There are so many things i can say i successfully have taken away from this class and one of the big things for me is the ability to generally articulate in a more proper way as well as more than before. I had a somewhat okay time with articulation and wording things, sure, but after taking this course and being amidst many other peers who i befriended and was also influenced by their writing as well as the raw material this class provided, i came to be much sharper in my grammatical skill and articulate ability, in a manner that would make me sound more persuasive and convincing or sophisticated and smooth with my words. Another one of the big things I learned & wish to reflect upon is the major skill of analysis. The fact that analyzing something in more depth can lead one to have a completely different mindset on a topic than they had before is so amusing to me. This is because for me personally, with this course, being more analytical is one of the major takeaways, especially because i struggled with it before, but this class gave me a pathway into just the right way to do it, a format and a blueprint, great examples and challenges that allowed me to stretch my ability to analyze text, film, aspects of life, social controversy, etc, in the end making me more comfortable and understanding in the art that is analysis.
One of the pieces of writing I am proud of from this course might very well have to be the Argumentative essay about what makes a memorial successful. I’m proud of it because of the fact that I feel it made me really tap into that articulating ability I have also come to gain from this class. It was a piece of work that made me really think at certain points about how I can make myself sound much more persuasive, a little rhetoric if I may, and also made me ask myself a lot of the time, “how can I make this a bit more convincing?”. I wanted to convey a message that was clear and precise to the liking of the prompt but also relatable and compact to the point that whoever is reading it earns a grasp on what it really takes to make a memorial of any sort, successful in its own light.
A piece that was particularly challenging for me I’d say was the rhetorical analysis paper. I say this because this really challenged my ability to be a good analytical thinker which I otherwise wasn’t until I took away from this course how to format a good analysis and how to go about looking into a subject in a deeper perspective and wider lens. The fact that it was also about film and looking into all the formal elements that make up a good film as well as predict its downfall if there is a lack thereof made it a bit challenging because I have personally never dealt with film analysis before. Even though it was rather challenging, I still enjoyed writing this piece because it’s good to challenge myself and take part in things I may find to be hard to accomplish.