Critical Reading
Critical reading is more than just giving negative feedback. It's about being a "divergent thinker" and seeing the gray areas. Considering multiple sides, making connections, and asking questions that truly drive inquiry also make up a success critical reader.
Rhetoric & stuff
If the purpose of this class was to make me pick apart every single commercial I see, then Miss E did a pretty good job. The rhetorical appeals assignment has made me extremely critical of pretty much all advertisements. Even now, I’m looking at car commercials and thinking, “Oh they’re definitely targeting mid life crisis guy there.” I’m pretty surprised at how often marketers use rhetoric. I assumed we, as writers, were the only ones that had to consider what our readers would think. It’s the same for those who need to sell something, their “readers” are just viewing things a little bit differently.
Earlier in the semester we made a list of "Do's and Don'ts" that has helped tremendously. When we were first discussing this I could help but think it's stuff I've seen before. However, I've found that it was very useful to use as a reference. If I got stuck when reviewing my peers or even my own writing, I would simply flip to that page and it would help me think of things to consider or say.
Fallacies
I haven't seen anything about Ethos, Pathos, and Logos since my 11th grade english class. If I'm going to be completely honest, I never really understood them and I never really cared to learn what they were. It turns out, this stuff is actually important. I use this concept all the time, I just don't give technical terms for them. In reference to this blog, I used logic within my research. To establish credibility, I just tried to be as honest as I could be. I just wanted my readers to feel like I was being open with my thoughts and not saying things just because I'm trying to convince them of something. When it comes to the emotional part, I know this is a sensitive subject. I also know this is something I feel very strongly about because I believe it's caused health problems in my family. Even if no one else finds this to be an emotional subject, I do and that's what matters most to me.
Feedback
I do think critical reading goes a lot farther just than giving peer feedback for someone else’s blog. With that being said, I feel our peer feedback groups made me more critical of my own work. I would look through another students’ blog and think, “Oh, I really like how they did that. I wonder how I could work it into my own blog.” When editing my own writing, I started doing the same thing I would do for others. In the past I would just kind of look things over and make sure there were no major typos before moving on. Now I actually read my writing and consider what could make it better. I think about what I could add or say, where I can use quotes or images. I truly believe it’s made me a better writer. Being able to write more like a conversation for this assignment has been great. It’s refreshing to now have to write the same old boring essays over and over and over again.
The self evaluations helped me sit down and actually think about what I was missing and what I was exceeding in. If it hadn't been "assigned' I probably wouldn't have done it. With that being said, I'm really glad I did. I've always been really good at giving feedback. Mostly because I like when people listen to me. Either that or I just like the sound of my own voice. Either way. I've finally started listening to myself and the self evaluations kind of forced me to do that.
