This is all the work I have done during this semester
The first assignment I had to do for English 105 was a summary of an article out of our book Everything’s an Argument. The objective of this assignment was to be able to identify the thesis and paraphrase the article. I chose the article “College’s Consider Fairness of Cutting Men’s Teams to Comply with Title IX” because as an athlete I can identify with other athletes. The article address’ the issues with Title IX and what many people feel are serious flaws. One person that was interviewed was Stephen Neal, a wrestler from California State University at Bakersfield. His wrestling team was in danger of being forced out of Bakersfield due to Title IX. When I first wrote the paper my goal was to explain the main ideas of the article and then tie it into the thesis. It took a couple of revisions to finally satisfy me. When writing this paper I learned how to find the main points of an article and I learned how to further explain the thesis of the paper using examples, which is a much-needed skill with other assignments. I believe I did a good job with fulfilling goals of the assignment and overall a good job on the paper.
The second assignment was the visual argument. The goals of the assignment were to work in a group where everyone argues for the same side of an issue and to provide us with the knowledge of how to argue a topic visually. The visual argument was a group assignment where the group had to pick a topic and argue for one side. After a topic is decided the group then has to make a poster to present to the class. The issue my group chose was music downloading and what the effects are of those who download. On our poster we said how people wouldn’t copy other artists works of art so why would anyone steal a musicians work. Looking back at the final product I would have changed the color of the poster to red and not blue because red is like a warning. Our solution to the issue was to purchase music legally either by buying CDs or from online stores. This is a good solution because the artists get the money they deserve and online stores provide a convenient way of getting music. When doing this project I learned how to effectively communicate with group members and I also learned how to make decisions that will satisfy everybody.
The third assignment we had to do was the rhetorical analysis, one of the more challenging assignments that took a lot of effort to complete. The goal of the paper was to give us the ability to analyze different strategies, explain and connect the context of the essay and to paraphrase and use quotes to further explain the essay. Once again we were given a list of articles out of the coarse book Everything’s an Argument to choose from. I chose “One Picture is Worth a Thousand Diets” by W. Charisse Goodman. The article is about the way the media portrays women and encourages them to strive to be like the slim and slender non-existent dream girl on TV. I tried to use the many examples in the article to support the author’s thesis. After making a rough draft I had several peers review my essay and then I revised. The only thing I would have done differently is having my paper reviewed a couple more times to really make sure I’ve done a good job. When writing this essay I learned how to effectively use quotes and examples to prove a point. I also learned how to make better connections within the essay.
The fourth paper was the documented argument. My paper was one perspective on a topic that our group chose. Our topic was stem cell research and we all agreed that we are in favor of the research. The goal of the documented argument was to be able to research a topic to come up with a solid stance on the issue. Another goal was to have the ability to use quotes and paraphrases effectively. The topic of stem cell research is a hot topic that is debated frequently. I picked the political aspect because I wanted to show how voters are being educated on the issue and are now voting in favor of the research. I chose to be in favor of stem cell research because I think it is something that would save many lives and change the world drastically. When writing the essay I really tried to incorporate quotes to really make my point clear. My solution to the issue would to find another means of getting stem cells so that research could be done without interfering with people’s beliefs. What I learned much more about stem cells than I had already known and on top of that I learned how to research efficiently.
Documented Argument Presentation
My last assignment for English 105 was to do a group presentation where everyone in the group would tie together their perspectives on our topic. What we were supposed to learn with this assignment was how to do a power point presentation where we would persuade the class to view the issue as we do. The subject was stem cell research, which my group was in favor of. Our perspectives on the topic were social, political, religious, and moral. They all tied together really well which made doing this project an easier task. When putting the power point together we had a couple of meetings to put all our information into the slideshow and also to revise main ideas. Doing another group project I sharpened my group-work skills such as communicating with my group mates.