what I learned this semester
What I learned in boating school was. I am just kidding. But seriously I learned a lot this semester. A few of those things include how to make a blog, diverse types of arguments, how to analyze said arguments, also the several types of appeals.
Specifically, in reference to my writing process, I learned about the steps to writing, like brainstorming, drafting, editing, more editing, having what I think is a final copy, and editing it again, only to find a grammar error after I have submitted it. The main thing I learned to improve this process was to have my fiancé look over my work and tell me “You are not literally insane” and “Yeah, there is something off about that sentence.” I have also learned that the biggest step to writing is being available to do so. Writing takes a lot of focus for me so I really must force myself to sit down, after work or going out and write. But after I get into it, I often really enjoy it. I would like to think that the best thing about my essays is my approach to writing, I like to let each work take on its own life and personality (if I have the time and energy) so in some of my best works, I would say that the life that they take on is the best part of them. My most challenging thing regarding writing this semester was definitely… surprises surprise, writing. Mostly I am referring to again the idea that finding time in a busy schedule to have dedicated wring time was difficult. To everyone who has the mental faculty to have a full-time job and do full-time school, I commend thee. I commend thee deeply. In the future, I would schedule better and try and stay on top of due dates. However, a lot of inconceivable things happened and through and through I would hope that I at least finished somewhat strong. As a future teacher, I would say that it is the perseverance that I learned from these abundances of writing assignments that will be an illustrious career lesson to fall back on.
I learned that sometimes you must really force yourself to put away your bias this semester. When it comes to critical thinking you must approach an argument from a completely outside perspective if you find yourself leaning one way or another you just must force yourself in the other perspective. If not for anything then for the sake of strengthening your own argument by understanding the opposition. Two key things to help spot fake news are one, checking sources and two noticing the attention-grabbing and often clickbait esk. titles. There are three distinct types of rhetoric, pathos an appeal to emotion and values, ethos an appeal through authority and creditability, and lastly logos which is an appeal through logic and reasoning. To analyze an argument is to try to gain a deeper understanding, and through that, you should be able to comprehend a message and decide whether it’s valid or not.
I absolutely loved the blog assignments, and how I was able to write in a much more relaxed way. I get to write as it comes to me and there was less editing overall, I really love, love loved this part of the class. Putting tother the website was just as easy as the blog and honestly, this part of the class was so amazing a fun and I loved it. To engage with an audience digitally it is all format and keeping it either short and sweet or long enough and interesting. I tend to go on and on at times, so I try my best to at least be interesting. Visual design is especially important because it adds more visual interest and rather than a lot of long-on and on word it’s now more like a picture book(lol). Bodies of text broken up but either very or loosely relevant images. (also crediting images from websites is important and I have done my best to go back and add necessary credits, as an artist I know it is really annoying to have people repost your things without even a link back to you.)
Overall, I loved this class, and I can apricate the struggle that come with it. I learned a lot this semester, but this is the class that I really loved to come back to when I had assignments to do.