ENGLISH 101

To begin the school year the first topic we were assigned to learn were the tools of persuasion. This topic was taught to us so we could learn and analyze how writers use certain skills to draw readers into the text. These skills include ethos, pathos and logos, each of which target different things like ethos targeting ethics and morals while pathos goes after the readers emotions and makes them feel based on e events occurring. The final aspect, logos targets a reader's logical side by using statistics and data. These tools are utilized by writers and we learned how to not only use them but incorporate them into our own writing. This assignment was the finalization of this topic as we were tasked with putting everything together to show our understanding. This topic acted as a refresher and this project was fun because it allowed us to be creative whilst also showing our understanding. 

During the first weeks of the school year, we begun learning about the principles and academic jargon of rhetorical analysis. In this aspect we focused on assessing the rhetorical situation using the SOAPS method. This method stood for speaker, occasion, audience, purpose and subject. Each part is targeted in order for a person to fully understand a text, the events going on when the text was written and the purpose of writing the text. We used this method to analyze our summer assigned book, "Enrique's Journey" and were tasked with a final assignment of putting our learned information together. Through this assignment we are expected to be able to demonstrate our understanding of the rhetorical situation of the book. This assignment proved slightly difficult because of the research aspect as I struggled to condense everything. I was able to get this assignment done timely whilst also learning about a skill I need to improve. 

As we progressed with the second marking period, we were introduced with a new set of terms that would be crucial for understanding the topics we would be later introduced. These were 10 news terms that seemed slightly complicated than the words presented to us in the past but we were expected to know these words because it would make our lives easier. Approaching this quiz, these words seemed unfamiliar but as I studied more they became more familiar and I started understanding the terms. Words like Metonymy and Didactic became clearer and I was able to not only memorize but understand the word to the extent that if they were phrased differently I would still be able to be successful. On the day of the quiz due to my preparation I was able to be successful and felt the quiz proceed easily because the words and their defintions were the same. 

Following our understanding of the concept rhetorical analysis we were presented with the project of analyzing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's famous "I have a dream speech" and the tools he used in that speech to draw listeners even closer. We had the choice to pick from the many tools Dr. King used and analyze how he used that tool throughout his entire speech. I decided to pick pathos and repetition as the tools to analyze because of how much Dr. King used it and how he incorporated into his work. In this paper I analyzed the phrase "I have a dream" and the phrases he uses in connection with "I have a dream" to allow readers to understand the vision he has for the future of African Americans. This was the first essay that we were given which was a bit of added pressure but after multiple evaluations by both teachers and students I completed the assignment. I wasn't thrilled with my grade but it allowed to be aware of what I need to work on in terms of my writing so I achieve an even better grade.