Sara Walser

UWRT 1102-003
Ms. Rand
23 June 2014
Final Reflection
Throughout this class we focused on the idea of conflict. We
began with a narrative based off of a personal conflict and analyzing the
decisions we made and how we dealt with the conflict and grew from it.
We then traveled to the idea of global and local conflicts that we felt
passionately about. With these larger scale conflicts it was a little bit
more challenging to find a solution because you were forced to look at it
from many different viewpoints. Conflicts were a main idea throughout the course because they
can be related back to many different topics. The picture of the man climbing the mountain
pertains to the class by illustrating the idea of a conflict. With this class being a summer course
we were also faced with a literal conflict with time. One of the most challenging aspects of this
course was its fast pace and the limited amount of time to complete projects. But as with
climbing a mountain, the time conflict was overcome with patience, perseverance, hard work,
and determination.
If I were to teach this class I would emphasize the concept of idea development.
Especially in the case of the inquiry project, idea development is a vital part of all papers.
During this course we did a few activities such as concept maps and group work which were
helpful when developing ideas, but I think it could have been touched on a little bit more. I
learned a lot from the daybook questions we had when beginning our inquiry project. It is
interesting to me how through a series of questions we, as a class, came up with some ideas that
were very similar and some that were completely different. The concept mapping was helpful
and I was glad we had to include one in our annotated bibliography because it forces you to
compare, contrast, and connect ideas in ways you would not have done previously. Group work
is also a very helpful technique when it comes to developing arguments because no matter how
simple and idea, someone else can always view it differently or in a way you never would have
considered.
In 30 Days Minimum Wage, Morgan Spurlock lived the life of someone who lived
everyday under the poverty line. Though he was criticized for his work, I believe that living in
someone elses shoes for a month would be a challenge under any circumstances, and he
succeeded in meeting his goal of living on minimum wage for 30 days. His project brought
awareness to the situation and gave many a new perspective of the struggles faced by many
Americans. When thinking back on resources we used in class, this was the one that stood out
the most in my mind because it clearly illustrated a modern, large-scale conflict. It brought up a
problem that most people overlook in their everyday lives and made you compare yourself to the
millions of Americans struggling with life below the poverty line. It forced you to consider
whether or not you could survive a day in their shoes let alone a month or longer. I appreciate
the way Morgan Spurlock chooses not to merely address a problem he sees, but to live it and
bring new light to the situation.
I believe that in this class I have had many small writing successes. With each assignment
I complete I feel like my writing ability grows in some way. As a writer you are always
growing and I believe I benefit from each assignment I am faced with. Personal growth is the
best way to measure success and so I am thankful to have the opportunity to grow. With that
being said, everyone has something that they struggle with. For me that something is backing up
my ideas and adding enough supportive detail. I have always felt that the biggest problem with
my writing is that my ideas are good but I dont develop them fully. If I could change anything
from the semester I would spend more time fully developing my ideas in my inquiry project. In
my revision I added more detail and expanded on my opinions and more fully explained my
quotes with the hope that I was able to make my arguments stronger and clearer. Of all the
writing assignments and projects we have completed throughout the class, my favorite was the
Conflict Narrative. I wrote this paper on what to some may have seemed to be a trivial problem,
but in my eyes it was a life changing conflict. Not being on homecoming court does not seem
like it would be a topic for a paper based on a personal conflict, but I enjoyed explaining and
developing the idea that homecoming was more then just a vain high school event and that I
gained more from it then the typical teen. My goal for the paper was to make what many would
view as a pointless paper into something more meaningful. Aided with the process laid out in
the class for developing the paper, I first wrote the narrative itself. As I do with almost any
paper, I struggled with detail and bringing the paper to life. My main focus was to incorporate all
of my emotions at the time and write from my view of the event. I added analysis and other
viewpoints back into the paper once the original story was finished. It is my hope that the
readers opinion of my homecoming experience was different then what they had expected to
find in a conflict narrative and that it captured the array of emotions that that occur with any sort
of conflict.
Early in this class we focused on what is needed to create a good narrative. We discussed
how in order to write a good story you need to add plenty of detail and emotion. Your story
must be relatable, descriptive and dramatic. These components together make your story
readable but not necessarily believable. To make a narrative convincing you need to add aspects
of logos, pathos, and ethos. Only when you support your ideas with facts, emotions, trust, or a
combination of the three are you really able to sell your story. These ideas were essential to our
first paper, the conflict narrative. When developing the conflict narrative we first wrote the
narrative itself, by beginning with the story we had the opportunity to first write now all of our
emotions and thoughts on the conflict before going back and adding analysis. By gradually
adding analysis and different viewpoints to the narrative throughout the course of a week, we
were able to watch as our narratives grew from stories about simple conflicts, to how we were
able to learn from and overcome them. Our next project, the inquiry project, focused on
conflicts on a more global scale and we needed to formulate a more augment based paper. In
class we examined the idea if argument fallacy and what makes a sound and thorough argument.
Through a series of questions we were able to come up with very different and varied topics. My
original fear with this project was coming up with a topic that I felt strongly about and would be
able to make my own. Through the question series and group work I was easily able to come up
with my topic, the negative effects of technology, which I would have never considered before
the activities. In class we discussed citations and sources, which I found beneficial because I had
not been reminded of citation etiquette since high school. When writing the paper I struggled a
little more with developing and organization then I had with the conflict narrative. My topic was
somewhat broad and so my paper became scattered. My ideas were all over the place and I felt
that at times, they didnt really connect or flow well. In my revision I worked more or
elaboration and the development and organization of my ideas. The Multigenre project was the
follow up to the inquiry project and at first I dreaded it because I am not completely comfortable
with making elaborate products and struggle with more creative assignments. I was able to
narrow my topic a little further by focusing on children. I soon found that it was not as
challenging as I had expected and after the proposal I found that it helped me to generate
solutions to the problems I discovered with my inquiry project.
Over the course of the last five weeks I have learned a great deal about rhetorical appeals
and how to angle what you are writing to your intended audience. It is essential to back up your
work with either facts or something that favors the readers emotions. No matter your work, you
must write to appeal to your intended audience if you wish for it to sell. When writing it is
always helpful to try and view your paper from the viewpoint of your audience. This was never
something which occurred to me, but it can be extremely helpful when you feel that your work
might not sound exactly as you would like for it to. You can always look back and try to
consider what would convince you if you were the reader, or think about what it is that you
would want to hear. Your intended audience influences the best way to create a strong argument.
























Works Cited


Image 1 - http://www.printfection.com/busybodies/Rock-Climbing/_s_16319