciation for my mom, but more than that, it gave me a more concrete appreciation for writing. Now my mom has something to hold onto that captures my love for her. Had I merely spoken those words, they could so easily have slipped from her grasp. Not only does my mom have this letter as an artifact, but I can also look back at this letter to understand where our relationship was at the time and how it has progressed since. This exercise gave me an appreciation for writing as an artifact.

 

 

3. Additional – Why I Write - Writing: The Millimeter Shift,  

 

In the essay I discuss the evolution of my writing. It wasn’t until I truly invested a lot of brainstorming and thought into my writing process, that my writing started to be meaningful. Once it reached that level of sophistication, my desire to write stemmed primarily from two places. First, I wanted to write to remember. I think that writing can uniquely capture a moment in time. Writing can capture, emotion, pain, passion, and inspiration. Second, I hoped to write to make a difference. I hoped to write not in a passive sense, not just to capture my own thoughts, but in an active sense, to have my thoughts interact with those of others.

 

The “Why I Write” assignment for the gateway course, was a fundamental piece in my development as a writer. It was the first time that I was asked to explore my motivations for writing. In life, we often do things without asking why. This essay taught me how important it is to ask why, and how much growth can stem from a personal inquiry such as this. It wasn’t until I wrote my essay, Writing: The Millimeter Shift, that I truly began to identify myself as a writer.

 

 

4. Outside coursework – Humans of Ethiopia

 

Humans of Ethiopia, inspired by Humans of New York, is a project that I started during my travels in Ethiopia. While in Ethiopia, I photographed and interviewed the people that I encountered, and shared their stories online. The hope was to share what I was seeing and have others learn with me and grow with me. I had over a thousand followers, only a small percentage of which were people that I already knew.

 

Some of the stories that I shared were of people that I grew very close with over the course of my time there, whereas other stories were based on one-time encounters. Regardless, I was committed to telling their stories.

 

This project was my first time working on a multimedia project and I really appreciated how the photography and writing complemented one another and built on one another. I felt that the photos alongside the text brought the stories of the people that I met to life. I have since worked on projects where photographs and text were used to complement each other.

 

 

5. Writing 220 – These Are The Souls

 

My essay, These Are The Souls, is a personal travel essay that touches on my experiences in Ethiopia. This piece consists of both writing and photography. The photos in this essay were originally taken as a part of my Humans of Ethiopia project. While in Ethiopia, I photographed and interviewed the people that I encountered, and shared their stories on my Humans of Ethiopia page. In order to create These Are The Souls, I repurposed some of the photos that I had taken for Humans of Ethiopia, and wove them into the larger context of my travels. This essay is a reflection of my belief that everyone has a story; we should open ourselves up to whomever we encounter, and be ready to listen when someone is ready to share.

 

This essay is a very important piece in my journey as a writer. This was the first piece I wrote after coming into my identity as a writer. I am very passionate about my experiences in Ethiopia, and I poured that passion into this piece. This was also my first essay that I ever shared publicly. After sharing this piece on social media, the discussions that I had with those who read the essay were very meaningful to me as well. This piece taught me the beauty of sharing and discussing writing, and how much more it brings the stories to life.    

 

 

6. ULWR – Making the Private Public

 

The assignment of this essay was to make the private public. John Rubadeau, the professor of the writing course, teaches that good writing has to be something that only you could write. This does not require you to reveal your deepest, darkest secrets (as I did in my essay) but rather requires you to write based on what you know and based on what you have experienced. The best writing should cause the readers to understand a new perspective, or consider something they hadn’t yet.

 

In this essay, I open up about my experiences with my family. I revealed to a room full of strangers what I haven’t revealed to the girls who live in my home in the room right next to mine. I am proud of this piece for the bravery it took to write it. More than just the content of this writing, I am proud of this piece for the quality of the writing. I invested care and attention into each word in this essay.

 

This essay is significant as my project this semester is the continuation of the exploration of these experiences. I hope to gain a better understanding, level of acceptance, and sense of peace from continuing this writing journey. 

 

 

7. College Admissions Essay

 

I wrote my college admissions essay about my grandfather. My grandfather is the son of a great Chassidic rabbi, was one of eleven children, lost his mother at a young age, and at the age of thirteen, as the oldest male left behind in Germany, was responsible for leading all the women and children to the United States, just before it was too late.

 

But I did not write about my grandfather because of his unique past. I wrote about him for the unique person that he is. He is a man who is not afraid to be different. He stands up for causes years before anyone else will dare do so. He is often shunned for his beliefs, but that does not deter him. He is where I learned to speak up, to think independently, and to not fear being different. He taught me to question and examine, to think analytically and come to my own conclusions about right and wrong.

 

I often struggle with being apart of a family that in many ways is so different than I am. My grandfather is not the kind of grandfather who hugs you and tells you how much he loves you. But this essay was a good opportunity for me to not only accept my family as different, but also appreciate the many values that I have gained from them, that have shaped who I am today.

 

 

8. ULWR – Somatic Symptom Disorder Research Paper

 

This paper is the result of the research that I do at Mott’s Children Hospital. I started working on this project at the beginning of my third year at the University of Michigan and have continued to be involved ever since. Somatic patients come to the hospital as a result of physical symptoms that they are experiencing, however, the cause of these symptoms is psychological. That does not mean that the patient is fictionalizing their symptoms, rather what they are experiencing is very real, but must be addressed psychologically in order to see improvement. It can be very difficult to diagnose and treat a patient with this disorder, and so the hospital was looking to assess the inefficiency of this process. This paper presents my findings from looking into patients’ charts and pinpointing the source of the inefficiencies in order to create a new standardized protocol. 

 

While this may seem to be delving into an entirely different field than my business studies, this research project has been meaningful experience in preparing for my career in consulting. It has sharpened my analytical skills and problem solving thinking. The writing of this research paper has also been vastly different than that in the rest of my studies. This paper presents the breadth of which my writing experience covers, and the many drafts of this paper show my process of learning how to write an academic research paper. 

 

 

9. Blog Post – WHERE I Write

 

In Writing 220, we explored our motivations for writing in a piece called “Why I Write.” In this blog post, I explore not why I write, but rather where I write. I describe how my favorite study spot was demolished, forcing me to go out and scavenge around campus for places to study. This led to me working on my writing in many locations, all around campus. In this blog post, I express the extent to which I feel that my writing was improved because of this. I felt that the various vantage points of my study locations provided me with a fresh perspective each time I re-approached my writing.

 

My thoughts in WHERE I Write have continued to help my writing throughout my college experience since. Nowadays, when I write, I make sure to come back to an essay at various points from various locations. This significantly improves the thought process that contributes to my writing and I can see a difference in the quality of the finished product. The first piece of advice that I bestow upon people who are looking to improve their writing, is to give themselves as many “fresh-mindset” opportunities as possible. I advise them to spread out their writing, and revisit their writing in different moods, at different times of day, in different spots, with different thoughts. 

 

 

10. Additional – Cover Letter

 

In my cover letter, I express my interest in pursuing a career in consulting, as well as lay out my qualifications for doing so. I delve into both my analytical skills and communication skills. With regards to my analytical skills, I discuss my experience during my internship at Strategy&, where I was given complete ownership over the Excel model that was used to create the primary deliverable for the client. With regards to my communication skills, I describe my internship at Radio Free Europe, where I implemented the company’s transition to a new marketing analytics software.

 

My cover letter is a good example of the business writing that I have learned to do at the Ross School of Business. This writing is meant to follow very strict formatting and content guidelines. Everything that I am trying to say in a cover letter must be conveyed in the most concise means possible.

 

I think that learning to write for business purposes is a very useful skill. However, this form of writing is not the form of writing that I enjoy or that I am passionate about. It stifles all creativity and freedom of expression. It is something important to know how to do, especially for my career, but not something that I necessarily enjoy doing.