Reflection

After a full semester of English 201, I have discovered a new side of myself, which I had not known previously before the class. Normally I would just skim through long, extensive reading texts and find the main purpose of the written work. However, this class has made me realize that whenever you skim over things, you overlook the underlying meaning of what the document contains. I have noticed some similarities among the various kinds of reading and writing tasks that I have been asked to perform this semester. All of these tasks required me to not only look at the documents, but to use critical and rhetorical thinking. By using these processes, it has come to my attention that certain things or ideas do not only have one side, but rather many sides and I must come up with different ways to approach different topics.

I particularly found the annoted bibliography challenging. This project was difficult, because at first thought I did not know how to exactly begin the assignment. Since I chose to describe Evansville as a "hopeful" community, I had to define what "hope" is in many different ways and then relate it to the Evansville society as a whole. I solved this problem by conducting a lot of research and evidence to back up what being "hopeful" truly means.

After reading through all the papers that I have done, I was really proud of my MLK, Jr. rhetorical analysis. When I first turned in this paper, I felt somewhat satisfied about it. However, when I received it back, I noticed that I truly didn't understand what the teacher was asking for and I didn't support how I thought that it was a successful document. Luckily, the teacher let me redo the assignment. After finishing my second draft for this piece, I felt even more confident in myself, because I allowed time for myself to concentrate and think deeper about the context.

Public sphere week was helpful because it allowed me the opportunity to get my voice heard about something that I feel passionate about. While conducting the research, I learned and realized that so many people are battling the different types of cancers out there and they are not giving up without a fight. From those particular people and the people that are involved in Relay For Life, I have realized that life presents you with many obstacles, but you just have to fight to get what you truly want and nothing ever comes easy. The public sphere activity did however have its disadvantages. While participating in public sphere week, I noticed that many people didn't stop and visit our booths/tables that we had set up. Although it was eight o'clock in the morning, I did expect however to have a better outcome of people visit my table. I enjoyed public sphere week because it allowed me to educate other college students about Relay For Life and hopefully they will become involved in this great organization.