The most important idea I present to my students on the first day of class is how incredibly difficult it is to write well and that I too am just a dedicated student who try to master it art form. Essays are not written speeches, I tell them, and good writing is not the product of some innate, mysterious talent given to a few among us. No. Writing is hard, conscious work, the results of which are promised to no one, not even the professional writers who bask in the light of their computer screens while their muses slowly strum their golden harps beside them. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The student writer must learn to value the attributes derived from self-imposed discipline and direct effort; as he learns to wrestle with his lowest and most mundane reflections as well as his highest and most pious inferences, his imagined ideal of who he thinks he is will change. She must be willing to visit and revisit the text until the writing instrument, be it pen or keyboard, becomes an extension of a transmutable self set directly in imagined persuasive appeals about race, class, gender, and sexual orientations. Indeed, the real world and social contexts in which the average writer finds himself, posing daily for selfies to upload to Facebook and Twitter, while being bombarded with streaming ads and campaign promises, keeps him “connected” just an arm's length away . : The millennial student is inspired to write and criticize more than any other generation. However, it could be argued that there is little substance to be found in virtual exchanges. Some might further argue that effortless eye-rolling abounds, but more often than not flashes of insight into American culture occur across a nearly endless array of screens. What then is captured at the end of a synaptic leap other than the beginning of reflections derived in a few measured milliseconds of raw, immutable truths derived from pure emotions tested against a more established course: verbal and visual literacies often illuminate thematic discourses is found in character analysis, which in turn inspires passionate and in-depth discussions. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom article from our expert writers now. Get a custom essay Therefore, adopting texts that offer basic visual literacy is an integral part of my pedagogy. I like workshops because such environments often give students a certain security that is sometimes difficult to achieve in a traditional classroom, especially with the more reserved students among whom I was once counted. After assigning each student to a group, I am always pleased with how analyzing a story, an essay, a photograph, or an advertisement can teach students lessons about the world and how they might overcome it or find themselves succinctly constructed in the inside it. It. Good writing, I tell them, depends on how close they are willing to come to lifelong reflection on who they think they are, fulfilling the beginning of that great Delphic injunction to “Know thyself.” Being part of this reflective process is an invaluable and redemptive reward and one of the main reasons I teach today.