Reflection

CWRRII Reflection

As the year winds down, the feeling of excitement grows within me. I am so excitied for summer and all the plans that I have in it. Im also happy that I don’t have to write any more lengthy papers for Dr. Zhao, they got to be pretty strenuous at times. Even though I cannot wait to have summer break, I will be leaving the class with a lot more knowledge than I came in with. I have learned some very crucial tools in writing argument papers from my CWRRII class this past semester.

In Professor Zhao’s class, I have learned new ideas and gained a lot when it comes to writing papers. My prior knowledge of writing persuasive essays was just the beginning of what I thought as arguing a point in a paper. After this course, I learned that there are many aspects to learn in order make a valid argument in your paper. Two important aspects that have helped me are the inclusion of rhetorical appeals and understanding the several different types of arguments that we’ve gone over in class. Two sample arguments that have helped me in developing skills like these are “Creating a Criminal” by Michael Kingston and “The Adonis Complex: Progressing to Failure” bt Alexander M. Siegwin. These two articles are in the course reader that we were handed on the first day of class. The article writing by Mr. Siegwin helped me because it taught me how to include all three rhetorical appeals into my writing. Before I had read the article, I had no idea how to incorporate these important aspects into my papers. I have already used my newly acquired skill in another class I have, Personal and Community Health. We were given a debate and we had to choose a side and argue why that was the best stance to take. This seemed to have paid off because I got a very good grade on the project in that class.

One of my favorite articles in the course reader is “The Adonis Complex: Progressing to Failure”. This article had to do with body image. It wasn’t a typical body image article about women and eating disorders, it was an article that dealt with the problems of men in general. Some of the problems include deprving the body of food, excessive workouts to gain muscle, and the distortion of their own body image in their minds. This article also helped me write my paper on body image that I had completed for the course as well. Another article that really helped sharpen my writing skills was “Taiwan’s Toddlers Learn English” by Henry Chu. This article was very eye-opening to me because I realized how disciplined the Taiwan education system was. It’s amazing to me that they could teach the children a second language at such a very young age. This article by Henry Chu helped me with two papers in the class: the language proposal argument paper and the research paper. These articles have not only helped me in the course, but they have given me skills that have made me a much better writer.

This course has helped me develop critical reading skills that I will be able to use in all my future classes that require analysis. Not only will I be able to use these skills in other classes, but when it comes time for my career those skills will still help me succeed. By doing rhetorical analysis, I have learned to develop more than one aspect in the argument in order to paint the picture of the argument to make it much clearer to the audience. Also, by learning all of the fallacies that we had learned in class, I have now become more careful when buying products that have been advertised heavily on T.V.

By gaining a better understanding of the rhetorical appeals and the six different types of arguments, I feel that I am now a stronger writer in the field of argument papers. The rhetorical appeals help me to include credibility, emotional, and logical appeals when trying to build a stronger argument. This helps me target my audience throughout the process and helps me connect with them. For example, with credibility appeals I can provide evidence that my information is very accurate, I can create vivid images by using words dealing with emotion, and I can use logical appeals to appeal to the