In the morning, we attended a creative writing class. The
lesson started with us writing our own short stories with some provided short
fiction prompts. Though the stories were incomplete, we shared them with our group mates to discuss the
situation and story which is the setting and the theme respectively. Analyzing two
pieces of short stories, Hills Like White Elephants and Reunion, we discussed
the situation and story and learnt about the Iceberg Theory of Literature which
was the omission of the writer of certain elements for readers to figure it out
on their own, more commonly known as subtext. The professor then introduced us to the Poetic Ode and gave us two
kinds of chocolates to put the technique into use. We had to write a poem using
the Poetic Ode to criticize one kind in order to elevate the other. The lesson
was challenging and interactive.
In the afternoon, we took an effective non-verbal communication
class in which we talked about the elements in a successful speech which
include words, body language and voice. Firstly, we played a game of reading
the same sentence twice while laying stress of different words such that the
meaning of the sentence is entirely changed. We also learnt about the power of
silence. For body language, we talked about hand gestures, postures of standing
etc. Varying pitch, pace and volume is what we should pay attention to in the
aspect of voice in order to engage your audience. We were also taught how to
establish credibility as a speaker with ways such as shaking hands firmly,
dressing appropriately and many more. The
lesson ended with two volunteers from our class giving a one minute speech to
practice what we have learnt and receiving some feedbacks from the lecturer for
improvement. This lesson is particularly useful as we are often required to do
presentations and to give speeches in school now and in our future careers.
An admission talk was also conducted in the afternoon by a
student here, giving us tips and procedures on application to Stanford and what
we should be aware of. The talk was very informative and instructive. We had a
great day!
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