Critical studies library conference day (2nd April)

The big scoop

On Wednesday 2nd April, my year of game artists took a trip to the university library to meet our critical studies lectures and guest lectures as they had something in store for us.

As we sat and listened, the head of our critical studies, Emma Ash told us how the day will be dedicated to improving our critical thinking and writing skills for the blogs we have created, by visiting a series of different seminars throughout the day.

Although the day was optional I did not want to miss out as these would be sure to better the blogs I write to you. We could choose 4 out of 16 seminars that day.

I started my day in the 'Word art' seminar. t was interesting, especially one of the exercises we did, of which entailed us analyzing particular pieces of art and then describing them as creatively as possible.

The next seminar I visited was the 'Shaping your writing' seminar which was held by  Emma and Avril. They tasked us with the challenge to create a comic strip story in 5 boxes. My team partner Joe and I created a story based on a tale that Joe's mother told him when he was younger. When it came to presenting our comic strip I feel we impressed the lecturers because our comic was classic 'slapstick' humor. Yet, from my view it was my colleagues comic strip about sausages which which conjured up the most laughter from the audience. All in all this was a very enjoyable experience and I learned how blogs are similar to comic story's, both must flow from start to finish and convey the message.

Following from this was the critical thinking seminar. I chose to visit this because I feel I lack critical and analytic elements in my blogs. Thus, this seminar was the icing on the cake for me. The guest lecturer had us analyse an extract and evaluate from thinking both inside and outside the box. I guess I won't be able to gauge how much I have gained from the seminar until I write my next blog . However I certainly feel my analytically and expository skills have improve.

I ended my day in the computer labs editing blogs and getting further feedback from the lectures. Until it was time to leave. Although, the day was shorter than most, I definitely rested well that night, knowing that my confidence and experience in blog writing has improved.

Thanks for reading