October 2020

With creating the argument essay it was difficult. I had a challenge with the structure of my analysis essay, as well as questioning if what I found to be a problem for my home-town was actually a problem. These two things made it difficult for me to give the best argument, simply because I thought this could only be a problem I see. So, in comparison to other essays that I’ve done this one may have been the hardest.

In certain ways I think that my writing has evolved past the common five sentence, five paragraph. For the argument essay my writing has evolved in the sense that I learned how to argue with evidence, I used the using source module(Using Sources Reflection) to help with quotations and summaries of some sources. I think that helped with quoting sources in my argument essay more than anything. The argument module(Argument Module Reflection )also helped me with making sure I was aware of the language I used in my essay, as well as knowing if my counterargument was effective and if I had a strong rebuttal against it.

Overall, I think the final draft of my argument essay was way more effective than the rough draft. A lot of the modules and the peer reviews help me with certain aspects of my essay.

Two Concepts that I encountered were the five modes of communication: visual, linguistic,spatial,aural, and gestural, and the other concept that I encountered was remediation and remix.

The five modes concept is a concept I knew nothing about. The different modes were basically like our five senses. visual is a representation of how we see things, things we can see like: paintings and films. While aural focuses on sound like: silence, tone of a voice in spoken language, or an accent. This concept is a concept that will help strengthen the way I present things and how I focus on things being presented.

The concept of remediation and remix was something that I knew of but in this sense, I was unfamiliar with. When I hear remix, I automatically think of a song and how someone has transformed it. I had know idea of a film being remixed or a text being remixed. This concept allowed me to view things in a broader way, to see that one thing is always fixed to one concept.

In the peer-review, the two things that helped me were someone stated that there wasn’t a clear counterargument. This helped me because in an argument essay, it’s important to know the opposing side of the argument you are making. I think it strengthens your argument, and helps the readers know you are aware of the things that go against your argument. The other thing that I learned from the peer review is the strength that sources and examples can add to the credibility of the argument. In my argument, I used examples but didn’t really support them with sources that were scholarly.

Some of the feedback that I gave that might have helped someone with their essay was some of the same advice that was given to me. Some times reading other people’s essays help you with the structure of your own and I think I learned more from reading other’s essays than critiquing their essay.

In the readability module to concepts that I encountered were the use of run-ons and fragments, as well as use of semi-colons. These concepts were two things that I already knew, but in certain essays or papers I make the mistakes of having run-on sentences and improperly using semi-colons.

Through-out the readability module the topics were something we all learn at a young age. The module reiterated those things and spoke about how to avoid the most common mistakes. After reading through the module, I realized that the easiest mistake to make is run-on sentences. Sometimes being unsure were a pause is needed or how some sentences don’t have a subject-verb agreement, can hurt your paper/essay. This is something I believe I do and to fix that problem, I try to use more commas without over using them.

The concept of semi-colons was something that I knew, but never used. Instead of using a semi-colon to combine related sentences, I would just put a period in place to be sure that I wouldn’t improperly use a semi-colon. After reading the module, I learned that a semi-colon is a connector and that sometimes using a period in place of that semi-colon could stop the flow of my paragraph. A period stops an idea, while a semi-colon connects related ideas. So, in future papers I will try to use semi-colons more effectively.

In chapters 19-22 when Dr. Hanna- Attisha does her press conference, I think that her press conference did the one thing it was suppose to do, draw people’s attention to the problem. The first objection in chapter 20, which I think is also a rebuttal is the statement by the MDEQ. On page 259, the statement says ” He repeated his familiar refrain: Flint water was within acceptable levels. Everything is in compliance. Everything tests fine.” I think hearing this was the biggest rebuttal and objection due to the fact it came from someone who was suppose to have the correct data and suppose to help keep Flint safe.

On page 263, chapter 20 the author mention not having her data peer-reviewed is another rebuttal. I see this as a rebuttal because if you don’t believe what you are saying how do you expect your audience to believe you. Although the next chapter speaks about how she refocused and gained confidence in the numbers she studied, after reading that the author was unsure of her work, I think it made her claim weak.

I think with most objection and responses the author received, I think her information she collected speaks for her. Not many people can argue with stats or data, not many people can argue with a doctor or scientist. If you don’t have a degree that helps other understand numbers, then your not really as credible. I think her evidence is suffice.

The argument module brought awareness to somethings I thought I had a good understanding of. Things like having a debatable, assertive, reasonable, and focused argumentative thesis. Two concepts that struck me  from this module were: Building common ground and Rebuttal and Refutation of counterargument.

The concept of Building common ground, addressed being aware of your audience and your tone. It mentioned that sometimes you may not have a specific audience, but that is something you should be aware of as you write your thesis and essay. This concept made me also aware of the language you would use in an argument. The module stated ” if you misjudge the appropriate language for your audience, your tone will suffer too.” the module also stated that using the wrong tone could turn off your audience.This struck me because it is very easy to use the wrong language and tone in an argumentative paper. Very often, the tone of a paper can change and the write not be aware of that change.

The concept of Rebuttal and Refutation of counterargument stated ” Good rebuttal and refutation begins with a solid understanding of all possible points of view on your topic.”  I think this concept is something that I sometimes avoid. Most times in argumentative essays, the writer wants to get their argument across strongly but doesn’t always understand every other point of view.

In chapters 17 the presentation the author presented to the mayor of flint I think was effective enough to draw more attention to the issue at hand.I think the presentation was consistent with the information the author discovered. I feel that when the mayor spoke about the water he felt that it was a major problem, but a problem that he couldn’t fix or didn’t care if there was a solution.

I wouldn’t have done anything different from the author. Her information was based on stats and data and she presented it as a concerned doctor. If her information where presented differently I don’t think any opinions would have changed. People in that meeting, the author says that seemed shaken, and if the information they received made them disturbed, I think the reason they haven’t did anything is to obtain their image of authority.

After completing the using sources module, two concepts that I encountered were: Establishing Source Credibility and Applying Paraphrase, Summary, and Quotations.

The concept of establishing source credibility was a concept that I didn’t know. This taught me that citation isn’t only for credibility, but integrating sources by adding evidence can make an argument more persuasive.This concept also taught me the credibility markers. Those markers includes: signal phrases, complete, accurate citations, demonstration of relevance, and supporting evidence.

The second concept is one that I knew, but I probably have used incorrectly. This helps with credibility as well, but it also taught when it is right to use paraphrase rather than a summary. It also taught how to use them correctly. This concept help with learning that its okay to include direct quotations because the original language can have a strong impact on the essay rather than someone watering down the words and making the essay more simple.

These two concepts I will use to strengthen the credibility of any essay I write as well as making my argument more persuasive and my essay more effective.

While doing the preparation for the analysis essay, it was very similar to other essays I’ve done. I think the rough draft process for any essay is similar. You’re allowing your thoughts to flow and making sense of what your trying to say, so that it makes sense for the readers.This process also pushed me to further my writing. It allowed me to broaden my thoughts about the particular subject I wrote about.

I think my writer’s practices has evolved in the sense, that writing has a purpose no matter what is for. At the beginning of this process I thought that it would be easy to analysis anything, but as I did further research about my topic and I learned more on how to write an essay, it became more clear to me that writing is almost a tedious process. It’s a process that desires every thought you have. It’s a process that requires every bit of information, not just so it makes sense but so it can be accepted and acknowledged by readers.

Earlier concepts such as: Beyond the five paragraph module, the Revision module, and the Peer reflection (Peer Review Reflection), helped me learn that writing is more than an introduction, a few paragraphs, and a conclusion. The concepts helped me learn that organic essay has a more argumentative thesis and in the revision module it helped me learn that there are many ways to revise a essay and that it doesn’t have to be done alone. The peer reflection allowed me to see, how someone reacted to my rough draft, without physically seeing their reaction. Their notes on my writing helped me to see what a

During Peer review the best advice I received was to add structure to my essay. While reading over the reviews of my essay I had already thought about the things I need to work on. So that particular advice was something that I noticed myself  a head of reading that specific review. Another piece of advice that I know will help my essay is to add more evidence to claim/ topic. One specific review said that they understood my thesis but, as they continued to read they didn’t see much evidence to help my thesis.

I think the best advice that I gave was to make the thesis clearer. Some time while reading an essay it can be easy to see the authors point of view and know what they are talking about with out a thesis. I think with a thesis it makes the body paragraphs easier to understand. The become easier to understand why they are in a specific order and it helps with a better structure of the paper