English Symposium

I had the opportunity to attend the English Symposium where BYU's English majors gathered together to share their love of English. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend two sessions, one on Thursday and one on Friday. On Thursday I attended the session "Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart" and on Friday I attended Rhetoric of World Leaders. Both of these sessions taught me different aspects of english and I thoroughly enjoyed both of them.

In the first sessions, there were four speakers who spoke about the same novel, but different aspects of it. Most of them focused on different forms of symbolism within the novel. The speaker I liked the most, Alex Lewis, talked about how the music throughout the novel represented the culture of the people. She talked about how the music described and referenced in the text further illuminated the culture of the indigenous people and their society.

In the second session, there were three speakers who spoke about popular world leaders and how they used rhetoric to become a leader. The first speaker, who I enjoyed the most, talked about how William Wilberforce used rhetoric and ethics in his leadership. She did a good job specifying what Wilberforce did to use rhetoric and how it helped him in his leadership position.

Overall I enjoyed my time spent at the English Symposium and learned a lot from the different presenters. It was a good reminder about why I love english so much and how there are so many different aspects to it.