I felt that I learned a lot about social movements and the impact they left. However, it wasn’t like a history lesson but rather more about how different movements used different rhetorics to support their argument further. I already knew about a majority of these social movements (like the civil rights movement and those against the Vietnam war in the 70s). but I think I now understand the intent of these specific leaders. But I also appreciated the fact that we didn’t focus on just the famous figures who are the face of the movement, but also the everyday people who were the bulk of the movement. One example, I’m thinking of is the Black Panthers of CCNY. I believe the strength that I found in my writing is that I’m finding that my delivery is improving. I mean that if an assignment requires a certain presentation of the information I’m supposed to write (ex. formal, informal, inform, convince, etc.), I have a better understanding of the best way to do it. If I were to revise the writing, I think I would find more credible sources. I’m not sure if all of my sources are the most appropriate for this type of assignment. The reason why I say this is because it was hard to track down the origins of some of the protest captions. I would describe my engagement as less than average as I was more focused on working than my classes at the time. I think what helped me remain somewhat successful in this unit is that I was still pretty interested in the topics we had for this unit. I believe this unit is better than the previous one simply because it didn’t force me to delve into my personal life as much. I think more time to do active research in class (if we were able to go to the library for our class) would’ve been perfect. I believe in the future if I’m presented with an argument regarding any social movement, I would try to notice the form of rhetoric they’re trying to utilize.

I feel like I learned a lot about different types of rhetorical devices. I know that there is so much that we have yet to cover as a class. I already knew how to use those rhetorical devices (like hyperbole). But this unit was a great way to slowly start connecting terms of rhetorical devices to phrases we use in our everyday lives. One thing I regret was not handing in my first assignment on time. I think the professor wanted to first see what my writing style was in order to help me in future assignments. I think my strength was my vulnerability. The topic of my writing piece is pretty strong which made it difficult for me to read back on sometimes. But I’m proud of the fact that I completed it. What I would do differently is to hand in my assignments on time and receive proper feedback. I would describe my participation as less than average. I wish I had better time management skills. My favorite activity would be the essay actually. It was the first time in a while I did creative writing.

Hi Everyone! My name is Shefa Giash. As a kid, I used to be an obsessive reader. I remember going to the library every week and borrowing any kind of children’s books. For some reason, my go-to’s were atlas and the Junie B. Jones series. I was also obsessed with the Nancy Drew series. Nowadays, I don’t read anymore since high school has made me hate reading. The amount of text and books we were getting assigned made it more of a requirement for me. In middle school though, I loved YA novels. I never read the Twilight series but I did read the Percy Jackson series and the Hunger Games trilogy. I also read The Giver series which is one of my favorite books. I’m actually trying to get back into reading as I loved the passion I had for it. But my most disliked books these days are books from the perspective of weird/creepy men. For example, in high school, I was required to read 1984 and while I understood the message and themes, the main character’s depiction and thoughts of women especially are very off-putting. It makes me really disappointed. I also don’t utilize rape in a “character development for the man type of way”. The most recent book I’m reading that I’m actually engaged in is the Song of Achilles. While I was on my reading hiatus, I read a lot of webtoons. One of my favorites was Lookism but that got old and confusing really quickly. Writing is also something I enjoyed in the past but now it feels like a hassle due to school. I almost always do a hefty amount of writing whether in history, literature or even in my psychology class. I remember writing a paper even in my Latin class. I’m trying to enjoy writing a little bit more as well by doing shadow work prompts and journaling. I have researched for many classes like art history, history, religion, philosophy, etc. Researching is not too difficult for me I just don’t like how tedious the process is. I think I’m decent at finding primary sources. My past English classes consisted of reading a book and then writing an essay on it. I feel hopeful that I will start to not dislike creative writing anymore. I also do believe the pandemic played a role in my writing skills. While I felt better mentally, my motivation decreased significantly.