The works below were written by first-year students in the Composition Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston, selected for publication by Composition Program faculty serving on the Undercurrents editorial board. Please see our Editor’s Introduction to learn more about our 2020 issue, click About the Journal to learn more about Undercurrents, or click the links below to enjoy our 2020 selections.
“As I was starting to get caught up in the busyness of life, reading brought me to a world that only I was in and it provided me a space where I felt relaxed and calm.”
Sarah Dickinson’s Play-Based Learning in Early Education
“The benefits of play-based learning, especially in regards to writing and basic literacy skills, outweigh the difficulties of implementing a play-based curriculum.”
Michael O’Shaughnessey’s Being Civilly Offensive
“The greatest periods of change in our society are able to happen when there are ideas that contradict the status quo, but these changes could progress a lot more smoothly if we just listened to each other.”
“Instead of instructing students how they should speak or write, we should instead teach how language functions within and from various cultural perspectives.”
Whitney Posada’s Reading Between the Lines of the College Essay Prompt
“I can use Warren’s essay to help my siblings play the “academic game” that students who Warren calls “more traditionally qualified” and who I assume come from more affluent families than me have been playing for years”
Adil Shahid’s The Writing Process in the Modern Digital Age: A College Student’s Perspective
“All of the data seems to be pointing in one direction: we as students are slowly becoming disconnected from the joys reading and writing can bring while being further connected to our smartphones.”
Cooper Wilkinson’s The Language of Science is Questioned
“While initially I was preoccupied by my own struggles in using the technical voice, I have discovered that the real issue lies where I hadn’t thought to look before. The same selfish mindset is what fuels this homogenization of the sciences.”
Anonymous: I’m Too Lazy to Come Up With a Good Title: How the Internet Makes Your Brain Lazy
“Disappointed in my pursuit to understand why the Internet was hacking at my already meager cognitive functions, I needed to understand more. What is it about the Internet that makes my brain rot?”