In the segment, Bad Ideas on What Good Writing Is, I chose Patricia Roberts Miller’s reading “Rhetoric is Synonymous with Empty Speech.” Rhetorical speech overcomplicates a sentence, which is a “bad idea.” Many people assume that “the simpler, plainer version of the sentence is not just a stylistic choice, it’s a moral choice,” as she describes. The inclusion of more difficult words distorts the sentence’s context. To them, rhetoric is something that conceals the facts. “Rhetoric is clothing on the thought,” Miller says, quoting an old adage. It’s just a matter of adding a layer of vocabulary to the proposition. This piece appealed to me because I enjoy the use of rhetoric in literature. It’s a beautiful way to dress up a sentence and give it more context, in my opinion. I believe that using rhetoric to catch a reader’s interest when communicating important ideas about the topic at hand is essential. We can’t avoid rhetoric, so we can choose what kind of rhetoric we use, so it should be up to the writer to decide how to use it. She claimed, quoting Aristotle: “What you learn from rhetoric is how to approach political, ethical, and legal problems, how to come up with an argument when you can’t be (or, at least, shouldn’t be) certain that you’re right. You also learn how to assess other people’s arguments “. Instead of equating rhetoric with hollow speech and lies to misrepresent the facts, the aim here was to enable us to investigate the many forms and uses of rhetoric.

 

March 13, 2020, was the last day of what felt normal in my life. It was the last day I would wake up at 6 am to catch the B82 and stand back to back with people. I have never seen a crowded bus since that day and that should say a lot considering how many take NYC transportation. I remember my 8 am class that day; kids were popping jokes about the world ending. This one guy came in with a mask and gloves on, we all thought it was super weird, but who knew that would be our new normal.  I was praying so hard that we would have a two-week break but little did I know it would extend well beyond a year. It was a year of personal growth that I don’t think would have changed me that much had the pandemic not happened. It was not Covid that I feared it was more so not knowing what the future had in store.  It was frightening how quiet the streets were and even if you did see someone it was 6ft away with an N95. 

 

I graduated from my living room on June 30th, 2020, as my graduation was live-streamed on YouTube. I can’t wait to tell future generations what it was like because it really is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, well hopefully. It was kind of depressing because I expected to have family around but it was just me and my mom watching from my couch. I’m really a go big or go home type of person so if you told me this was the way things would be back in 2019 I would’ve cried. That wasn’t the case here though, I was genuinely grateful that we were sitting there happy and healthy. The pandemic made me appreciate the people around me so much more. I was so naive to think that nothing would ever happen to the ones I love but the constant fear of one of them catching covid took a toll on me. 

 

 If you could ask the person I was in March if she believed that she would grow as a person as a result of the quarantine, she would have laughed in your face and locked herself in her room. But as I spent more time with myself away from the outside world, I started to do the thing that had always scared me the most: self-reflect. Self-reflection was something I did at night when I couldn’t sleep because I’d said something dumb six months ago. More specifically, I got to know myself and the people around me.

 

1.In my early schooling days my teachers did not recommend us to use Wikipedia as a credible source as anyone can go and edit information on there. After reading “Wikipedia Is Good for You!?” by James P. Purdy, I understand now that Wiki doesn’t have to be used for citing but instead can help in many other different ways. I don’t think students should shy away from using the site, but knowing how to use it is crucial because it can lead to other useful resources. 

2. Different ways Purdy explains Wikipedia as being a useful tool to students is by using it as a source not to cite but to gain ideas. Purdy states “Looking at the table of contents and headings can help you view your topic from vantage points you might not otherwise consider..”.Checking out Wikipedia before starting a research-based writing project can help you get an insight into different elements you might write about. This can assist you in improving your research writing paper, which is a good option. Wikipedia can also be a helpful tool for revising. Purdy suggests that making a change to a wiki article based on one of your drafts can help “see how others respond and analyze those responses. In other words, give your idea a test drive with a public audience.” This is actually beneficial because it gives you information that you can use to revise your draft based on the feedback and responses you receive.

3. I would consider Wikipedia as a community platform because there are many editors who contribute to maintaining the site by creating new articles and revising older ones. I actually wasn’t aware of conversations that took place on Wiki which contributes even more to it being acknowledged as a community.  Before reading Purdy’s article I had not considered Wikipedia beneficial or even a community but seeing things from a different perspective it is much more than an online encyclopedia. Wiki reminds me of a big group project where volunteers fix a spelling mistake, remove false information, add something that was missing.

 

1. Nicholas Carr’s main point in the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” is that as the internet becomes our key source of data, it begins to affect our ability to read books as well as other long pieces. What I interpreted Carr saying “ having access to infinite knowledge is making us stupid” is that while this tool may increase knowledge productivity, it also dries our brain’s learning process. Carr explains from his first-hand experience on his own issue with reading “Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages…. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.”He discusses how the internet is set up to make money for other people, and how our critical thinking skills and attention spans are deteriorating as a result.
2. I do think that we lose out on the experience of having to physically do research but I don’t think immediate access is a bad thing. Times have changed and with it the people as well. Nowadays we don’t open cookbooks, we have recipes online. It’s just the way things are, a google search saves so much time and effort. 
3. I completely agree with Shirkley that having this constant access does add to having easier access to new areas of knowledge. The pros of this are the convenience in sharing and receiving information worldwide, entertainment, etc. Cons can include addiction, decrease in focus, health issues. 
4. I think the internet is great in the sense that it’s not so time-consuming if I want to learn something new. It also connects me to a whole other society globally. I really do believe it’s a balance with how a user takes advantage of this access. As much as the internet saves many folks time it can also take up so much time. Maybe spending an hour a day is beneficial but with many including myself, an hour turns into two which turns into three, and so on. Just because we’ve advanced this far doesn’t mean we all know how to cope with it, it’s a learning process that takes discipline. 

1. I do agree with Carr on the thought that our reliance on technology has become so much stronger than it used to be. I would say our dependency on it has actually become dangerous since there is a major difference between human and artificial intelligence. Even as autopilots, for example, have improved flight safety over the years, many aviation and automation experts have concluded that the overuse of automation erodes pilots’ expertise and dulls their reflexes.  “Automation has become so sophisticated,” Carr states, “what pilots spend a lot of time doing is monitoring screens and keying in data.  They’ve become, it’s not much of an exaggeration to say, computer operators.”  There would have been a different outcome if we hadn’t put so much trust into technology. Technology has had a great impact on our lives but it should not take away from our knowledge and ability to do things on our own. Fixing this issue we are having really involves taking a look into one’s trust with artificial dependency and straining away from letting it take control of you. 

2. I would say it is a balance of both improving technology and the skill of the workers because no matter what both will never be perfect. Man is flawed and accidents will happen regardless of skill, though workers of all fields should be trained up to par. There will be accidents with technology, but as it improves, it will show us a world we have never seen before, where technology will be far smarter and stronger than man.

3. This does tie into the concern of technology taking jobs because as it advances it will be able to be way more efficient than a group of people combined, for at a lower cost as well. I think the thought of a robot waiting tables or delivering packages is very daunting. It not only takes jobs away from people who need them but also the human social experience. 

4. I don’t think it’s more so about alternatives to technology but more about balance. For example, in the medical field, there should be a focus on improving survival rates and having a large number of machines that can assist health professionals in cancer detection. Though these machines should always be controlled by humans and should never be completely trusted.

Bonus:  For the most part, I’d say I’m pretty reliant on technology. It is required for online schooling, socializing with friends, and entertainment, among other things. My alarm clock wakes me up every morning, and the first thing I do is check my phone. I try to limit my usage as much as possible, but it’s difficult when it’s the world I’m used to living in.

 

In the article “ The Way We Live Now: 11-11-01; Lost & Found” by New York Times writer Colson Whitehead delves into life after 9/11 discussing how everyday life has changed. He approaches the crisis in a  balance of humor and pathos. He evokes emotion stating “ But look past the windows of the travel agency that replaced your pizza parlor. Beyond the desks and computers … you can still see Neapolitan slices cooling…” Whitehead explains how goodbyes aren’t a thing in the city. When you think about it you never really know how close you are to your favorite pizza spot being just a memory. The city is always evolving and thus the millions of perceptions every person in this city has. His humor comes into play when talking about what our old apartments would say if they got together “ 7J says, “ So that’s what happened to Lucy….3R says: Saxophone, you say? I knew him when he played guitar”. John Lewis’s powerful and important speech in “ Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation” goes into detail about how the movement in our current generation relates to the one in his time.  His attitude is very motivating and emotion-evoking using pathos as well. He writes    “ Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland, and Breonna Taylor.” It’s disgusting, to say the least how these injustices are tolerated. I firmly agree with Lewis that it is an obligation for everybody to “speak up and speak out” and it hit close to home thinking about how we currently live in this generation where most of us can unite and fight back. Lewis also uses ethos to prove his credibility going into detail “ In those days, fear constrained us like an imaginary prison, and troubling thoughts of potential brutality committed for no understandable reason were the bars”. He, at the end of the day, survived this dread and experienced what it resembled the need to carry on with life not realizing what could befall you. This is associated with present-day on the grounds that these occurrences have been going on for quite a long time and are still happening. At the end of each piece, both Whitehead and Lewis spoke in a way of hope for the generations to come. Though Whitehead ends off by mentioning how the city would never be the same “ The cement trucks will roll up and spin their bellies, the jackhammers will rattle, and after a while, the postcards of the new skyline will be available for purchase.” This may come off as negative but I think it’s just being real, everyone lives in a different New York, and for some their New York may become unrecognizable. This opposes Lewis’s ending in a way where he sheds more optimism in our generation who he has faith will  “ laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last…”. The themes in both pieces overlapped as both talked about awful times that in our society will one day view as the past. Both articles were truly really moving and written perfectly. I did find the article by Colson Whitehead to be very relatable because as a New Yorker the city I grew up in is not the same city that I’m living in. Reading the article made me dwell on the places I miss that are gone. I don’t think I realized before how since the city never sleeps it’s always watching. In a way it’s like the really old neighbor that has watched you grow up, it’s kind of bittersweet.

 

1.  I think what Baldwin means is that education holds the power in shaping oneself to have the ability to face society and decide to fight against it. This disconnects with my own experiences in school because I always felt like the system teaches kids what to think instead of how to think for themselves and kills creativity. The strict compartmentalizing of classes and teacher teaching students, without any freedom and initiation from kids, is of concern. I remember an instance in my 10th-grade government political class where we were all having a class debate and this one student had a different opinion than the majority and my teacher silenced him because it upset and riled up the others. This bothered me because it felt like the kid had to accommodate other people’s feelings because he didn’t think the same way they did. I connect this to what Baldwin was stating that “ The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions….. But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry that which will simply obey the rules of society.” This is evident in most classrooms and it really goes beyond into the world where there’s that mentality to just go along with the majority.
2. I believe education is vital in tending to the injustice in society. Individuals are more inclined to accepting the myths taught than to be critical and take action. As Baldwin illustrates prejudice in America and how it is experienced by black children and adults other marginalized groups can also relate to that feeling of exclusion and feeling powerless.
3. The first sentence in the reading is an example of ethos used by James Baldwin stating “Let’s begin by saying that we are living through a very dangerous time. Everyone in this room is in one way or another aware of that. We are in a revolutionary situation, no matter how unpopular that word has become in this country.’’Baldwin is identifying himself with the audience as an American citizen. He further establishes his credibility and knowledge by talking about his own experience in being a black man in the 60s. An example of pathos is at the beginning of paragraph 3 on page 1 stating “ Now, if what I have tried to sketch has any validity, it becomes thoroughly clear, at least to me, that any Negro who is born in this country and undergoes the American educational system runs the risk of becoming schizophrenic.” This is an example of pathos because of the way the statement appeals to the emotion of the audience as he talks about how black people live in the shadows of our society watching white people succeed while they are pushed to the side.
4. An educator who had a significant impact on me was one of my middle school teachers because he acknowledged me as an individual instead of just overlooking me as a quiet kid. I remember he once told me that I would do something great in life. That was really all I needed as a kid was for someone to believe in me and to this day that pushes me to prove him right.

The reading section I chose is “ Bad ideas about what good writing Is”, specifically “ You can learn to write in general” by Elizabeth Wardle. I chose this piece because the title kind of puzzled me. I’ve heard this statement but I never understood what it means because literally speaking when putting pen to paper there is no “general’ topic to write, everything has intent behind it. The bad idea is the concept that people can learn to write generally. According to Mrs. Wardle, the term is just very broad and simply doesn’t exist because there is no such thing. Every piece written has a specific audience, context, purpose, etc. Wardle even argues this myth “..is a dangerous idea that needs to die because it hurts students and frustrates teachers and employers. And writers who believe it are easily discouraged because they don’t know how to learn what they need to learn in new writing situations.” I completely agree because personally, it can be frustrating not knowing where to start when I’m writing essays and I have been told to practice writing in general. It’s not really about writing in general but more so repurposing your skills to accommodate your situation. What I got from this reading is that “writing” already comes with a pair of basic skills like basic grammatical structures but writing without purpose doesn’t exist. Instead practicing and learning to write in situations is more effective than the idea to “write generally”. Honing your skills to be better equipped at different writing circumstances is a better idea than “ learning to write generally”, the phrase isn’t as exclusive and confusing. 

 

Unit 2 Topic: 

I decided to change my topic from my previous one and would like to write about the gentrification in NYC neighborhoods. Being born and raised here it hurts to see so many neighborhoods taken over and people being forced to move out. I think it’s a really important issue as I still see this being a future problem.

 

I chose to read “How Coronavirus stress may scramble our brains” by Laura Sanders because based on the title it sounded like something I could relate to. Having our lives do a 180 in this pandemic has for sure caused an upheaval of stress in many of our lives. Reading the article reminded me a lot of my last semester’s psychology course. It’s honestly one of my favorite subjects in school and it really does capture my full attention. The article mentioned different experiments putting to the test how stress impacts our prefrontal cortex, one of the brain’s important functions for thinking and planning. An interesting thing that caught my eye was how stress impacted medical students taking exams. As Mrs. Sanders states “One memorable example comes from 20 panicky medical students facing licensing exams. After a month of high-stress test prep, the students performed worse on an attention test than they did after exams were over.” This makes me think of my own experience because when I take exams even though I’m confident in the material I never perform to my satisfactory level because I feel so rushed and stressed. Sander does mention “ People who believe stress can be an enhancing part of life do a better job of handling challenges”. I will admit that being stressed about school and exams has pushed me to do better at handling all the assignments and putting time aside for studying. Even though the article was informative it felt a little repetitive. Nonetheless, I think the ideas that were trying to get across were perfectly executed. Specifically, Mrs. Sanders referring to many different psychologists to back up claims. Relating to Dirk I did actually pick this article based on my interest in genre: the science of psychology. Based on the article I read, I concluded it was a research paper. Dirk mentions “If you already have some idea of what a research paper looks like, you do not have to learn an entirely new genre. Instead, you just have to figure out how to change that particular genre to fit with the situation” I have previously written a research paper similar to this article but with a completely different topic. It contained the same outline including quoting research. My experience with reading this research paper and having written my own really helped me understand what Dirk means when saying I don’t have to change the genre just work my way around it to match the topic.

Metacognitive/ reflective writing refers to being aware of your thoughts and understanding what helps and hinders learning and how to become a more effective learner. It’s like digging deep into your choices and diving further into why you chose what you did. 

I have always reflected on my writing pieces, it has helped me understand my writing strengths and weaknesses. I don’t think a piece is complete without the reflection part that in hindsight can help in future projects. I feel that is what makes you a better writer in the process. As Anne Lamott puts it in “Shitty First Drafts”, “let go and write those “shitty first drafts” that lead to clarity and sometimes brilliance in our second and third drafts.”. Multiple drafts have always helped me reflect on my writing as every draft I write I get closer to perfecting my work. I start to understand my weaknesses and strengths by looking back at the drafts. Though, sometimes it feels as if even the final paper needs revision but I understand that is for the next writing piece to show I have improved.

My writing process starts with putting questions for each of my paragraphs. This has really helped me in writing the Unit 1 Essay. For example, My Body 1 paragraph I would write something like “ Why is this word important to you and your community?”. Then I would follow that up in the paragraph. This helps me stay on track with what message I am trying to get across, instead of being all over the place. I also like to make clear what my perspectives are and connect my experiences with what I know.