WEEKLY REFLECTIONS

Week 2: Looking back on my FIQWS class, it was much different than writing for engineers. The main difference between the classes is that in my FIQWS class I was told and taught how to include personal feeling and thought to writing so writing never gets boring for the audience. I was in the musical theater section of FIQWS and part of our grade for our final 10 page essay was to include self thoughts and our voice. What I learned in that class contradicts everything im learning in writing for engineers since in this class my writing id based on facts and my tone ahs to be professional since I am writing about more serious topics. The only thing I have kept from that class that has carried on to this class is how to do research and how to properly include my research in my writing.

Week 3: The rhetorical situation in my freshman English research paper was based around the musical Next to Normal. The purpose of the paper was to state whether or not the stigma of mental health was properly portrayed in the musical. The audience was very general and was writing for the intention of being open and relatable to anyone. The context of the paper was the musical itself, parts of the play, the stage setting, lights, and other research from mental health professionals and their review on the musical Next to Normal.

Week 4: Rhetorical situation is made up by the audience, purpose, context, topic, and intention. My product review essay was on Solar Guitars. My indented audience was anyone who is looking for a new guitar, people who want to pick up a new hobby and don’t know where to start, or anyone who is curious on this product. The context consisted of 3 criteria- reliability/convivence, durability, and price. The purpose was to do an analysis on Solar Guitar in the most non-bias way since I myself am an endorser of Solar Guitars. Pathos, logos, and ethos are not directly used in this essay since I was not persuading my audience into buying one since my intention was to give a review; however, realistically speaking Solar Guitars are really nice guitars and after re-reading my essay it does sound very persuasive. Therefore, I would be using logos since my use of facts seems convincing on why an induvial would consider purchasing a product from Solar Guitars. 

Week 5: So far, I have learned how to exclude my personal thoughts and opinions out of research or review papers. I also learned when it is appropriate to include personal thoughts and when to tell If it would be appropriate to add them. This will help my future writing because it will help me determine if my thoughts are needed to improve the quality of something or if my opinions would only add confusion to the situation. The only thing I wish we spent more time on in class the actual writing itself since I have a lot to balance outside of school and work, and I feel as if my writing is rushed and not at it’s full potential.

Week 6/7: The purpose of my lab report analysis is to analyze and pick which out of the three lab reports are best. The intended audience is people who want to know about this topic (psychology), however I still tried to generalize my analysis by breaking down as much as I can. I used logos in my analysis a lot since after all this was an analysis of a lab that was conducted. The way I wrote a majority of the essay was written to be general and informative, all while being informative and proper, as well as trying to avoid fancy words so I don’t over complicate something that already is difficult to read and understand.