Introductory Assignment

My name is Yunjung Hilary Shin, a freshman with a pharmacy major in the Honors College. After reading the Preface for the New Humanities Reader, I realize that the reason why I need to take this course is so much more important than I thought it was. The preface mentions that English 101 might possibly be the only place on a college campus that promotes applying concepts and issues that affect the world today. As a pharmacy major, I am not going to be taking many humanities courses. But I think that it is important to keep in tune with what is going around the world. The best reason I should not have to take this course is because I took the two-year course of IB Literature Language, and my teacher was an active feminist. We thus talked about many issues regarding feminism and had projects, essays, and tests on literature that had the shared theme of feminism. I would refute this argument by saying that issues regarding feminism are not the only problems and controversial topics in this world. 

In order to become more open-minded, this preface is saying that we must enlighten ourselves with the living ideas of the world and relate them to our own experiences. The preface also states that higher education divides what should be a connected: the stuff we read in textbooks and our daily experiences. Writing is the way to connect and apply the knowledge we have acquired to how we perceive the world. This is how I interpreted “to use writing as a way of thinking new thoughts”.

The quote that best exemplifies what the New Humanities textbook stands for is, ”If the humanities are going to survive, they must be understood in a new way: not as a particular area of knowledge but as the human dimension of all knowledge,” which can be found on page xxiii. I think this best summarizes the mission statement of the book because the textbook itself is called New Humanities. Both the preface and the “Reading and Writing about the New Humanities” defend their point over and over again that the present must be studied more, issues affecting the world today should be analyzed, taught, and spoken about, humanities must be perceived as more than just a subject, etc. I interpret the term “shared horizons” as people with different perspectives, from all different walks of life, coming together with an open mind to share their views and widen their wisdom.

I didn’t know the term “métier”, but using context clues and also searching the definition up on the internet I found that it means a vocation. I am excited for Exposition and Arguments and very thankful that I read the preface and the reading and writing about the new humanities. I am now more aware of the importance of an English class. Also, the preface briefly stated that one of the impediments to the exposure of contemporary nonfiction is that non-experts are afraid to voice their opinions on topics… and I related to this so much. For example: I am not a law expert, I do not memorize child abuse statistics or human trafficking statistics or every incident of a homophobic act of terrorism, etc. So, I feel afraid to voice my opinions for fear of sounding ignorant. I realize that me staying silent only cuts the horizon short. My perspective is a perspective as well whether I am an expert or not, and I can broaden the horizon by sharing my view.