Rebecca

I can clearly remember logging into Blackboard and the blog for the first time back in August and panicking because I absolutely no idea how I would figure out how to do college online and almost 3 hours away from campus. I took notes over the podcast for the first blogpost like it was the biggest assignment of the semester. Since August, I have seen some growth in this aspect of school- I am a little more confident with my technology abilities. I guess that’s not the best thing to say when taking 5 online classes, but there’s got to be a first time for everything.  

Looking back on my first blog post, I almost want to cringe at my writing. I can’t hear my tone or my voice in it at all. I used to rewrite everything I worked on to make it perfect, and in doing so, I would lose my voice in my writing. Your voice is important to your writing because it makes it authentic. There is a difference between tone/ voice and bias, and it can sometimes be a fine line. In some of my other writing, I had to work to not have a strong tone in papers or blog posts to make sure that my content stayed unbiased.  

The assignment, “Letter to My Selfie”, is something I posted and have not looked back on at all throughout the semester. The biggest thing I noticed when I reread it today was that I accomplished my goal. I am so much more confident in myself, both as a writer and a person. I didn’t really think that I would see change like this in just one semester, but it is great to see such a difference in my writing in that way. 

Rhetoric is something I did a lot of studying on in my last English class. Every paper was an analysis of the use of rhetoric in articles or other papers. It is a powerful tool when used well and it can help sway opinions when writing an argumentative paper. I personally think the most important tool of rhetoric is logos. It is unbiased and well informed, which is crucial to making a good argument or simply just stating facts.  

My use of logos has improved if I may say so myself. In the past, I have usually relied on pasting quotes into my paper to support my ideas. This semester, however, I have really pushed myself to use logos in different ways. I paraphrased more and took more time putting an author’s ideas into my own words, like in my reading journal for Donald Murray. I tend to overdo the pathos sometimes in my writing. I have really worked to use pathos in a more effective way this semester, and I think I have done a good job of doing so. In my #1000BlackGirlBooks, I used pathos in creating my blog post, but kept it at a professional level. Ethos is something that used to confuse me a little bit, until I broke it down to what it really is: the ethical appeal of the author. Ethos is something that takes time to really develop as a writer. The best thing I can do to develop ethos for myself would be to stay informed and unbiased in what I write. One way to do this would be to choose reliable sources that are also good ethos.  

The article we read at the very beginning of the course “Sponsors of Literacy” defined a lot of my mental debate throughout the semester. I understand so much and have grown so much as a writer because of my sponsor. My mother is the reason I have the passion to be better at everything. But it got me thinking more, is there another sponsor that I have that I am not thinking about as much? I would say my imagination would honestly be a sponsor of literacy for me in a way. I used to write so much when I was younger, fantasy stories in my head or inspired by a movie or another book I liked. The biggest thing I took away from this was that sponsors of literacy can come from anywhere.  

Another blog post that I remember finding funny, especially after I realized I did it wrong, was the 24-hour writing log. I misunderstood what it meant and wrote a log of my entire day, which was not what I was supposed to do. Once I corrected my mistake everything was fine, but it made me reflect a little on the way I communicate. In almost every media post or conversation, I use emojis. My family makes fun of my overusage of laughing faces, sarcastic smiles, and the clown emoji, but I think it is just another way to communicate better. If I put the sparkle emoji around a word or a group of words, I can convey that I am being sarcastic in a text message or Twitter post. It helps me eliminate part of the communication barrier that a screen creates.  

Fast forward a few weeks to the blog post about What the Eyes Don’t See. I can see even in a month a huge boost in confidence in my blog posts. It takes me much less time to write them and feel comfortable with what I am creating. I don’t usually like to go back and reread old things of mine, especially middle school (we don’t talk about her). I took time to reread all my blog posts and papers from the semester and starting with this unit right here is where I saw the most change. 

I looked back at my progress logs as well throughout this reflection process. On my first blog posts and paper, I spent so much time working on drafts. I would spend around an hour or more at a time working on a rough draft or write a blog post over the course of two or three sittings. As the semester progressed, my time spent on my work decreased. My effort on the assignments didn’t decrease, just my time spent tweaking and perfecting for no reason did. The numbers helped me see this change in myself much more than just reading.  

I think the work that shows my growth as a writer best is major paper 3. This paper was an intense one. My initial plan for it was changed last minute and I knew that it was something that I couldn’t, for lack of better term, haphazardly assemble. This was an important topic to me, and I couldn’t just write to barely fulfill the assignment. I spent only 2 days on that paper, and it is one of the best things I have written. I worked really hard to make sure that I stayed unbiased while still providing a well-researched and strong argument.  

This first semester of college has shaped me in so many different ways. At the beginning, I was dreading another English class because my last one was a little rough at the end. Once I got over my initial pre-school panic, I really got into the groove of this class and let it take me on the journey it did. I think I have greatly improved as a writer, not in the sense of better skills (even though I have gotten better at some skills for sure), but more in the sense of being a writer. Like in my last blog post, being a writer is more than just writing words on a page. It is speaking from the mind and soul, in a way that leaves an impact on a reader. 

Writer: synonymous to author, litterateur, pen, penman, scribe, and scrivener.

I would define a writer quite literally as someone who uses words to express themselves and get a message across. That may be an argumentative essay about the cons of the vaping industry or why it is important for young people to be politically active. Something I have really learned over the past few months is that much like being in an argument, the loudest speaker isn’t always the right or best speaker. Sometimes it only takes a few words, sentences, or paragraphs to get a point across. There don’t need to be metaphors, descriptions, and filler words to make a form of writing seem more “correct” or better.  I think that Taylor Eaton says it perfectly: Simply enough, if you write, you are a writer.

I would definitely say that I have changed as a writer in the past 13 weeks. I don’t rewrite every sentence in a rough draft or try to make my sentence structure the most fancy thing I can as much. I feel more comfortable in writing as myself and I am able to hear more of my tone in my writing. I have become better at researching topics and staying relatively unbiased in important discussions, even in the past month. I am really proud of the improvement I have made.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/author

http://www.writerology.net/blog/post/2013/12/what-it-means-to-be-a-writer

I think it is safe to say that life for everyone right now is not what we imagined 11 months ago around New Year’s Eve. The battles and struggles that I have dealt with this year alone have made this year one of the worst, easily. A recent thing that comes to mind when I think about people showing compassion towards me this year is when I was in a dark place earlier this month and one of my best friends surprised me with something at work every day for a week. She didn’t know the whole story as to what was going on, but she could tell that I needed some compassion and love. I think my close friends, even the few that I have, are some of the most compassionate people ever. They go out of their way so much to show love and support to everyone, not just me.  

The other day there was a cold snap, and it was raining. One of the managers at work got all the outside order takers, expeditors, and cash cart people hot chocolate with money out of her pocket. I was off work today, so I brought her coffee at breakfast, tea at lunch, and a milkshake just an hour ago. I loved getting to see her smile and make her day. Compassion doesn’t even have to be about buying people something. I like to ask as many people as I can how their day is going, and genuinely be involved in the conversation. Smiling at people and telling them to have a great day is such an easy thing to do when you want to show compassion more.  

I think someone that needs compassion right now would be one of my best friends. He has been in Virginia for basic training for National Guard and he gets home next week. I am going to surprise him when he gets home with his favorite meal (that he hasn’t had since March) and we are going to have a best friend’s day. 

Celeste Headlee’s TED Talk might be one of my new favorites. She is so good at engaging her audience and explaining a negative habit that we all do and need to stop without belittling or “bullying” us. She stays relatable and real throughout the whole thing. The ten steps that she brings up are things we already should be doing, but we have become so distracted and focused on ourselves that we can’t anymore. She brings up how these skills make one a better interviewer, but also a better listener. This TED Talk isn’t just meant for business people trying to get jobs, it is for everyone that has any conversations with people. The content that she talks about is something that I have had brought up to me several times. My dad always gets on to me because I am always jumping from one thing to another in conversations. It is a bad habit I have that I am actively trying to break. Another point Celeste made that was really impactful was the end where she talked about everyone having that secret awesome thing. It is an optimistic outlook on life and I plan to use it more.

The social media post I have chosen to write about is a Twitter post by Joshua Rush. Joshua Rush is most well known for playing Cyrus Goodman– the first canonically gay character in Disney- in the series “Andi Mack”. He is a role model to young people in so many ways: being politically active, an LGBT ally and member, and a climate activist. He had a weekly social media series titled “News in a Rush” where he broke down current news stories in a way that younger audiences could understand and be more involved. The intended audience of the tweet is any of his followers. He may not have the most followers, but he has quite a few (just over 119,000 to be exact) but majority of his audience shares the same beliefs as he does.  

There isn’t really an argument presented in the tweet. The overall idea, or thesis, behind the tweet could be inferred based on his activism and prior social media presence. He supports our country’s leaders in many ways, but he, like many more Gen-Z’ers, is vocal about is dislike of President Trump. The main appeal in Joshua’s tweet uses pathos. Pathos appeals to the emotions, both happy and sad. There is not really a presence of ethos or logos in this tweet. Joshua has demonstrated his knowledge about the political climate in many of his other social media posts, but this one in particular is meant to be more humorous. It is often disregarded behind ethos and logos, but when used well, it can still sway a person’s opinion. Joshua’s humor and delivery of words in the tweet are perfect in using pathos.  

The way Joshua wrote his tweet, along with many others, is quite informal. This way of writing in social media is popular with the Millennial and Gen-Z crowd. There is no capitalization in the post. The structure of the tweet is quite simple. There are just three lines, all are technically they are not sentence fragments, but there is no punctuation to make them real sentences. The initial impact of the post is meant to be humorous and making light of the current events of the world. Teens on Tik Tok have posted videos of themselves in Joshua’s words “borrowing” peoples ‘Trump Pence 2020’ signs. It is meant to be satirical. The deeper meaning behind this tweet is that there are so many young people that are trying to speak up in any ways that they can about their beliefs and what needs to be done. 

I am having a little more trouble figuring out how I want to write my major paper 2. I chosen the prompt about information literacy. I decided to switch from the ethical dilemma prompt because I was having even more trouble with that one. I think I am going to mainly write about lying and misinformation from the United States about the safety of the drinking water system and the media from covering up and misleading people for so long. This is the basis of my paper so far, and I am working on building it up from here.

Dr. Mona helped Flint understand what was truly happening in their community. She made the local as well as national media pay attention to Flint and what its people were experiencing. In my high school, there was a group of boys that had a group chat that was terribly racist and rude. Several of the girls in my friend group had crushes on some of the guys in the chat and after explaining to them that the things they were saying about classmates was wrong and unethical, they stopped putting boys like that on a pedestal in their minds. Everyone should want to make the world better and safer, but there are still many things you can do to by yourself to make an impact. One of the biggest things would be staying informed and unbiased and using your voice to share that with others. By eliminating the grey area of information that leads to wildly different stories, people can stay informed and knowledgeable about what is happening.