My initial idea of writing drastically changed when confronted with a tweet which was considered an essay as well as memes and images. I never thought of an essay in those mediums and I think that is a good change because any of these can be just as persuasive and impactful, perhaps even have a greater impact, as a written work. 

Writing has evolved from that of just words to action in this semester. I was shown just how powerful and impactful writing is through my peer’s work and the articles assigned. Some of these were not just emotional they had a tremendous impact on me. Articles like “Black Panther is not the Movie we Deserve” and Audre Lorde’s speech talked about racism and social issues. These were not just commentary these are the words that have action following it.

Peer review was great way for me to see how other people write and think. It also really helped me refresh my view on my papers. The critique I got from my peers was always helpful and insightful. In my op-ed: the Invisible People, I got feedback from my peers and family to correct grammar and rephrase sentence structure that only really made sense to me. Peer review developed the way I wrote down my ideas so it was understandable to others. 

Peer review also helped me by revising others work I saw what I should be implementing in my own work or vice versa. While I was reviewing a peer’s op-ed I noticed the way she implemented facts through the use of ethos. She told powerful stories about discrimination against minorities by police. This really helped her argument and I also saw where and how I should implement that strategy.

The rhetorical analysis strategies we read in the beginning of the semester changed the way I read essays. Strategies such as purpose, audience, and tone were always in my mind when reading any of the articles we were assigned. This mindset then slowly spread into my writing. 

In my op-ed I thought of my audience, which was The New Yorker readers. I appealed to the audience by using ethos. It was heavy with emotion to sway the audience to help those who experience homelessness, view them in a different way, and diminish the stigma against them. 

In my visual essay I continued with the New Yorker theme from my op-ed and I designed a The New Yorker front page cover about those who experience homelessness. Keeping in mind the audience I drew the front page the way it is generally drawn in a cartoon style.

In the critical analysis essay I read a lot of articles about modern art and whether it is or is not art. In all these essays I saw their purpose, audience, and tone. In all the essays I read, the audience is one that is passionate about art and cares for this particular subject of modern and contemporary art. Each of their purposes deviated with how they viewed it as good or bad, or if it was actually art. 

For all three essays I got all my information online. However, I was cautious with which website and who the author was for each article because I know that some information may be incorrect. I trusted the New York Times and New York City Government websites as my resources. If an article was an opinion piece I kept that in mind to decide if the information could really be considered or stated as fact in my essays.

Some terms and course objectives I still haven’t comprehended. For example, I still don’t really understand the idea of genre in writing. I know its dictionary definition but I think I’ve always been unclear on this specific topic and how it affects writing.