I imagine the ideal writing/composing process to be a series of steps that involve brainstorming, critical thinking, drafting, editing, and revising towards a final product. When I am first given an assignment, my first step is to spend some time brainstorming potential topics/ideas that could work for the given assignment. This is usually the hardest part for me because I do not consider myself to be that creative. Once I have an idea in mind, the rest of the process goes a lot smoother. I will usually begin drafting my work, editing, and revising until I am satisfied with the final product. I consider this process to be ‘ideal’ because it gives me a place to begin where I can gather and organize my ideas before I begin the actual essay or writing assignemnt. The idea of brainstorming first before I delve into an essay is less daunting and makes the work more manageable. This is why it is important for me to begin a writing assignemnt well before the due date because it is hard for me to come up with creative and interesting ideas on the spot. The other reason why I find my writing process ‘ideal’ is because I like following a series of steps to accomplish my goals. Having steps is almost like having a map or guide, which is very helpful in any assignemnt.

When I picture a professional writer, I expect them to write multiple drafts and to revise their work. According to Reader’s Digest, the 5-Step Writing Process consists of Prewriting, Writing, Revision, Editing, and Publishing. Even though this process seems concrete, a lot of professional writers follow their own writing plans. I assume this is because writing can be very personal, and no one does it the exact same way. I expect that these professional writers confer with other professional writers and have them proofread each other’s writing to make sure that there are no mistakes or holes in their arguments.

I learned a lot about visual rhetoric by completing Project 3. I learned how to take information from one medium, and alter it into another medium to relate to a specific audience. It was interesting to think about how the way information is displayed depends on who is going to view it. Through creating my infographic on white privilege, I was able to use paraphrasing and summarizing skills to obtain the most relevant information to include in my form of visual media. This assignment helped me think outside of the box, and be creative with the way I presented my information. The knowledge I gained about visual rhetoric is significant because it will substantially help me with the completion of my final reflection. It is also beneficial to know these skills because I am going to be asked to present information in the future in ways that people will understand, and will want to read. If an infographic (or any other form of visual media) is not visually appealing or eye-catching, then no one is going to want to take the time to read it and take in the information. I believe these skills will help me in the business world in the future because I will be asked to display my ideas. I need to continue working on my visual rhetoric skills, and building upon what I have learned in this class. I understand that conveying my ideas through structured papers is not always going to be the case, so I need to familiarize myself with other ways that I can present information. Overall, I enjoyed completing this assignment and gained a lot of skills and information regarding visual rhetoric.

I learned a lot by completing the blog post assignments. They taught me how to organize and convey my ideas about certain readings, videos, or general topics discussed in class. The blog posts helped me condense my ideas into a streamlined source of information that I could look back on to recall the things I learned throughout the semester. Knowing I would have to write a blog post after a reading or video helped me focus more attentively on what I was doing, and forced me to pick up on the important information so I could write about it and analyze it later. I learned these things more and more each time a blog post was assigned. They became easier and easier to write because I became used to reflecting on my ideas and sharing them. This knowledge I have gained is significant as it contributes to my learning in this course because it is very important in an English class to be able to analyze and reflect on the work you are assigned. Analyzing is something I have struggled with in past English courses, so completing these assignments have definitely helped me practice that skill. This will also help me in my future classes and my future career because it is always crucial to be able to harness your ideas and generate them into a written format that is easy to understand. Next, I need to continue to practice analyzing and synthesizing texts, videos, and other sources of media because I understand it is an important skill to have in college and beyond. I hope to do this next semester in EN12 by building upon my writing skills.

Writers in the Humanities explore the meaning of something and how it reflects on the human experience. Writers in the Social Sciences study human behavior and interaction along with the systems and social structures we create to organize our world. Lastly, writers in the Natural Sciences study observable phenomena in the natural world and also search for answers to the questions that spark researchers’ interests about these phenomena. The Natural Sciences are empirical, in the sense that they are addressed using the 5 senses of touch, sight, sound, taste, and smell. These senses can be verified by everybody. The Social Sciences, on the other hand, are statistical, so they are addressed by surveys of large populations. While most observations in the Social Sciences can be verified, there are some observations that are a matter of opinion and are subject to a cultural bias of the of the scientist. Lastly, the Humanities are neither empirical nor statistical since there is no way to verify data considering this field explores the meaning or interpretation of something. The Humanities value truth like the social and natural sciences, but they also highly value creativity. The most important question for the Humanist is to ask is “why?”, the most important questions for the Social Scientist is to ask “how?” and “why?”, and the most important questions for the Natural Scientist to ask is “why does it do that?”, or “Why does this happen?”. All three of these disciplines are unique in their own way and are important to know about considering we will be writing across several different disciplines throughout college and beyond.

I learned a lot about annotated bibliographies, rhetorical context, and synthesis from completing Project 2. In high school, teachers had me include annotations on bibliographies before, but it was usually just one sentence summarizing the source and stating how I used it. In this project, I learned how annotated bibliographies are important in understanding sources, and connecting them to an overall theme or conversation. I believe I became better at analyzing a source for its rhetorical context. I also learned what it means to synthesize sources and connect each of them to each other, as well as an overarching conversation. I learned these things through the workshops we did in class, as well as past lessons such as the one where we learned about rhetorical context. This knowledge is significant as it contributes to my learning in this course as well as beyond because I now know how to sift through sources to find the most important and relevant ones for the conversation I am attempting to participate in. Having strong sources is very important in not only this class but other classes, and in my future career because having credible information written by trusted people/professionals is so important. Next, I need to continue to work on and better my research skills in order to find the best sources to support my claims and to contribute to the conversation I am writing about. The research aspect of this project, along with synthesizing, was the toughest component. I want to improve my researching skills because I know it is going to be a skill that I need for the rest of my college semesters and beyond. I can take steps to improve my researching skills by making appointments with the librarians, as well as set aside a lot of time to search through a lot of different sources and pick the most relevant ones.

Since Project 2 is an annotated bibliography, I had to change the way I start an assignment. I did not need to compose a thesis, but I had to keep in mind how all my sources needed to connect to an overall conversation. The most difficult part of the project so far has been researching. It is time-consuming to sift through and read/watch a bunch of different sources. It has also been difficult to decide whether a certain source will contribute to my conversation well. Once I chose my sources, it was easier to summarize and analyze them for rhetorical context and synthesis. I have learned a lot about APA format through this project, as well as through project 1. I have learned how to create APA citations for numerous different sources, including YouTube videos and academic journals. After we peer-reviewed last week in class, I got a better understanding of other people’s work and received good feedback on how to improve my own work. Overall, this project has strengthened my writing and research skills.

The Bechdel Test assesses the presence of women in movies. It originated from a comic book written by Allison Bechdel. A movie must pass a series of 3 simple questions; Are there two or more women in the movie who have names?, Do they talk to each other?, and Do they talk to each other about something other than a man?. There are so many movies out there that do not pass this simple test. This is evidence of a systemic problem in society in which the movie industry is creating movies that cater to, and are about, men.

Rioux’s articel and Davis’ speech are part of the same conversation because they both revolve around equality for women in books, movies and all forms of media in general. Rioux’s article delves into the book “Little Women” and how young boys should and have begun to read it. It shows them that women are strong and powerful, and deserve to be the center of the conversation instead of it always being all about men. The book helps young boys recognize that women’s discussions do not need to be kept private or only be discussed with other girls. When boys join in on the conversation, it opens up a dialogue to discuss larger debates revolving around gender and what it means to grow up. This relates to Davis’ speech because she discusses equality, but more specifically since she talks about black women receiving the same opportunities as white women in the film industry. She mentions the line that separates black and white women and conveys that opportunity is what that line consists of. All three of these sources convey the point that there needs to be gender and racial equality in all forms of media, as well as in society as a whole. Everyone deserves the chance to make a difference in this world regardless of their race or gender.

Defining Terms: The genre of “Annotated bibliography” focuses not only on citing sources, but it also includes a brief summary/evaluation (annotation) of the source being cited. This style of citation is useful because it helps a researcher to evaluate sources more effectively since they need to summarize and analyze the main ideas in the source.

Practice part 1:

McIntosh, P. (1988). White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (Working Paper No. 189). Retrieved from http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf

Olsson, G [Black Power]. (2016, July 14). The Black Power Mixtape 1967 1975 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bryh0IFMhg&feature=youtu.be

Practice part 2:

McIntosh discusses white privilege and how it gives white people an advantage while simultaneously gives black people a disadvantage. She begins by relating this conversation to male privilege, then broadens the conversation to white privilege. The author is speaking to white people and encouraging them to wake up and realize their privilege in this country. She uses her list of daily white privileges as a way to solidify all the advantages white people get that black people do not. This has been a systematic issue for centuries, which is why the author feels the need to bring it to people’s attention.

The Black Power mixtape delved into the black power movement and the fight for equal rights for African Americans in the United States in the late 60s and early 70s. The video shows footage from these years and includes influential leaders that were heavily involved and/or led the movement. The director is trying to convey the struggle that black people have been facing for decades, and how unfairly they have been treated, and how unfairly they continue to be treated. This video connects to the broader conversation of racial oppression and inequality in the U.S. by shedding light on past movements and fights for equality.

Discussion: I can apply today’s practice to project 2 because the assignment entails that we research sources and create an annotated bibliography that summarizes each source, discusses rhetoric, and ties in a broader conversation of race. It was difficult to shorten the summary of the sources since they included so much information, and I also had to think of how the two sources tied into a larger conversation of race. I was surprised at how much thought has to go into analyzing each source to get the best information to annotate it best. I have learned what is important when annotating a source.

Brainstorming: I am planning on researching the academic discipline of Business, specifically Finance. I am interested in asking how race affects investing, how it affects the workplace and who gets certain jobs in this field, and how does race affect income and wealth. I have begun gathering some ideas online, but I plan to search the databases on the library’s website to find scholarly articles or journals. I also plan on researching other forms of sources like videos. My next step is to continue researching and to narrow the conversation that I am investigating. I will probably narrow it down to one of the questions I asked earlier in this paragraph, such as “How race affects investing”.

I learned a lot from writing project 1. During high school, our teacher would always give us a specific question to answer, which made it easier to formulate a thesis. Since there was not a specific question to answer for the project, it forced me to think harder and improve my skills in forming a clear thesis. I also learned about including other points of view throughout my paper instead of sticking to one opinion. I think it makes the paper more interesting when you include counter opinions and ideas that add to the overall conversation you are talking about. Another thing that I learned is that it is ok to keep revising your paper and editing it to make it better. It is ok if the first draft is not as good as you want it to be because you can take the time to talk with your peers and formulate new ideas to make it stronger and more concise. I also went to the writing center two times during the writing process. They helped not only with fixing grammar issues, but they reassured me that my ideas made sense and were organized well. Lastly, I learned a lot about APA style citing because I had never used it before. In high school, we always used MLA formatting so it was interesting to get the chance to learn a new style of citation. The skills I have gained by completing this project will help me in the future because no matter what I do in the business field, I will need to know how to research and write properly. Next, I need to strengthen my research skills and practice finding the best possible sources for the task at hand. The thought of searching databases seems daunting at first, so I hope to become better at it while completing project 2.

The Model Minority Myth is active racism that is directly harming Asian Americans. It reduces a large group of the world’s population into a simple stereotype and places unwarranted burdens and expectations on Asian American and erases any who struggle to live up to them. This simple stereotype presumptions include academic (especially math and science) and financial, success, social/ political timidness, a strong work ethic, and strict parenting. In the chapter titled “But What if I Hate Al Sharpton” discusses different points of view on African Americans in the country fighting for equality and whether they are “nice enough” while doing so. Oluo says that black people deserve equality and therefore should not be criticized for the way they choose to fight for said equality. She tells readers that if they really care about equality, then they will support people’s efforts no matter the way they choose to stand up for themselves. She brings up the example of MLK and Malcolm X. While both were fighting racial oppressions, people rend to see MLK in a greater light and judge Malcolm X for his violence. Wanda Sykes refers to reverse racism as “karma”, because white people tend to get defensive when other races receive something or are “gifted” something that they are not. This relates back to white privilege, and how white people often think they deserve it all because that’s how society has acted for centuries. All three of these concepts connect because they all have to do with stereotypes and misconceptions that lead to a greater conversation and struggle regarding racial oppression and racial equality. Oluo urges readers to avoid using these stereotypes and thought patterns, because everyone deserves the same level of equality in this country.