Introductory Reflective Essay
Working on my projects and revisions has taught me a lot about human nature and how it is reflected through our interaction with objects and the world. There is much more underneath the surface of objects and the world than meets the eye. The most important function of expository writing is to uncover the surface and delve deep into the meaning behind objects and the world as well as to understand why and how humans perceive the world and objects. In order to do this, writers can employ a number of techniques such as description, narration, summarizing, explaining, defining, comparing, contrasting, informing, instructing, and evoking affective and aesthetic responses. They can use citations and research to back up their claims, and revise their work to make it more effective. These are all things I did throughout my projects.
In my timeline project, I create a narrative of the history of dice. My narrative begins in the early years of human history and ended in modern times. Because the history of dice is so long and varied, I had to summarize its history in order to maximize the timeline’s effectiveness. The narration serves to explain and inform the reader of the history of dice. I also compare and contrast the two major functions of dice: playing games and fortune telling. I do this by showing an early example of a dice game, the Game of Ur, and towards the end I showed a modern game, Dungeons and Dragons. By comparing and contrasting the evolution of games involving dice, I demonstrat the evolution of dice over time. Dice have certainly evolved over the years, but they have essentially retained the same functionality since the beginning of history. As for fortune telling, I show an early example of divination through the dice found at the Greek god Aphrodite’s altar, and I show an example of modern divination in Tibet, in which monks will throw dice in order to determine their deity protector Palden Lama’s will. This comparison and contrast also shows the evolution of divination throughout the years as well as demonstrates how it has remained essentially the same.
As for my blog on hair jewelry, I made revisions in order to show how our subconscious minds affects our interactions with objects and the world without us even being aware of it. In order to demonstrate this, I use my revisions to go back to the hunter-gatherer age and the evolution of the human mind. By explaining natural selection and Type I and Type II Errors, the reader was able to understand how evolution has affected our subconscious minds and how our minds have in turn formed our interactions with objects and the world, such as why we consider some things creepy and others normal.
Although my multimodal object analysis explains the history of dice, it focuses more on the divination/cleromancy aspect and the relationship between that and the design of the die. I explain how the opposite sides of dice add up to seven and the significance of the number seven in regard to everything. Seven is considered the number of perfection, and it can be found nearly everywhere. This is important because divination and cleromancy depend on a perfect prediction of the future and the gods’ will.
Working on these projects has taught me that expository writing is about painting a clear and vivid picture, with no bias or intention to persuade. Expository writing is about depicting something the way it truly is, not the way the author perceives it. In order to do this, the author must conduct a lot of research and revise the work extensively. By understanding our own biases and the biases of the world, we can write effective exposition. I have learned a lot about expository writing this semester, and I will apply it to my own writing in the future.