Throughout ENGL 210 I have found myself learning about different ways to write and the different techniques that go into writing; especially when addressing different types of audiences.
Through the course I have seen and analyzed many different genres and rhetorical situations. At the beginning of the semester we were assigned into groups to write about the MTA in different perspectives. My group was assigned to the everyday commuters perspective. It was interesting to see what rhetorics different groups used. The viewpoint of the MTA had to be persuasive towards the riders, however, as commuters we were trying to inform our readers about the situations and concerns in the subway. Furthermore, we read our textbook, the whole purpose of which was to inform us of things, like how to become better writers. We saw the different ways the author wrote in each chapter and how they used images to get their point across. In our technical description we had to use different rhetorical strategies to inform our readers about the item you chose and its history. While doing that we had to think about the reader as well, so as to not use confusing jargon or things they would not understand. Then later on in our proposal project, we had to make our presentation so that we could persuade the audience as to why our product is better than the competitors and why it’s needed.
Our projects and essays also had me looking out for what type of rhetorical strategies people were using in their writing pieces. Our first assignment, the lab report, had us closely look at an official published piece of writing and analyze it. We had to look at what the author(s) were trying to accomplish through their writing. In my case I analyzed that they were trying to persuade officials to use a certain material over another. However, I also noticed that they didn’t use any feelings, they only used facts to make it objectively true rather than have emotions sway their argument. When writing the introduction for the proposal project, I incorporated facts and objective truths to get people to understand why our product–the Ai Pet–was necessary.
Furthermore, for the proposal project, we needed to find some sources to back the facts that we found. Through this class I learned about how to properly use the CUNY library database to look for what I was searching for. Using that I found many sources to get data from. However, I had to also figure out which were credible and which weren’t. So I looked through the results, and the primary source I used for the proposal was from the US government, which is very reliable. The others I used were from reputable institutions, such as a team at Harvard, and another Government agency. I also made sure that these articles were recent and not something from years ago, so that they hold value to the current world situation. During our Technical Description project, we had to look up different sources to fully find out how your chosen item worked and find out about its history. Due to this I looked up many sources, going through history websites to Museum archives.
When using these sources in my Technical Description I also used pictures to let my audience understand what I was talking about. In the introduction I used a painting I found in a Museum Archive which related to my technical description item–a bubble gun. If I didn’t provide that picture, it would be less accessible to the viewers, they would have to go out of their way to look up what I was talking about. Then throughout the essay I used different pictures to show the audience the parts of the bubble gun I was talking about. I also learned to make the pictures visually appealing; meaning they would be aligned so that they weren’t all over the place and would be easy on the eyes to look at. This continued over to the proposal project, where my team and I used pictures to show our product and its specific parts. I learned that if possible using visuals in your piece will not only make it look better, but also make it easier for your audience to understand you.
While writing about the proposal project, I had to talk about why it was better than the competition. I had to analyze different documents about the competition, and also about why the product itself is needed. After that, I had to synthesize the pieces of information so I could corroborate them and present a well-defined argument for why ours is superior. Even in class, during the MTA group assignment, we found different sources online and put them together to make our argument stronger that the MTA needs to reform.
In all our assignments, I made sure that the citations were up to par with the standard APA format. I made sure that the author’s name and the date were there everytime I used one of their ideas or quotes. There were many in the lab report, since it was about analyzing their report and its content. It was a bit harder for the technical description because there were many sources that I used to look into the Bubble gun product. However, I did learn to start citing automatically after a while. So when we started the proposal project, I cited the authors whenever I used part of their research like second nature. I also learned through the project that looking at the references that your sources used is very helpful, as I got closer to the original work that may have better or more information on the topic I have been working on.
This class has helped me understand how to look for different types of writing and how I should write when trying to address different things. I have learned to find credible sources for my future projects. I have also learned how to corroborate different sources so that they will make my writing stand out more. This class also showed me that there are many things that you may miss which your peers would catch, and that can improve your writing by a lot. It showed me how to use images and other dynamic things to help elevate my writing piece. I believe that I have become a better writer because of this class.
