Gabriel Turner

 In high school, our teachers strongly advise you stay far far away from the word "I". Especially if we are writing argumentative essays. This makes no sense to me at all, I mean how is it possible to argue my opinion without using "I". Also, persuasive writings are very complicated not being able to use "I". In fact, Maddalena writes in her  essay  "First person can help you express, very simply, who "says" what" (183). Exactly like Maddalena says, writing in first person helps the writer fully express what they are writing about. It can also help majorly when writing an argumentative or persuasive essay. Maddalena, Kate. ""I need you to say 'I'": Why First Person Is Important in College Writing."  Writing                   Spaces: Readings on Writing,  edited by   Charles Lowe et al., Parlor Press, 2010, pp. 180-189.

 Boyd uses the murder mystery scenario to show her audience that writing can bring out a detective trait in all of us. Boyd says " Since detectives are trained observers who search for clues to aid in the investigation of a crime, they provide written, first-hand accounts of the tangible evidence they find." I can relate this to how I feel trying to gather information for my writings. I feel like the people who suffer from this the most are students who have to research quote after quote and dig through websites and books for information that is not always easy to find. It is very important to find credible sources and to quote them correctly.

 My plan for Doc2 was simply to educate people about my major and its amazing opportunities. I talked about how robotics are completely changing our lives and how they will continue to do so every day. The thing that works best for me is writing in a chronological order, it helps me to stay organized and on topic. I also feel  like including a detailed argument into your essay can really help the audience. Rebecca Jones' essay has many organization strategies.  Jones writes in her essay, " Your standpoint is simply your claim, your basic argument in a nutshell. If you disagree with another person’s argument or they disagree 174 Rebecca Jones with yours, the actual standpoint and not some related but more easily attacked issue must be addressed"(174). You need a good standpoint to have a good argument.

  Rhetorical context refers to the  circumstances surrounding any writing situation  and includes purpose, audience, and focus. In Carroll's essay  Backpacks vs. Briefcases  she says "Media is constantly asking you to buy something, act in some way, believe something to be true, or interact with others in a specific manner." (46) in the paragraph that this quote is from, Carroll is talking about how the media works rhetorically, and the quote is showing how the media is trying to persuade you to do things or act certain ways. In my Doc 2, I hope to persuade my classmates that engineering is a major that is very fun and beneficial, with lots of opportunities.

 This week we were assigned the job of reviewing our peers writings about schooling problems. These writings were written to help fellow students solve problems they may suffer from too. I personally wrote mine about test anxiety. In my writing, I listed many ways to help cope with test anxiety. Many of the coping mechanisms in my writing came from experts though. These experts know best about the problem they work to help students solve. For example, one of my favorite coping mechanisms is written by Craig N. Sawchuk. He lists many ways to help test anxiety but one really stuck out to me. " Establish a consistent pretest routine. Learn what works for you, and follow the same steps each time you get ready to take a test. This will ease your stress level and help ensure that you're well-prepared." Establishing a routine is a method I recently starting using and discovered it works well for me. Mike Bunn also uses outside sources to support his thesis in his essay, "H...

 For my rhetorical situation, I am writing about test anxiety. Throughout the past few years, this has really become a problem for me. I always take my time to learn the material and go back and study over it, my problem is when I get to class to actually take the test. I worry so bad that i will mess up on the test that I end up forgetting the material. I want to write about this issue to find resolutions for myself and help other students fix this problems themselves.