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One thing I liked is how we were put into groups with the hashtag so we knew who to reply to on tumblr and had a group to work with peer review as well. I like group work and coming back together as a group after doing individual assignments and projects. I also feel like I learned more about writing now than in other classes. One thing that I think could be improved is the selection of articles for our rhetorical analysis. We ended up doing a lot with just the one article and stuck with it for a long time. The choices for the articles to me could be a bit more interesting.

My writing process can be translated to writing longer papers for any class that is not this one. Doing multiple drafts of a piece of work would be beneficial to more than just papers as well. I used my knowledge from this class of analyzing sources to make sure they are credible for a research poster for engineering. Using the CRAP methods to form a better poster and making an outline for it beforehand came into play when doing this poster project. We had another group look at our group’s poster as a peer review type of thing and we made changes from what they suggested as well.

The most challenging assignment for me was the rhetorical analysis. I have never written one before and the rough draft I had was terrible. I wasn’t too sure how to revise from the rough draft and ended up doing pretty solid after the peer reviewing. It was really challenging to remain unbiased while critiquing another author’s work. My writing has improved overall because of learning to outline and actually brainstorm before writing about a topic is helpful. My writing has gotten more precise and to the point than before. I used to not write rough drafts and just wing the final and hit submit. Now, I redo a paper as needed so it gets better.

College campuses should be safe enough is my claim. My two supporting claims are “ It should be common sense to respect others feelings while at the same time the freedom of speech needs to be protected.” and “ Safe spaces are beneficial for students to feel included and it helps diversify groups.” My argument diverges from the original by bringing in the first amendment surveys and to help with my argument. I think it adds to the argument because it goes against safe spaces from a new perspective. I refute the original argument by saying how safe spaces can be beneficial and implement diversity. I agree and disagree with the argument overall.

Evaluating sources is important because we should use credible sources to back up our argument. It is important to know people can trust the information in an argument because the sources used are credible. An important thing I learned from HTWA is to consider the audience for a source. When I read an article I will consider the audience to see what information is relevant for who would be reading it. For sources on the web, looking at what information should be used can be based on how valid the information is for who’s reading it.

From the article for project 2, I found the thesis was “But that’s anathema to education, which requires us to confront ideas and practices that are different from our own. We can’t do that if we create our own culture of fear and resentment, which makes our classrooms and our campuses unsafe for real learning.” Zimmerman uses first hand experience, surveys, and quotes to back up his argument. The evidence that could be explored further is what supports the benefits and what safe spaces do. Some intriguing evidence was how he had personal experience in the matter, teaching without any boundaries of words. I would like some specific examples and to see what was said. The counterargument would be how safe spaces are beneficial.

I found this image on a website. The audience could be to people that don’t know about teachers or might want to be one. The purpose of the image is to inform people about what teachers do and to disprove myths heard about teachers. The image uses logos because of percentages and charts used to display information. It also uses pathos because of the work teachers do and we can feel for them. The citations and references at the bottom also bring in the ethos appeal. There is contrast between the bright colors and the dark background. The repeating circles display myths and the quotation boxes under show the information. There is symmetry and the title is in the middle. The myths are in the same row and the stats are together in the same row above. The image portrays a good understanding of what it is really like to be a teacher along with the statistics of them.

The writer introduced the quote by telling us what the quote was about first. The writer tells us a who and when, then says what the quote is about. The writer used this introductory sentence that leads into the quote: “In 2016 a group of students at Occidental College argued that the American flag endangered their safety.” The writer successfully integrated the quote into their argument because he explained what it meant in the paragraph that follows. I can integrate this technique in my own paper to go into detail about how ethos and pathos are entailed with the quote and meaning.

The most helpful suggestions to me from peer review have been how I could rework some of my sentences to be clearer. I would have the right idea, but wrong execution. The least helpful suggestions were when they suggested that I change my whole structure when it could work out. I like the process of helping peers and receiving help because we are in the same boat when it comes to the grading process. I can understand my peers more than the instructor most of the time.

My article was about how safe-spaces to talk limit what you can say because others might feel offended or upset. Having statues such as the “Silent Sam” Confederate memorial on campus would cause a lot of controversy and could even lead to violence. We can appeal emotionally with pathos by taking our own side on the matter, if we believe safe spaces should exist. We also have our feelings drawn out by relating to others' opinions and stories about how they experience it. My article used logos by conducting interviews and gathering the thoughts of how people on campus felt. Ethos was used by having professors and high rated educators weigh in on the matter. Pathos was the most emphasized and was successful to me as a reader because having similar opinions to the people in the article made me feel the same way about these types of statues and if safe spaces should be a thing.