Reading and Writing

I really liked the unit on infographics and learning about different ways to influence a readers opinion on a topic through rhetorical analysis. I really enjoyed our in-class discussions and how each of our lessons was taught through the book and then further revised in class. Learning about editing skills and rough draft work really helped me in this course and I enjoyed the activities and writing that we did.

To improve this class, I would love more work on how to revise papers. We did a lot of work going over the papers together and we discussed, transitions, organization, grammar, and more. However, I would love a unit more about what specifically to look for when editing your paper and others. Honestly, there is not much about this class that I would change.

November 25, 2021

November 8, 2021

For me the most challenging assignment this semester was the rhetorical analysis because it involved me creating a detailed critique of a writers work. I found it difficult to put my thoughts into concrete sentences that flowed together and discussing quotes and rhetorical strategies made me feel out of my comfort zone. I couldn’t be sure if what I was saying was effective or not. 

November 3, 2021

Claim: Black progress in America is something to celebrate.

Supporting Claims: racial gap-lens, poverty, housing, education, and employment.

Tumblr Prompt 10

It is important to evaluate a source in order to have a factual and credible source of information. If your sources are not accurate, your entire argument is invalid. The most important thing I learned from evaluating sources is to look for bias in a text. If an article is too biased it can blur the arguments opinions from facts. 

Now that I know about looking for bias, I can be sure to carefully read my sources before I consider using them for a paper. By checking for bias I can tell if my source is able to help me back up my argument or if it is just going to be a slew of opinions that discredits my argument. 

The main point of my article was to demonstrate the negative outlook media sites usually have on black people in America and how a gap-lens causes people to not see that progress has been made recently.

There was lots of evidence providing statistics for the article showing how incarceration rates are dropping, education rates are growing, and more. I think that the most intriguing evidence for the article was his comparison between young, black men’s incarceration rates and white men of the same demographic. I think if more evidence like this was provided the article would have been that much more interesting. I would like to ask for additional adjacent evidence with his call to action, which doesn’t have much of a plan or way to execute what it is he is trying to argue. 

I found this infographic on a webpage that allows for people to publish articles, blogs, and advertisements for people to find based on certain topics. This specific post was made by Jocelyn Nolasco in response to peoples role to answer calls for diversity, inclusion, and social justice. The audience of this infographic are those who are looking for what social justice is and are looking to explore a call of action to help. The infographic provides definitions as basic background information, in case someone who didn’t know anything about the topic were to stumble upon it, references to people are counties that are doing something to make a change, and finally providing issues and solutions at the end. 

The image provides ethos by listing examples of people who are doing important things for social justice. It also lists counties and other important figures as examples of who to follow. 

The image demonstrates contrast by having different texts for the titles and subtitles vs the main text. The image also has different colors that separate topics, and small icons for each section. It demonstrates repetition in the use of the words inclusion, and equality throughout every section of the text so the reader doesn’t forget what they are arguing about. Alignment is expressed in the layout of the infographic. The sections are color blocked by topic, with harsh black lines between each change in information. Proximity is used in this infographic because all of the information that relates to one another is placed together within the image. 

Tumblr Prompt #7:

In Coleman Hughes’s article he uses a quote by Donald Trump that says “You’re living in poverty. Your schools are no good. You have no jobs, what the hell do you have to lose?”

Hughes introduced this quote to help introduce his argument when he is discussing the negative connotations surrounding black Americans, and how different political sides push the blame of racism onto different things. He uses this quote to demonstrate how president Trump and other republicans tend to blame democrats for systematic racism, in this particular quote, Trump blaming former president Clinton. 

Although Coleman doesn’t stay on the quote for too long, he does use it as an affective way to demonstrated the different approaches towards racism in America by different political sides. It also furthers the point he made in the first paragraph, saying that black Americans have a poor reputation, especially in the media and political world. 

September 27, 2021

The suggestions that were the most helpful was a comment on my wordiness. I tend to go on and on about unnecessary details and tangents of stories that aren’t able to get my point across. When I went to the writing center a couple of weeks ago, my main critique was shortening my paper by eliminating unnecessary sentences. The least helpful suggestions I’ve received is when I am asked to change my sentence structure or the sound of my writing. I want my writing to be able to get a point across while still sounding like myself and in the past I have received editing advice that made me sound like a computer offering its rebuttal.