Looking back at my English 1213 class that I took this semester with Mr. Paul Mitchell, I must say that I have grown a great deal as a writer, a student, and a person. I have viewed the world like I never have before and learned to appreciate the written word so much more than I did before taking this course.
We were given a lot of freedom in our writing, which I’ve never really experienced in school. We were given a set of very general instructions and asked to come up with a subject and kind of put it together as we choose. For example, the first assignment, the ad analysis, was difficult for me because I had to find an ad that I felt strongly enough for or against to analyze, and put it on my own blog, when I had never blogged. I found a Macbook ad that has a picture of a Macbook, on a white background with the words “Only Pocket Change” and $849 on it. I found this ad very offensive because besides the very wealthy, $849 is a very significant chunk of cash for most people. This assignment was very hard for me because I felt like I was somehow going to do something wrong, but when I finally just did it, my product was even impressive to me.
I also learned that writing must be a perfect balance of pathos, logos, and ethos. We were encouraged to interpret each of these components into our own words. The component that I struggled with expressing most throughout the semester is ethos. To me, ethos has to do with the personality of the writer. A writer must be likeable to the audience to be most effective. Our second assignment, the research assignment, I researched the effects of technology on education. I was very curious to see these effects because with my major being education, I want each and every one of my students to strive. I researched case studies of "Accelerated Reader" and "Study Island," two prominent online tutoring programs. I found that technology is actually very beneficial to education by helping increase standardized test scores. When I received my paper back, Mr. Mitchell had written that, “I presented good facts but not enough ethos.” I believe that this was because I was so concerned with proving my theory that I forgot that my audience has to like me as an author. Throughout the rest of the semester, I continued to work on expressing ethos, pathos, and logos equally in my writing. While I do not believe that I do this perfectly yet, my writing will become better over time if I continue to work with it.
One assignment that I enjoyed the challenge of was the Rogerian Argument, the last big writing assignment. I argued vegetarian versus non-vegetarian points of view on their eating habits. The fact that I am a vegetarian gives me insight to why vegetarians think their diet is better, and by the sheer amount of disputes I’ve had with people who eat meat, I can see where they come from also. I did not become vegetarian for any reason, I was raised that way so it’s just the norm for me, therefore I took a middle stance in my paper, showing both sides why the other side thinks the way they do. I proposed that its not really what we eat that makes us unhealthy, it’s the quality of what we eat that hurts us; so maybe going organic is the best way to be healthier.
Out of everything I learned and was challenged by though, I believe the most important lesson goes back to ethos, expressing what kind of person you are through the written word. This lesson is something I will take with me through my college career and into real-life situations.
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