My attitude to american journalism

ENC1102 was an interesting journey that included three main assignments, and a variety of responses to different articles. The first assignment, the Analysis of NYT “ Year in Pictures 2017” consisted of analyzing images from the New York Times, and develop an argument about what the images I chose to analyze represented and how well they explained a story that the photographer was attempting to tell. The aim of the assignment was to choose two images and provide the argument that the images were making using the rhetorical appeals, elements of photo composition, and individual aggregate. The photos I chose for this assignment were photos children in peril in frightening situations in Venezuela and near an ISIS-controlled zone in Mosul. Although I had the wrong impression at first with the assignment, I had gone back to Lucaites and Harriman to shift his definition, so I can give a better understanding of what I perceived from the photos. That assignment allowed me to realize that American journalism as well as any other journalism within our current world defeats the purpose of releasing the story, and is inconsiderate of the ethics that are considered within taking pictures.

Moving on to second assignment from my first assignment, I noticed that my opening and my conclusions need to be stronger, so I can thoroughly pull in my readers from the very beginning. After reading a fascinating article by Caputi, we were assigned with the task of either extending Bordo’s or Caputi’s argument. Although I had understood Caputi’s argument to its full extent, and were able to implement this knowledge in the photos I see on a daily basis within magazines, it was a challenging to task to be able to extend Caputi’s argument. After turning in the first assignment, our teacher had notified me of how much a duplication this is more than an original writing. Through his effective and efficient commentary, I was able to improve the mistakes that were made, and create a true extension of Caputi’s argument rather than just replicating it.

Assignment 3, in my opinion, was the most fascinating and inspiring assignment that was within our semester. Not only were we introduced to how Maya Lin created her design for the Vietnam Memorial, but we were also taught in-depth about Maya Lin’s design and the significance she created. In an attempt to be inspired by Maya Lin, we were tasked with creating a memorial for the Charleston Nine, the nine innocent lives that were lost during the shooting of the church in South Carolina church. This challenging task not only had us design an entire memorial, but we were also supposed to symbolize the memorial, giving it a rhetorical meaning. We ultimately decided on a 9-layered fountain with bowls that always have water flowing freely through it, but that is never full. The creation of the memorial required extreme effort and time on our part, as well as the utmost innovation we could provide.

As interesting as this writing class was in context of what we have been writing about, I am proud to say it has substantially improved my writing skills as well. For example, in assignment 1, the opening sentence that was utilized was “ In the pictures of children in peril in frightening situations in Venezuela and near an ISIS-controlled zone in Mosul, there is an enormous amount of pathos on display for the viewer”. Not only does this sentence have an awkward structure, but it simply states the obvious, which isn’t necessarily an attention catcher. However, one can see substantial improvements within my second assignment: “ A diverse number of advertisements that are shown today reveal that although various products and services are being offered in each advertisement, majority of these advertisements show factors and characteristics that promote traditional views of gender roles, which implicates how advertising companies aren’t considerate of the change in gender roles that society has gone through”. As can be seen, although the context of my opening sentences has improved substantially, they must be shortened and kept concise so the meaning isn’t blurred.