Introductory Reading Assignment

As a pharmacy student, I didn’t expect that I would have to take an English course. I was required to take this because I used all my AP credits to get out of biology. However, I do believe this course is necessary for me to learn how to make connections that have never been made before between different texts. As I said before, the best reason for why I shouldn’t have to take this course is because I am a pharmacy major, not an English major and I already passed the AP Language exam. Nevertheless, I believe this course will benefit me by teaching me to improve my writing skills and helping me gain the ability to create links between various texts.

While reading The New Humanities Reader, I could see how writing could be used as a way of thinking new thoughts. The phrase mentioned refers to how while writing essays, we may still be unsure as to what our thesis is and we may not have figured out all the links between our sources yet. However, as we continue writing, we’ll have to search for links, question the authors’ purpose, and gain a better understanding of the connections between texts. As stated in the textbook, “... we are obliged to think connectively - to think across texts rather than thinking only from inside them”(xxix) and by doing this we will have forged a new connection between two seemingly different texts. I believe this quotation best exemplifies the rationale of this textbook and the importance of creating coherent thoughts. By doing this, we bring together all the various texts under one “shared horizon.” In order to accomplish this, it’s important to have a “prospective view” and “retrospective view.” Both are necessary to interpret texts and guide us on our path of creating this “shared horizon.” Just by doing the homework, I can tell this class will be different from what I’m used to. However, it’ll be nice to see my growth by the end of the course.