#engl3366

I think changing my audience TO atheists as opposed to christians in the first essay makes me more inclined to have a more thorough argument because atheists are more likely to be hostile to my argument. It was subconscious. I did not even think about how this shift of audience made me work harder on my argument.

Feedback from the first essay did include that it sounded more like an opinion piece, and I can see the differences between this essay and the original one. This one consists more of a coherent argument instead of opinions all because i switched my rhetoric and audience.

Peer review:

While peer reviewing one of my classmates’ drafts, it occurred to me that truth is multifaceted and there is no such thing as “good” nor “bad.” Opinions aren’t facts, and I need to stop seeing the world as black and white - it hurts the rhetoric in my life and most definitely in my paper where I want to say doubt is good and certainty is BAD in terms of religion and celestial reasoning.

Lately, I’ve been reading up a lot on missing persons cases after watching Netflix’s docuseries “The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann.”

It got me thinking - why is the public extremely fascinated with these mysteries of people who disappeared and were never found?

I think it’s because the information online always starts off with how ordinary these people are.

Brian Shaffer, went missing in 2006 - was a medical student at Ohio State when he went to celebrate the beginning of spring break with his friends at bars around the campus

Brian Swanson - Same situation almost, went to celebrate the end of classes with his friends when he got lost and never heard from again

Madeleine McCann - on vacation with her parents who were not too far away at a bar when she was supposedly abducted

Is it because these cases often fixate on how relatable these situations are to invoke fear in the people who read up on them?

As I was reading about them last night, I felt the urge to lock every door in the apartment and even felt fear as I left for work at 5 am this morning in the dark.

The websites/documentaries that cover these cases really resonate with audiences as they make clear the human/ordinary side of the cases.

I’ve definitely celebrated with friends at the end of the semester and the fact that this common, ordinary occurrence has led to multiple disappearances really shakes me up.

As I was doing my midterm, I realized I have learned a lot more than what I initially thought. 

I have made great strides in rhetoric and revision, but so much in versatility. I will have to work on my own understanding of versatility by attending office hours as that seems to help me the most.

Versatility.

I feel like my talents have always been limited to language arts and that’s become quite a challenge to me in my information design class. I’ve never been a visual person and having to actually visually see where information is best on a publication is incredibly hard. I feel as if that class is incredibly difficult for me but I’m glad I’m aware of my flaws.

Revision

I actually think I’m getting the hang of the whole purpose of this class. At first, I was so confused and really thought this class would kill me as to I had no idea what “style” meant and could not connect classtime activities to the actual general idea behind the class. It took the will for me to have a discussion in order to clarify what style actually is and how it relates to rhetoric. Thus, conversation really allowed me to better my understanding of style and allows me to dive deeper into the more complicated aspects behind it.