Laura Gorissen
Spanish and International Health, B.S.
Clemson University
May 2026
Linguistic Proficiency
Below are some of my past work that demonstrates my linguistic ability in Spanish
01
Spanish 3040 paper: Visión naturalista y crítica social en “Las medias rojas”
This linguistic artifact is an analysis paper written for my Spanish literature class. The class focuses on different literature types and important works from Spanish speaking countries throughout history. This paper analyzes the story called “Las medias rojas” written by Emilia Pardo Bazán, which depicts themes of poverty, patriarchy, and female oppression. This assignment helped my writing and interpreting skills because my task was to understand the hidden meanings of the story and be able to connect the elements to the author and the historical context of the story. Because of this paper I was able to expand my Spanish vocabulary since the story was written in the early 1900’s, with a lot of older Spanish jargon. This paper was important for my understanding of Spain’s history regarding female oppression and the struggles women had to go through during that time. I will use the skills I gained through this work to be able to better express complex ideas to Spanish-speaking patients and other members of the healthcare team. This paper helped me feel more confident in my ability to understand stories and what they mean in a broad context.
02
Spanish 3040 paper: La Deshumanización del Trabajo: Absurdísimo y el Teatro Épico en Historia del Hombre que se Convirtió en Perro
This linguistic artifact is an analysis paper written for my Spanish literature class. The class focuses on different literature types and important works from Spanish speaking countries throughout history. The goal of the assignment was to build a well-argued reflection about one of the pieces of literature that were analyzed during the course. I chose to focus on a play called “Historia del Hombre que se Convirtió en Perro” by Osvaldo Dragún, which in an example of Latin American protest theater. This paper improved my linguistic skills because I was able to use the dialogue to visualize the story and understand what the significance of the play was without having watched the play being acted out on a stage. A challenge I overcame was interpreting the irony and the metaphors of the play by understanding the implied meaning of the text instead of only direct translation. I developed cultural understanding through this paper by conducting extensive research on the worker conditions in Latin America during the 1950’s. I will use the skills gained while writing this paper by being able to better understand my patients’ emotions and what they are trying to convey when they tell me their stories. This experience helped me boost my confidence because it helped me think critically about what the main character’s fictional transformation meant in a realistic context.