Panels

Conference 1:



When I first walked into the room I saw a bunch of professors sitting in chairs surrounding the room and my expectations for this panel was going to be very low. The first speaker was Dr. Alvina and she began her presentation with a handout. It was a list of five quotes that she found extremely interesting and though we would really enjoy. The basis to her speech was making us aware to the many ways we use text. Some examples were; telling a friend a story about the weather or what happened to us today. She also made us aware to why we tell those stories. It is to entertain to inform? That this telling of stories such as these helps our minds to develop concepts and thoughts we would have never thought of before.

The second speaker was Dr. Gloria Park. She teaches research writing and wants to concentrate on social issues that I would be aware of and that pertain more to my age group. She is having her class do the same social project that we are required to do, and she mentioned that we need to own our research. That means she wants us to connect with it and make sure we understand it to its fullest so we can truly have it change the way we think about that issue and impact our daily lives. She said that peer editors were a very useful tool that her class will be using. Her last note of the presentation was her personal philosophy; moving beyond the class to assist them in finding opportunities to present formally and informally; to merge personal, academic and professional interests.

The third and final speaker of that time slot was, Dr. Watson. Her speech seemed more personal and it seemed like she had sent less time on what her notes cards said, and more time on the concept of her presentation. She stated something that stayed with me after I left the panel, “Literature is a way of getting places people would not normally be able to enjoy themselves.” She also stated the many ways we read each day without even knowing it; text, facebook, and twitter to name a few. She said that even though we are reaching millions of people each day with this form of text we are not truly connected with people. That reading real literature and books help us to gain more relationships with people because we judge less from reading the characters in a book.



Conference 2:

The second panel I attended was with three graduate students who all read short stories they had written. The first was a young girl, early twenties that read her story titled; Flies on the wall. This passage was about a high society couple who gets divorced and that even though they may seem perfect on the outside, behind close doors it is very different.

The next reader was a young man around the same age maybe a little older, with a certain confidence about him that made his story even more drama filled when he read it aloud. His tale was called The Baby. It was about a woman who had just had the plug pulled on her while pregnant, and the husband had to decide what to do with the child inside of her. He dramatically decided to let the baby die along with his wife. As the author described his story he said it was a style of writing called flash fiction. That is a burst of drama and no real end or beginning just the main scenes of a story placed into a few pages.

The third and final reader’s story was lighter hearted than the first two. It was called Sip, and was about two drunken girls who find love in each other while having a night out. One girl is taking care of another who is puking because she is so drunk, and while she is watching her vomit everywhere she finds herself attracted to the other girl. They exchange words and finally kiss each other. This story seemed to be more on life experience then the author had lead on, saying that the only connection she had with it was taking care of a sick friend.



Conclusion:

I enjoyed going to the panels. I had enjoyed them more than I had originally thought. I would go to another if I was given then opportunity.