Final Project

This course has really taught me a variety of different techniques and skills that I believe I will use further on in my education. I feel though as a writer I am nowhere where I was when I first began this course. It is as if my idea of analyzing concepts and trying to get to my audience has been completely wrong. I was always trapped in the box thinking only writing long very informative papers was the only way but I was able to be pushed out of my comfort zone to try new forms.

From this course one of the concepts that I have learned is a particular skill that has led me to compose in a specific genera that I never had to before. I have learned to take a real life problem and compose it by condensing it to get to the point in my micro-theme "Why is it Hard to be a Vegetarian?" It was a difficult challenge at first since I always wanted to incorporate facts into the paper but the part of the project was just mentioning why it was a problem without solving it. It became one of my favorite pieces throughout the semester since I was able to see my first transformation as a writer. I got to see what I started with and how the revisions and small changes over time made my paper blossom into a completely different idea that I was going for. My paper was scattered with different subtopics of my problem but by narrowing it down to one I was able to clean up my paper. It became a paper that was filled with real life issues many people think of instead of just stating facts. Writing early and revising often really is the trick. The purpose of this project was to target my audience with situations they can relate to but coming along with not having a clear solution to the complex problem.

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Another skill that I have learned in this course is being able to use key rhetorical concepts by analyzing. It is basically the bread and butter to writing since it is an essential skill to know. I always knew a bit about ethos, logos, and pathos but I got to really get into depth with my work in my paper and even bring out the diction that made the biggest difference. When I met up with you I got to really see all the different rhetorical devices I could incorporate from a simple sentence and how they targeted the audience in my summary/analysis "The Option Most Feared". It was an eye opener seeing how in depth one sentence could be analyzed to give out pathos and ethos at the same time by just adding in how the author used the diction in the article. From just being able to see that small difference I have been paying attention to what I read more often trying to find what the author does with their diction to make the reader feel a certain type of way. This certain skill has changed how I look at any type of writing or advertisement. It was always one of my struggles in high school since I was always taught to find 3 rhetorical devices for a good essay but I was shown how to make a great essay instead by incorporating much more than that. Right when I think I am done with my essay I have learned how there is always more that I can do to make it better. Every little change counts to your paper and it can make the biggest difference.

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I feel that I have always been in a way in the dark not knowing the impact different environments to varying rhetorical situations can have on the audience. It is amazing to see how the media or short films comes hand in hand with a college writing course. I completely see why it does since we have entered a new world that relies on social media or making short films to get a point across to many people. I see it all the time on facebook. For example, the short 1-2 min films on refuge children and what they go through or their fears. Those types of videos are very short but they make a lasting impression on the audience. Getting to be able to use the skill to create my own multi-modal movie on a topic that I have been working on all year was exciting and new. I have never had to make a project like this but it was interesting being able to make my audience feel a certain way by using a nonstop happy innocent song along with horrible pictures of animals getting ready to be made into lunch. It is as if I got to control what they feel with my movie to get my message across. It was nice to have a change for once since I am usually use to long papers but these short films have been able to keep my audience's attention by keeping them involved with the images displayed. Even my blog itself is another environment I was introduced to in this course. It was a type of project that was completely out of the box. I love that it was a part of the component since before this I would never in a million years see myself having my own blog. From the blog itself I got to learn a lot of different new skills that I have never even thought I would know how to do. I always thought it was complicated incorporating images into an article or even just looking at other blogs I never would think I would know how to create these types of projects. This is a skill I am more than glad to have learned from this course. The blog made me feel a bit more relaxed than how I usually see writing assignments and I was able to write at my free will whatever I thought. It was nice. I have learned in this course to be able to use different types of media to be able to deliver a message to my audience, this skill is probably what more teachers should focus on since it what is happening now. It is a more useful way to get to audience without losing their interest like the long boring papers that everyone can write.