I am Andrew Turturro, and this is my eFolio.

It is a document of my work throughout Advanced Writing & Rhetoric, which has been a process of analyzing and writing about rhetoric through different mediums. First, I worked on a Multimodal Analysis analyzing a Coronet Films movie about Communism, and the way they used imagery and rhetoric to push pro-American ideologies. Second, I wrote a Contextual Analysis about Life magazine and its article on Communism, writing about the author of the article’s previous bias regarding the Soviet Union, and its peculiar use of overly-academic language given the magazine’s target audience.

I feel that after taking this course, I see things with a more careful eye and am more prone to think about the agendas and ideologies that could be in the background of art and media I consume. Rhetoric is a part of everything and the media we consume is no exception, so to understand the world we must look at the rhetoric being directed our way.

I think the most useful skill I’ve learned is how to research effectively. My Multimodal and Contextual Analyses were very research heavy, forcing me to look into the background of the creators of the works and into their beliefs and possible agendas. This is an invaluable skill in life as the ability and drive to research the information you receive is important.

I was most happy with my Contextual Analysis as I had to do a lot of reading and searching for various sources from both Life and the author of the article itself. I think it all came together well in an organized and thoughtful essay that I put a lot of time into.