The Human Cost Of An Illiterate Society By Jonathan Kozol

While the authors of these essays execute remarkable examples of rhetorical analyses, I myself could definitely improve on my own essays. For instance, my writing can be vague, especially when explaining how the rhetorical

I don’t consider myself a gifted writer by any stretch, but with practice I myself have noticed improvements in my own writing. When not writing essays for classes, my time spent writing dwindles down to mere text messages, emails, and tweets. However, since beginning this class, I noticed that I am no paying more attention to rhetorical strategy in my own and others writings. When I write for a topic now I take take a moment to identify all the rhetorical strategies I am employing and what I can do to maximize the potential to improve my argument.

The comparative rhetorical analysis was my least stressful and favorite assignment since I get to compare for both reliable and unreliable sources. But, I had to plan out before typing this essay since I have to bring up the similarities and differences from those two sources than summarizing it. I was aware that I have to read this paper out loud in class which wasn’t a hard job to do since I’m reading off from my paper. I had an excellent grade on this essay than the other two assignments that I had to do for this project. And, I really enjoyed comparing two sources in one to give my personal opinion of what source I liked the most.

This essay is a reflective essay on my learning development from a young age through to my current position as a University Student. I will be relating my learning development back to two theories of human development, Vygotstsky’s socio-cultural theory and Marcia’s version of Erikson’s theory of identity development. I will identify and discuss the challenge I have faced with my identity and how this has impacted on my development.

Over the course of this 2018 spring semester the Writing 120 course I have been taking has afforded me a variety of affirmations and opportunities to improve and enhance my writing ability. Although I already had a strong working knowledge of rhetoric and revisions when writing this course has introduced several new facets and vocabulary words within rhetoric that I had not learned or mastered before. Some of the rhetorical skills I had not learned until now include the use of exigence and situated and invented ethos. Despite these terms I had not learned until this course, I understood purpose and audience and I was already writing in an academic English style when pertaining to the tone and format of my writing. Moreover, this allowed for

Kozol’s The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society, features a sufficient amount of examples that help readers to be thoroughly aware of the extent amount of struggles that illiterates face each day. Knowing that It has become common today to dismiss that illiteracy is not a worry in today’s society, seeing as many people assume that illiteracy is a problem of the past, and that living in a first world country voids us from an uneducated society, Kozol delivers a sufficient amount of examples to help inform others about the struggles that illiterates face every day. Not only are the examples beneficial for making readers aware of illiteracy, but he also demonstrates many of the problems that illiterates face. If Kozol did not write

In writing the following compositions, I find that I have grown significantly as a writer. Implementing new concepts with each assignment, and determining the proper methods of using rhetoric to affect the desired audience, has enhanced my communications abilities. Now, having the opportunity to go back to the start and revise each work, I am able to review and understand my progress. While the target audiences of the works I have written about are clearly stated in each of my essays, my audience is my professor, fellow students, and possibly academia at large.

Throughout my four years as a student at Marian High School, I have discovered that the English Department has been key to shaping my skills now and for my future endeavors. The courses seemed to alternate their focus between the fundamentals of writing a well-structured essay and how to effectively fill said essays with quality content. My first two years of English courses focused on the basics of each, essay-crafting and content, while my last two dove below the surface in each category. These courses have helped me discern that my future career lies within Communications—a (major) that requires precision of language and empathetic, convincing key points and supporting evidence. Each of these classes re-introduced and expounded upon concepts I have been taught since middle school. They have helped me to

During my time at Iowa State, I have not had very many classes that I have been able to say helped me develop as a person. I learn a lot from my classes and am able to use what I have learned – but very few classes actually change who I am. Because of this class, I have learned about racism and bias in the history of education and I am able to recognize that I did not incorporate diversity into my life prior to this class. It is not something that often crossed my mind because it has never been something I had to worry about as someone who is Caucasian. This class brought to my attention the issues that still surround race. It is especially apparent how it affects students who are simply trying to get an education. This class inspires me to learn more about diversity and what I can do to be an ally as well as what I can do in my future classroom.

This class has taught me many skills that I will use in my future classes. In this communication and information literacy class I have learned about the writing process, citations, peer reviewed articles and more. When researching I should look for more reliable sources and to make sure the resources does not fake information. However, with all of this being said I still have a lot to learn especially when I am to write my essays.

Throughout the school year, we have written three rhetorical analysis essays, given feedback on the essays of numerous peers, and have looked through examples from the College Board and Ms. Slotten. Before the year began, I had absolutely no idea what a rhetorical analysis essay was. Now, I have received a score of eight on two of my practice essays. To say I have come a long way would be an understatement. After going through the rhetorical analysis marathon, my writing has improved in its quality as well as my understanding.

I feel I’ve met the objectives of the course well. I thoroughly understand my experiences with writing different from when I began; I discovered more about myself through analyzing my previous pieces, which I would’ve never thought to do outside of this course. My ability to read rhetorical situations has increased and I can apply my writing to these situations in a more sophisticated manner, as shown with my rhetorical analysis essay. I am aware of the differing inquiries that may be required when I encounter new rhetorical situations. Collaborating with my peers allowed me to better understand how I interpret others’ work and how others view my work. I’ve taken more risks in my writing in this course, as I was surrounded by unfamiliarity and how my instructors and peers from different parts of the world, instead of teachers following one set rubric for the entire course, with students of similar backgrounds and who knew exactly what was expected in their writing. Even with these risks, I do feel I increased my control of my situation-dependent writing, with help from the free-writing

In tenth grade, everyone in Mrs. D’s English class had to write an essay on an American author. No one was actually given a choice in the matter, nor was anyone allowed the option of choosing their author. That kind of option wouldn’t have meant much to me anyway, seeing as I, like many sophomores in high school, had no interest in anything even remotely intellectual. Fate’s ubiquitous hand dealt me Sherwood Anderson, a man I had never heard of (nor did I frankly care to know about). Despite the cliché one might expect at this point, research did nothing to change my apathy towards this essay. I wrote down the standard encyclopedic style biography that defined the efforts of most of my fellow classmates. After all of us were through

In the second semester of Freshman English, I have progressed as a reader, and as a writer. Over the four units that we did over the semester, there were multiple sessions in each that helped me grow as a reader and writer. These sessions have taught me to do things that I did not know how to do before.

I feel that the subject of English Language Arts is vital for a student to excel in. In previous English classes, the teachers gave multiple comparative essays, persuasive essays, personal anecdotes, reports about news articles, essays analyzing historical figures and events, and other assignments to their pupils to teach them the various forms of writing and how to improve their creative writing skills. Even with this teaching, I do hope to improve my persuasive writing since I prefer to keep papers relating to actual events or issues mostly objective and to not misrepresent the opposing argument or side of the story. I also hope to improve my vocabulary and my grammar, as neither as improved substantially. I feel that in the past my vocabulary was improving and expanding due to my frequent recreational reading, a habit I’ve abandoned in recent years. Books that I definitely enjoyed include The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson, SYLO by D.J. MacHale, and The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell. When reading The Book Thief, I ended up appreciating the novel more than I did initially. My favorite character was Death, mostly because of his moral dilemma even as a metaphysical entity and his cynical view of existence, which made him sympathetic yet slightly unlikable.