From the very first day of class, I knew I would thoroughly enjoy this class. Not only have I made a few friends and enjoyed the course work, I have learned so much about analyzing literary pieces of all genres. At the start of the course I did not know how to analyze poetry and, therefore, was unable to appreciate and enjoy poetry. After learning about the many different types of figurative language and sound devices to derive the possible meanings behind a poetic piece, helping me to develop a greater appreciation for the genre. Another genre I was unsure I would ever be able to appreciate is the non-fiction/essay category. One of my favorite parts of the course was reading Terry Tempest Williams’ The Clan of One-Breasted Women. It was interesting to see how Williams incorporated a little bit of fiction under the guise of an essay, and how this helped her to achieve her purpose in writing the piece. Lastly, in this course we learned about a variety of forms of literary criticism and how to apply them to the pieces we were reading. An example of this was viewing The Clan of One-Breasted Women using both the Feminist Criticism and the Reader-Response Criticism and experiencing how these different types of criticism influenced the piece and how I interpreted it. Overall, I loved this course and the insight it gave me. I am eager to apply what I’ve learned to the remainder of my studies here and Salt Lake Community College, and beyond.