Well, a semester is a pretty short time to be honest. I feel like it flew by. It was only a couple months. I definitely did learn a couple of things.
Writing is definitely important going forward. I’ve come to learn that any professor will ask for a paper from you. Whether it’s a speech class, math class, biology or anything hands-on.
During the semester if I had to share my favorite topic it would have to be propaganda. Propaganda is a topic I learned to love after reading Orwell’s “1984” in my senior year of High School. I loved that book and the dystopian culture they were living in along with the absurd propaganda was everything. I learned that the types of propaganda or rhetorical device used in 1984 were glittering generality and using fear. The term “Big Brother’s watching you” comes from this book. The use of phrases like “Freedom is Slavery” and “Ignorance is Strength” were very important to the story.
The idea of rhetorical devices was used throughout the entire class. I don’t think there was a class when I didn’t hear the words. Rhetoric came to be very important from the middle and toward the end of the class. Some were simple, some I’ve never seen, others I’ve read about or witnessed and didn’t know the name. Whether it was Romance, Sex, and Gender appeals, Scarcity appeal, allusion and analogy and glittering generalities.
I can rattle off anything I wanted to learn how to be a better writer. I’m not the best writer and I know that. Professional writers never publish the first draft, but I assume theirs’ are somewhat decent, at least if it’s a simple paper. Maybe I need to go to the writing center and see how my writing could be read. Maybe I’m being harsh on myself, I don’t know. I want to be a better storyteller. I want to further my vocabulary and be able to tell people stories, ones they could and enjoy, a story so entrancing the reader feels like the story is real. I want to entertain with my writing, I want people to love the writing I produce and understand it for what it is. It’s my emotion poured out on a piece of paper. Artists draw their feelings, Writers write their thoughts out, they are one and the same. In the future I hope to become a better writer, one that can entertain and bring a smile to my audience’s face depending on the topic.
