In the beginning of the semester, I felt that my writing style was about half transmission and half process. However I’ve begun to write much more rhetorically. I try to see how the reader will interpret my writing more than anything. What I have found works best is creating a planning page; putting quotes, research and ideas into it and then underneath write that paragraph organizing all the ideas together. I break it up by paragraph and then copy and paste each one into a separate document for the final piece. When it is all together, I go back and read through, editing sentences and words to be seen how I want the reader to see it. This is definitely the most effective writing process I have found for myself.

            In the beginning I did not know what to write about for the process essay. I based it off of my final paper in my senior year in high school on collective bargaining. I was very passionate about this, however one piece of it really was most important to me. My dad being a firefighter, that section of my essay was close to home. So for my portfolio I decided to make it less political, and focus on firefighters. I stayed up all night working on it, putting the pieces together, finding the research that best supported my argument. It was tough but I was very proud of my final product. I have found that when I am passionate about a topic I can really put my heart into it and write a strong paper.

          The research paper had gotten me on a tough start. I could not figure out a topic I really wanted to write about. I finally decided on House of Cards and analyzing the quality of the show but it was very tough to figure out how. The movie interview definitely helped me with my research paper the most. I asked a friend who is an expert on the topic of film to do the interview. Through this I was able to ask the questions I had and get real answers, rather than empty Google searches. After that I had a stronger focus to do my research and was really able to narrow down on a test to finish my paper strong.

            The Frick project was definitely an interesting one. I never had done much group work in the past, definitely no essays so it was a bit different. I definitely enjoy the group I worked with. We all seemed to have similar ideas, not exactly the same but we came into quick agreement on the topic and what to write about. One definite challenge was finding a way to work together. We all had conflicting schedules and could only work together online rather than in person. I feel like the time management issue is also in part to their only being two weeks for the assignment. It was definitely do-able, however I feel it would be more efficient if there was another week to work on the assignment. 

          We had started it off by looking online before we went to the Frick at online tour and considering some options. This process was okay. None of the things that we noticed online really stood out in the museum. However it was good in a way that it gave us some sort of idea of what the Frick looked like, so when we were there, it felt more familiar and it was easier to focus on the pieces of art themselves. Also, the museum is quite large. We were not able to analyze, listen to, and/or look at everything inside due to timing. There was so much content, which was nice in the fact that it left many options, however it also felt somewhat overwhelming. I felt it hard to select one piece when there were so many available, so many works to listen to and research that may have been better. However, the Forge definitely stood out. When we walked into the room it was the first painting I noticed and listened to, and before I said anything my group mates did the same. We all started discussing it and after some conversation and listening to the audio a few times we were able to come up with some good ideas. We definitely got more done in the museum than the library. I think if we had a setting in which we could use more time and discuss and research things together it would help. I definitely think more time could have been spent working together in person. Working and doing your own research for a paper that is meant to be written by multiple people feels much less productive than cooperating through the whole process. If each person researches their own information, they interpret it in their own way, and it gets transmitted through one perspective. If everyone does this then it's like you have different perspectives but only one perspective on each source or topic doesn't flow as nicely as if everyone combined their views and perspectives and it flowed into the research and into the paper. One thing however is that we had two topics to discuss, comparing it to the Velasquez version and analyzing why it was chosen by Frick. I feel like looking back the paper may have been more focused if we selected one topic of discussion. It just seemed to be a little split and off focus in the end product, and it was as if we had two theses which feels a bit messy. Nonetheless it was not all that bad. 

One thing I liked was the way in which you gave us comments on the first draft; I feel that more comments and criticism lead to better revisions, and it pointed us in the right direction for the final draft. I feel like it came out better after we added visuals, I think it made the whole thing seem less boring and plain and just made it a bit more lively. Not to mention it definitely helps the reader visualize the description of the paintings.  Honestly neither rhetoric not art is my biggest strength; I would be interested in trying this type of project in something I could relate to a bit more. I personally found it difficult figuring out the arguments and rhetoric within the art itself. With a different topic and more collaboration as a group I feel that the paper could be a lot stronger. Even with the Frick topic, I think more time and maybe a different approach would have let us write a more powerful essay. 

            The first time around I highly disliked the George assignment. I did not understand the argument she was making and I felt that the whole article was quite pointless. I wrote the analysis without much understanding. However, reading it now, everything seemed clearer to me. I was much more capable of understanding George and it made the paper a lot easier to write. I believe this class had a great impact on my understanding of rhetoric which started at almost none. 

Making the movie was honestly one of my favorite things to work on this semester, in any class. I was able to really focus and really get into it, and I actually enjoyed working on it a lot. Although I had never done it before, the editing and all was very easy and acted as no challenge. The creative process came naturally, it was quite fun putting the pieces together and creating the final product. For the rough draft, once it was all put together it seemed good, but maybe not final. Sean’s comments definitely helped give me the right sense of direction I needed to finish my movie. It was a bit harder the second time around, trying to organize the clips to see what best fit each part of the test, but I believe I found suitable clips and quotes to use as evidence. The biggest challenge was probably finding the clips online and being able to download them.

            My first semester I had definitely learned a lot about myself. Living at Brookdale is not the traditional college dorm experience, however it is really like living on your own in the real world. School is much different from high school, where in the past I avoided doing my work, and I’ve begun to understand why. Sitting through lectures, focusing on homework, reading, none of it seemed to work for me. I would get anxious, and cannot focus or get the work done. I spent countless nights trying to finish my work until sunrise, where I would have to then rush and could not create the best work I could. This caused overwhelming stress and anxiety that I had to overcome. I am in the works of finding my way through that struggle, but I would not take back the experiences I have felt because it led me to reflect and set on a journey to better myself. This class has greatly affected not only my style and understanding of writing but my love for it. Being able to create my own work, writing about what I am passionate about is a great achievement. I have grown a love for writing that I do not wish or plan to cease as this course has come to an end.