Progress in Freshman Composition
My time in this course has provided me with an opportunity to explore the ways in which our traditional understanding of the English language within academic settings excludes other cultures, namely the cultures of immigrants living in the US; it does not acknowledge how dialects and creoles of English are, in and of themselves, languages with their own unique relevance to people around the country and the world. Rather, those who speak anything but standard English are looked down upon and treated as inferior simply for speaking a different form of the language. Phase 1 specifically helped me explore how the idea of “proper English” contributes to cultural erasure through the lens of my own experiences. During this phase, I looked deeper into this subject by writing about my first experience seeing Trinidadian English in written form, and how it is reflective of the exclusion of non-standard forms of English in American literature.
Phase 2 was also beneficial in my learning process since it helped me learn more about the process of writing an op-ed piece, which is a genre I have very little experience in. Writing my op-ed piece expanded my knowledge of how pathos, ethos, and logos are used to support an argument, which I show in the quote from the essay below:
“DeLuca ends the article by stating that ‘Until the collapse of capitalism, we all still need to pay our bills.’ The same applies for readers and students, especially those in circumstances where getting books legally isn’t as simple as it sounds. With some learners, the cost of a book can mean all the difference. We all still need to pay our bills somehow.”
In these sentences from my conclusion, in order to support my argument that the article disregards the perspectives of those in poverty, I emphasized the hypocrisy of her closing statement. This is an example of pathos, as I am appealing to the sympathy of the reader; the reader may understand how it is a struggle for many people to have access to certain books, or they may even be experiencing this themselves. By talking about how those who pirate academic texts also need money to pay for expenses like rent and food, I indirectly establish a potential emotional connection between the audience and those affected by the subject. I also, to an extent, use logos and pathos together in sentences such as the one below:
“Not everybody can just take out their credit card and purchase access to academic articles that can cost as much as $40 or more, especially when that money could go towards putting food on the table or towards something more important.”
In order to further support my argument, I bring up how expensive certain articles can be. The price that I mentioned in this part of the essay is an actual price that I have seen for a single article online. I bring up this example to prove that academic resources can often be frustratingly expensive, especially for people already struggling to pay for absolute necessities. This is where pathos comes in. After mentioning this, I go into how the $40 that could be used for the article could leave people with less money to feed themselves with, illustrating how pirating books helps many with accessing resources without having to sacrifice money that could be used for essentials. The incorporation of other media into the assignment let me try blog-writing, which is another medium I have little experience with; writing a blog version of my work gave me the chance to practice arguing for a certain point in both a formal and informal way.
Phase 3 was very helpful when it came to learning about the research process. Until this assignment, I often struggled to find and cite sources for papers. In order to complete this essay, I looked for information on the topic from reputable news sources and used resources we discussed in class to find academic texts related to the medical side of the subject. I decided to write about the ways that televangelists exploit their audiences in the name of wealth, with severe consequences on the health and financial security of their audiences. To better describe the extent to which scams promoted by religious leaders have posed a severe threat to the public, I found a medical textbook describing the health effects of exposure to colloidal silver, which one televangelist preacher claimed was a cure for COVID-19. I also had the opportunity to practice citing my sources properly, which is something I found somewhat challenging due to my lack of familiarity with making footnotes for citations. This assignment in particular has helped me improve when it comes to writing a works cited page.
To conclude, my time in this class has given me some very valuable information in regards to different forms of writing, whether they be formal essays and speeches or simple blog posts. These assignments gave me the chance to improve the way I write by appealing to the audience’s morals, supporting my arguments with information from various sources, and exploring my own personal connections to what I choose to write.
