English Blog

One thing that I really liked about this course was when we had papers due, there would be a date before the final draft to submit a rough draft. It was an extra boost of motivation I needed to start my papers early and it definitely improved my grades on those projects. It also gave me a chance to step away from it and come back to it a few days closer to the final draft due date. Lastly, it gave me a chance to send it to peers and my dad to help improve my paper. Something I think could be improved in this course is the peer review projects. More time to do that would’ve been helpful, due to the fact that I didn’t get a whole lot of feedback in the short time we had to discuss it in class and I didn’t quite have enough time to thoroughly give my partner the feedback that would’ve helped him more. 

When I got to college a ten page final wasn’t what I had in mind for my history class, but I think with everything I’ve learned in this class it can only benefit me when I start this paper. From starting my paper early to having peers read over it and tell me where I can improve on it. I plan to do a rough draft which will include a bunch of topics I want to write about and include subtopics to dive deeper into the paper with. I’ll also be starting it the second I get the prompt, so when I get writers block and have nothing to write about, I have time to research more on the topic and listen to other people. Finally, once I’ve finished the paper I’ll have someone read over it and tell me what exactly I can improve on.

I wouldn’t say I had an overly challenging assignment this semester. The rhetorical analysis was probably the most challenging because of the new level of research I had to do, which I’ve never really had to do before. But I feel that every assignment we did, the directions were clear and any questions I had were either discussed or answered in class. Overall, I feel my writing has significantly improved, not only have I learned a ton of new strategies but I also had a ton of feedback from many different people. I think one of the first things taught, shitty first drafts, set me up for success in our writing assignments. I’ve learned that my first draft should never be the one I turn in and that starting it early and coming back to it after a break significantly improves the writing and my confidence in that writing. 

Technology isn’t the cause of our addictions, it’s ourselves. It’s the 21st century addiction, not cigarettes. I agree with the argument in my original article and chose to expand on it in my infographic. They say that the more you sit in front of a screen, the more your brain feels the need to have it. You also become socially isolated, leaving technology to be the only form of interaction you get, with people through a screen. I further expand on my argument in my infographic through facts like what percent of teens would admit to having an addiction and the mental affects it has on people. To further the information given in the original article in my infographic, I provided ways you can rid your addictions .

It is important to evaluate a source simply because you want to know where your information is coming from. You don't want to not have searched up information about your source and then it turn out to be unreliable. It can pollute all of the information and data you’re providing. Evaluating sources can redefine the meaning of something and making sure it’s credible protects your information. It definitely makes me feel that I need to be more alert and willing to dive into my sources before putting all of my trust into them. When doing a research paper or looking up scholarly articles, I know I’d feel more confident if I also research my sources and know what I’m adding into my information. 

The main argument in my article from project two was that technology wasn’t the reason behind our addictions, its ourselves/consumers of technology. The author used a credible source who has studied the topic for many years, making it credible and reliable. They explain in the argument that technology was meant to be a good thing used when you need it but people take advantage of it and become addicted. A part that could definitely be explored further would be how to overcome the addictions and how can I keep track of my healthy technology consumption. I couldn’t think of a counter argument being that I completely agree with the author. 

This graphic is an ethological approach to informing school personnel about the use of electronics in school. The intended purpose of this graphic is to promote the use or the allowance of technology for school work. This graphic contains good alignment and I believe that by using short little facts the viewers are more inclined to read it all the way through. 

In my article the author uses the quote, “We will start to realize that being chained to your mobile phone is a low-status behavior, similar to smoking.”. She introduces this quote as somewhat of a comparison to technology addictions. What she means by this is that we know smoking is a very unhealthy habit, but it’s so overlooked by everyone, and technology addictions have become the same way. I believe I could find another example like this to use in my own article, giving an example of another addiction people tend to have that’s overlooked.

I personally have never had a scholar look over my paper, however, I have had my dad look over them before. He pointed out that I tend to go off on tangents, so he gave me an outline and in that outline he wrote that each paragraph needs to have a main idea that you’re going to cover. Another big thing he mentioned was to always write down your outline, don’t jump straight into it and form those paragraphs as you go. Writing them helps you organize and structure from the beginning instead of having to go back and re-organize/layout your paper. These tips have helped me stay on track with my current papers and I know they’ll help in all my future ones as well.

My article appealed mostly to ethos, the author mentioned several time, and even in the title, that technology isn’t the issue in todays world. It’s the people and consumers who are addicted to technology that try and blame it on everything but themselves. An example of logos in my article would be when the author compares technology nowadays to back then and how it and its uses have evolved. My last example, of pathos, would be when the author almost tends to blame us and provoke us to stop and really think about how much we use technology, from gaming to looking at our phones and fiddling in awkward situations.

When I think of rhetoric I don’t automatically assume there’s a negative or positive connotation. When you look up the word rhetoric it means to have  persuasive and meaningful context; therefore it is what you make it. In the book it states that people just want to persuade you and are willing to go to extremes to do so, and being able to point that out is crucial when it comes to rhetorical analyses. Using rhetorical analyses in reading can help gain a deeper knowledge on what exactly the writer is expressing, whether it’s why they used a certain phrase or what impact the text had on the audience.

Within this first project I learned a lot about my own writing process. Writing has always been something I dreaded and I tend to put it off until the last minute but for our first paper I told myself I wasn’t going to procrastinate and I was going to be ahead of the game and get it done early. Being in college now I feel that there was more pressure on me as far as writing and submitting a paper, so giving myself that time to really be able to work on it when I wanted and take breaks and come back to it when I wanted was a big relief. Now that I know how it feels to be able to come back and not feel rushed, that’s how I want to treat all of my papers throughout college! Definitely writing a rough draft and jotting down those ideas when they came to mind was helpful too. Thinking ahead of time and giving myself time to actually marinate on those ideas will hopefully show through my final drafts.

Some of the best advice I’ve received when it comes to writing would be that you have to start early and plan it out. Having all of your thoughts written down and planning everything. My dad sat me down one night and wrote out how to write a paper. He broke down what to write about first and what to include in each paragraph. I don’t have that sheet of paper but an image of it has been stuck in my head since then and it’s pretty much helped on every paper I’ve written since then. My English teachers in high school were also some people who had a huge impact on my writing, specifically freshman and junior year. They were always willing to stay after school, proof read or simply give me that extra boost of confidence I needed in the writing process.

Reading and writing on my first day of high school was intimidating. Not so much the reading part, but the writing because it’s something I had never done nor been taught. In a way I don’t think writing is something you can teach, you just have to form outlines and learn how to piece together what you’re trying to say. On my last day of high school, I felt confident about writing. I was taught many styles of writing and how to lay out everything I wanted to say before writing. Writing is a way to put everything you’re thinking or know about onto a piece of paper or a document. The purpose of reading and writing is to further your knowledge and stay stimulated, it can also be a way to entertain.