When I first entered this class, I didn't know what was in store. It sounds cliche, but it's true. I truly did not anticipate the sheer difficulty of this class and the material we were supposed to be working on. I knew that we were going to work on research papers, but I never thought that they would mainly be dealing with rhetorical issues. And I certainly did not expect the added service-learning portion. That was when I first knew that I was in the big leagues.
But now that I have come through these first two units, I'm finally beginning to understand some of what I didn't understand before. But that does not mean that I haven't had problems. My first thoughts about rhetorical choice mainly involved websites that were good at persuading me personally and spoke to my topic. But, like most people, I had trouble finding articles that spoke back to me and my topic. A lot of them were bland and distasteful, to say the least. On some of my blog entries, a few comments said that it would not hurt to lend my own voice to the discussion at hand. It took quite a while to break through myself and finally give voice to the sources I used on my website. Even then, I don't think that I expressed myself clearly enough; nor do I think I was persuasive enough. But it is a start.
When it came to designing the website, though, I had quite a few problems. like most everyone in this class, I found difficulty in finding the right words to speak back to my sources. The most challenging part was to find ways to counter or support other authors' arguments, which is key to this project. Oftentimes, I would go back to check and recheck my sources to make sure I didn't skew the arguments or get them mixed up.
Another hurdle I had to jump over was audience awareness. Even now, I have no idea who would be interested in reading my website. As such, I found that I had to inject some of my own rhetoric to complement my sources and carry on the argument. I don't think I did that properly. But at least I have a better idea of what is expected of me as far as my audience is concerned.
In conclusion, this Unit Two project helped me understand what is needed in an academic discourse.
http://alternativemethodsofeducation.weebly.com/
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