Cherian Abraham

English 170 M/T

Elizabeth Guthrie

12/8/19

Reflective Cover Letter

 

I believe reading and writing is a useful skill that translates well in all aspects of life. The ability to convey thoughts and ideas through words is such an important thing to learn. Language is such a complex notion to grasp, which is why I love taking English classes. I would like to think I’m decent at using the english language to write papers, and to do tasks, but after taking this course I realized there was a lot of room for improvement in my writing. 

During this course, I learned the importance of rhetoric. Rhetoric is the use of persuasion in language or writing. Without realizing, most of the stories we hear, or read, use rhetoric to convey the themes and ideas that the author wants to put out. For example, throughout this first semester, the class was tasked to read the book The Handmaid’s Tale. The Handmaid’s Tale is a perfect example of a book using rhetoric to convey specific themes and ideas. By setting the book in first person, we as viewers see the harsh reality that the main character has to face in this dystopian world. By using point of view as a way to convey something in a story, I realized everything an author does is for a purpose. That is another idea I learned in this class- writings don’t come from thin air. The author has a point to get across, and by analyzing how the author uses rhetoric to get that point across, I learned to analyze the background of why an author might write a piece. For example, Margaret Atwood made the main character of The Handmaid’s Tale be female, because during that time, there were little to no dystopian books in which the main character was a female. 

I found that as time went on, the more adjusted I came to the idea of rhetoric. I feel that my first paper on the book The Handmaid’s Tale, and short story “Harrison Bergeron” were not as strong as I wanted them to be. I don’t think I had a clear idea on the power of rhetoric, but after learning more throughout the class, I understood the concept more and more. I also feel that I could now implement more focus on the writing strategies used in both stories to show how both authors used writing techniques to convey ideas and themes. I believe I used some forms of rhetoric in my Major Assignment #2, which is something I’m proud of. Prior to this class, my area of expertise was in historical essays, using analysis. But after this class, I feel I have strengthened my ability to write persuasive essays. 

The knowledge I have in this class can be easily implemented in my future courses. By understanding the effectiveness of words, which is what we were taught about, I feel I can apply this knowledge to so many areas. Music, and journalism come to mind, but the area of expertise that is opened up due to a better understanding of the english language is large. This course allowed me to become a better writer, but in a natural, and more authentic way. I didn’t feel like I was following an essay planer every time I wrote an essay. I crafted the types of essay I was generally interested in making in, and that is why I feel the projects and homework assignments in the class flowed a lot more effectively. By being interested in the topics, and what the teacher was teaching, I enjoyed learning how to use rhetoric, and how to employ it in my own writing. 

The one thing I would change in this course would be the online blogs. I felt like the blogs were retellings of what we did in class. Some blogs were interesting (the one were we crafted our own persuasive stories), but others were monotonous to do. I enjoy having online features for a class, but learning through a computer is not something I can do effectively, nor can I properly manage my time online. But that is something I hope to fix. I hoped we covered more of the topics that the students chose to do for their Major Assignments #2 and their presentations. The topics so far seem really interesting, and by spending more time covering them, I feel like the class could’ve broke down the uses of rhetoric to persuade an audience. 

Overall, English 170 has been an interesting class. I learned the uses of rhetoric, while also reading books that dealt with dystopian context. The two ideas merged well, as dystopian books need a strong use of rhetoric to persuade readers the change in the world present. English 170 was a good class, and it was fun to write for Ms. Guthrie, while also presenting my topic to the class.