Opinion Editorial Reflection

Reflection #1

In my opinion editorial, I decided to focus on the ban of affirmative action and how this was a catastrophic change for the minority community. I wanted to show credibility and create a trustworthy relationship between me and the audience, so I used 3 different sources and this ranged from the Washington Post to the New York Times. I used these publications because they are trustworthy and they offer information that is credible. My publications were also cited which allows the reader to visit the pages and inform themselves on a deeper level. My intended audience is minorities who are applying to college and students who are pursuing higher education after college. I felt that this was the right audience because the ban of affirmative action mainly affects those who are applying to college or are planning to continue their education after graduating from college. Furthermore, this would negatively impact minorities because the racial barriers will never be broken and colleges and other institutions won’t take into account what minorities go through. Throughout my writing, I used various styles to show my purpose to the audience. This included tone along with logos and pathos. I tried to grasp the audience with a hook and then went in with informative text. I decided to make this personal as well as informative. I wanted to give the audience a side of my story while still providing concrete evidence of how this will affect minority applicants in the future. In addition, I used a variation of logos by providing statistics and evidence while trying to remain personal/emotional with pathos.

The way I organized my writing was by explaining to the audience what affirmative action was, before diving into all the statistics and personal feelings. I believed it was essential to give the audience a clear understanding of what they were going to encounter throughout my paper. In each paragraph, I incorporated some information from each publication either through paraphrasing or quoting. Doing a mix between paraphrasing and quoting shows the audience thatI understand what I am speaking about while also showing them evidence. This gives balance throughout my writing. I chose to do a mixture of logos and pathos because logos relates tostatistics and logic and then I would bring it altogether by using pathos. Pathos would focus moreon my emotional and personal feelings. Moreover, my writing differed from the publications I used since mine also had personal touches to it. In regards to grading, I would give myself 20/20 for organization, 40/40 for content,20/20 for development, and 5/10 for my publication rhetorical analysis. Lastly, I give myself a 10/10 for my post-essay reflection and self-grading. This equates to a total of 95/100. I gave myself 5/10 for my publication rhetorical analysis because I did take out the point of view of my coordinator and strived towards my personal point of view. Overall, I wouldn’t give myself 100/100 because there is always room for improvement, even if I can’t see it now.

Visual Essay Reflection

Chanelly Martinez

Visual Essay

Reflection

10/20/2023

The issue I chose was the ban of affirmative action. I relate to this topic, especially that I am a minority who is trying to achieve higher education. Affirmative action was something that would widen the door of opportunities. This doesn’t mean it is easier, but minorities were considered. Being that this topic is a serious one, due to its effects, I wanted to have an informative visual essay. However, I wanted to provide visuals throughout in order to make it more enjoyable for readers. When trying to choose a creative way to present my opinion editorial topic, I struggled. I wanted to do something that was creative and engaging at the same time. I continuously asked myself “How will I present a serious topic while still making it interesting to see?”. I researched and researched until I found out that I could present as a newspaper and provide visuals throughout. After I figured out how I would approach this assignment, it was easier to complete. I tried to maintain the aesthetic of a newspaper, so I created a format that would mirror a newspaper with some touches of me. In between text, I put a visual because it allows the readerto comprehend the text more. In addition, the visuals I chose offer a different way of viewing the text. My intended audience is students. Specifically students applying to college and those wanting to pursue higher education after college. My approach caters to this because I tried to include humor in the newspaper. My generation, which includes college students like myself, pays attention to humor because that is how we connect. Therefore I provided a meme in my newspaper.

I wanted to use both logos and pathos in my visual essay. Logos focuses on facts while pathos focuses on emotions. I provided facts in my visual essay and certain images to appeal to the emotions of the reader. The emotions could range from worry to humor. To conclude, this visual essay was definitely difficult for me to accomplish because I didn’t know how to approach it. For me it is easier to present information by composing an essay. Despite this being a difficult assignment for me, it was interesting to present information in different ways. It was fun to let the images speak for themselves without having to write as much.

CARE Paper Reflection

I recently wrote a critical research paper on the phenomenon of a false memory. This was a complex topic to research, given that it had to do with world of psychology. I took a more logistical approach as well as targeting a specific audience; college students. Whilst, writing it, I found myself finding ways to improve and constantly fixing mistakes that I would find throughout the essay. My professor had read my draft and gave me some feedback on certain things I could have fixed. This included taking a more rhetorical approach inthe essay. I knew that the only way to fix this would be directing my essay towards a specific audience, so I chose college students. Who is a better audience than young adults struggling incollege with “short-term memory”. Having a set audience helped me choose examples that focused on that particular audience. Not only that, but it allowed me to have a main focal point when writing my essay. Writing this essay consisted of using scholarly sources and popular media sources, so finding information wasn’t as difficult as I had anticipated. Being that this topic is a psychological issue, there were plenty of articles that included studies that would test students. I also took psychology 101, so I also had prior knowledge on this topic. This means that I am a credible source for the readers. However, I did find sources along the way that didn’t seem useful. This was because these articles did not give enough evidence and my approach was amore data/statistical filled essay.

I did enjoy myself when it came to writing this essay because it included things that I am interested in, but I did struggle to find a way to make the essay follow a rhetorical guideline. After speaking with my professor, these worries were resolved. To sum it up, I really enjoyed writing this essay and I feel like I was able to notice my mistakes throughout the process and I was able to fix it. I took a more rhetorical approach while focusing on a specific audience and I also followed a more logos path when it came to writing the essay.