8R

“When learning is purposeful, creativity blossoms. When creativity blossoms, thinking emanates. When thinking emanates, knowledge is fully lit.” A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

               

This week, after a long time coming, we handed in our first final essay. I can say with confidence that this piece was one of the most well written and meaningful pieces I have ever written and I really shocked myself. It is crazy what you can do if you really put your mind to it. The final product is one I can say exemplifies hard work and dedication. Up until this point, I would always get frustrated and discouraged about writing a thesis, but after a lot of revising, I was finally capable to come up with a strong working thesis.

                Furthermore, in-class we started talking about fallacies and the elements of arguments that appeal to your audience. These include logos, pathos, and ethos. Last semester, we focused heavily on these aspects and how they were intertwined in advertising or media. So, when asked to find examples of fallacies for homework, I relied on my prior knowledge to complete it. Additionally, when looking at fallacies, I am aware of what they are, but have a difficult time figuring out which category they fall under. We then read the essay “Children Should Play, Not Compete,” and picked apart the different elements the author used. She had an interesting introductory strategy and way of displaying her thesis which our class agreed was a bit confusing. The author also definitely established strong credibility by using multiple sources, but had none of her own analysis or thoughts on the source material, and therefore hurt her argument. When I first read this essay that was the first thing to jump out at me. We were always taught that when writing, the more examples, the better but our class recognized this not to be the case because it can be overpowering. Rather, you should add your own opinion and have the sources support your opinion. Our in-class activity really facilitated practicing a new technique called an “after the fact outline” which was super helpful in looking at the authors organizational strategies and can also help establish what needs to be worked on. I do feel myself getting stronger in more areas of reading and writing, so keep it coming!