Hey, everyone. I’m Jessica Barber, and I’m a Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering student in the class of 2022.

This is my first English class here at Tech, but I took AP English Language during my junior year of high school. Looking back on it, that class was one that truly sparked my interest in rhetoric, and I saw beauty in not only the contents of literature but in the mechanics of it. That being said, I have a great appreciation for the effects of nonverbal communication, especially as seen in day-to-day conversation. On paper, I enjoy seeing an author’s voice and opinions present themselves through diction and formulaic structures ― I guess I’m a sucker for written communication as well.

For this semester, I hope to improve in verbal communication. To be frank, I’m one of those people who would much rather sit in the back of the room and internally comment on people’s remarks like Statler and Waldorf in The Muppets than be the one up on stage. But enough of the boring stuff.

When I have the time, I enjoy watching TV for sure. I’ve gone through a few binging stages over the years, but most recently, I enjoy Rick and Morty and, unfortunately, The Bachelorette. For this assignment, I’ll be watching and reviewing The Bold Type, a Freeform show about three young females who all work at a magazine company. I think. I’ve only watched the first episode and a half, so if anyone out there is already a big fan, please don’t be offended by my lack of knowledge. We’ll get there soon enough.

I chose to watch The Bold Type because I remember that a friend back home became an immediate fan when it first aired on TV. She was always impressed that the show mentioned the social issues that it did, so I was interested in watching something that would surprise me. Currently, I’m watching the show with one of my best friends, a lovely Sri Lankan girl who I had the pleasure of befriending on the first day of high school. I don’t know about her, but I’m really looking forward to having an excuse for watching Netflix all the time now that it’s technically for school. We’ll see how it goes.

Statler and Waldorf