My Reflection on this course

    I learned a lot in this class throughout this semester. One of the first things i learned was that essays did not have to be formal for every topic. This new insight on writing made me have a more positive attitude about writing essays when compared to highschool. In highschool, we could only write academic essays with strict requirements on the basis of preparing us for college. I would often hear that in college, students have to write 1200 word essays or ten page essays. Because we weren’t allowed to use double spaced, i was not looking forward to writing at all. 

    This course was the first class that gave grading options that fit our learning style. Even though I may occasionally participate in class, it is not something I like doing all the time. I was able to focus a lot more on my major assignments while not worrying about participating as much, even though there were times the class was silent with no one responding or times where I think if I was graded on participation, my average would be better, I still tried my best and took advantage of my preferred grading style. 

    I learned about the uses of rhetoric. I briefly went over ethos, pathos and logos during my AP English class in highschool, but I didn’t end up using it as much. While in this class however, every week we read and learned more uses of rhetoric and how to analyze their uses in images, articles and books. Even though some of the rhetorical devices assignments were long, like the analogy and allusion activities or the Parenthesis and Enumeratio activities, I enjoyed coming up with my own statements with devices I have seen used but never knew what they were, especially scarcity appeal. I would always see the different ads during holiday specials and sometimes I fall for it simply because it was something I thought I wanted. Now that I understand scarcity appeal, I no longer feel the “If I don’t get this now I can never get it again at this price”  during Black Friday, I simply want to take advantage of the “lower prices” on appliances. Another use of rhetoric that I learned and resonates with me are Pathos and Logos. I learned a lot about them since my second major essay analyzed their uses in social movements. 

    Looking back on my work from this semester however, I feel that I could do way better than I performed. My lack of time management, and setting my priorities hindered the quality of my work. I would tend to procrastinate many of my assignments that I felt I had time to complete. This kind of worth ethic isn’t good in my eyes even though I was able to complete all of my assignments. I noticed that whenever I would go and work on an assignment, I would try to look for examples because I feel lost at times. This dependence was my other hindrance during this semester because I would often sit in my chair staring at my screen, wondering what I should write. I end up wasting more time than I procrastinated when longer assignments had no examples I can be inspired from. Specifically, when I was completing the first large essay (This I no longer believe),  I was able to complete it a lot faster compared to when I was working on the third essay. The most recent experience I had with this issue is while I am working on this essay, trying to format my portfolio. I was not able to format the portfolio the way I wanted, so I was looking at other students’ portfolios to see if I could organize it similarly. 

    Needing examples is not a compositional problem only, even for mathematics, my stronger subject, I need to be shown examples to either see where to start or understand what I did wrong. The peer review sessions acted as a “where did I go wrong”, however starting certain assignments proved to be difficult for me. 

    I want to continue to learn more about rhetorical devices and how to use them as a writer. I learned that writing is simply a way to express yourself, increasing my interest in writing more than I thought it would. This course encouraged me to read more to also increase my vocabulary. My newly found understanding of uses of rhetoric observed in society sparked many conversations with my parents. I explained to them that all social movements appeal to the emotions of the public like BLM did in 2020. I also spoke about the way ads make interesting deals like buy one get one free, clearance, 50% off, or limited time offers simply to drive up sales. 

    My first skill that I want to continue to develop is the ability to write a lot. In the past, I would tend to repeat many of my statements unknowingly to meet length requirements. Throughout the semester, avoiding this was constantly on my mind, so I would read my essay over many times, checking if I used a specific statement already. I would also constantly look at the rubric, trying to see if I answered all of my questions. Most times, I end up pulling all-nighters to finish assignments to the best of my ability, so developing my time management is one of the most important skills I need for my future classes. 

Link to pdf: Course reflection

Closing statement;

I enjoyed this class a lot because it offered me a new perspective on writing/reading, something I once hated.