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.

Unit 1 was ok. The very first rhetorical devices we went over were topics I was somewhat familiar with. The ideas of propaganda constantly made me think of Orwell’s “1984”. The book is so imprinted in my brain that the mention of propaganda makes me think of Winston (Mc).

The class seemed to fly by until the first paper came. When I had to prepare to write it, it made me feel like I had to look for something in myself when I wrote the paper. Writing about my faith was really important because it was something that heavily affected me for majority of my life. This semester has been the first time I haven’t been required to say some type of prayer or attend a mass. This paper helped me express the freedom I felt in not having to do something because of a system put in place. The first paper was a breath of fresh air, I felt and still feel like I really needed that. It helped me express myself. Now that I think about it, it was more like a journal entry than a paper to me. I pour out what I think when I write, and I’m okay with that.

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.

I definitely feel that researching and finding credible sources is something new I learned in this unit that I didn’t know before. Before I would usually use wikipedia or some random website and would consider their information to be correct or reliable but now I realized that people’s work isn’t always correct. Checking out the ccny archives was a pretty cool experience (I think that’s the name of it, it was on the fifth floor). I wasn’t able to go with the class but I was able to check it out by myself when I was at campus the other day. At first, I had a vague understanding of rhetoric and as I went through this unit, I’ve been able to have a deeper understanding of rhetoric and rhetorical strategies. 

I was proud that I was able to write enough for this topic and I didn’t really write this in a standard essay type paper. For this paper, I organized my paper in 4 categories, rhetorical situation, rhetorical triangle, rhetorical strategy and effective or not effective. With this, it was easier for me to think of a way to write or get my creative juices flowing. If I were to revise the writing I did for this unit, I would’ve definitely chosen a different topic to write about as the animal rights movement was surprisingly a topic I didn’t have fun researching about.

For this unit, I would say I didn’t really participate or engage as much as I normally would due to me being injured so I was unable to attend class. However, the days I do manage to arrive at school, I’d say I participate a decent amount of times. Besides the engagement aspect of this unit, I would say that using the class notes and readings definitely did help out especially when writing a rhetorical analysis on this topic. With these notes, I found it easier to find out what type of rhetorical devices and strategies were possibly used by the speaker.

Compared to unit 1, unit 2 has given me an opportunity to write a paper in a different way, such as writing the paper in categories. I would list out the categories and then give explanations of them. I feel like the information and resources I have right now is enough for me to complete this unit. I don’t think there’s anything I would want you to change going forward.