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Arianna Takis Professor Payte English 115 December 10, 2013 Time to Reect Introduction: I really enjoyed taking the class this semester because the progressions were challenging to the point where I think my writing improved. I personally like to have complex topics to write about because it gets me thinking beyond the surface and it inspires my writing style. In the past, I have stuck to a traditional and simple writing style, but this course helped me improve as a writer. Progression One: The context of this paper was about identity and how it is essential for acceptance, as the arguments made were supported by two commencement speeches delivered from Joss Whedon and David Foster Wallace. This paper connects to the two speeches because of the authors include the theme of individuality throughout both works. Therefore, the intended audience is someone who might be questioning his or her identity and needs reinforcement. Because this paper discusses how many people have to question their identity before they can gure out who they are, the purpose is to reassure that struggling with nding an identity may be difcult, but it is worth it. The purpose is to inform about the importance of having an identity and being an individual. My choice of content in this paper comes from personal experience because it is a more powerful and convincing statement. I also included an example from one of my favorite

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novels, Catcher in the Rye, because I felt that the main character had problems with identity and it connected with my topic. My writing reects the choices I made because I have a consistent tone throughout the paper and my content choices work well with the topic. The paper has changed with the revision because I explained some vague points more in depth and adjusted my transitioning sentences to make the paper ow better. Progression Two: The content of this paper was how advertising companies, in particular Revlon cosmetics, manipulates its audience with famous celebrities persuading the consumers. This paper discusses the ideology of fantasy in American culture and how women are drawn into the idea of fantasy. The purpose of this paper is to explain what this company is doing to manipulate the audience and how they are achieving that goal. Given the purpose, the intended audience for this paper is people who are interested in the ideology of fantasy or in the manipulation of advertisements. I made the choice to discuss two specic commercials with Emma Stone and Olivia Wilde because I believe these advertisements were two perfect examples of what America thinks every woman wants. I wanted to address how women love the idea of fantasy and living in a fairy tale and being swept away by a handsome man, every since a young age. I included strong imagery of the advertisements and good explanations for the type of manipulation going on with ethos and pathos. I think this paper was an improvement from the rst progression because my transition sentences are better. In the revision, I explain more about the ideology of fantasy and about the stereotype of women wanting a fairytale lifestyle, along with improving my transition sentences.

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Progression Three: For this last paper, I think I had the most difcult time putting my ideas together. The content is how drug and alcohol rehabilitation is manipulating as it takes away freedom, but it is necessary because it is for the best. The reason I had a hard time was because I had three major themes of manipulation, behavior modication, and freedom or free will which made me think that I was overcomplicating the paper. I came to the conclusion that all three ideas worked together and I think it works well with the novel, A Clockwork Orange, which is what the paper is inspired from. This paper also involves research on the topic of substance rehabilitation, which at rst it was hard to nd good sources to use, but it all worked out. My intended audience is someone who does not believe that rehabilitation is needed or that taking away someone!s freedom should not be done. This is an argumentative paper, so going into it I was gladly open to hear counterarguments and disagreements. This topic is somewhat personal to me because I have had family members go through the rehabilitation process so the purpose for me was important to get across. Thus said, my goal for this paper was to argue and convince that this rehabilitation is necessary because the outcome can be great and the deprivation of freedom will eventually be worth it. Collaborative Group Presentation: The purpose of this assignment was to explain Covergirl!s advertisement campaign and how and why it was manipulating. My group decided to use a popular campaign that we have seen on television and we decided to show the commercials during our presentation. We organized the presentation by the different advertisement strategies like ethos and pathos and by what each of thought was being done to manipulate the

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audience. One conict that our group had was everyone getting together at the same time and working on the project. The majority of the group eventually got together and we successfully worked on the presentation. Almost everyone contributed their own thoughts and ideas for presenting. Our group met twice to work on the project, one time was to collaborate ideas and the other was to do the powerpoint presentation. We also communicated over email when we could not meet up. We prepared for the presentation the day before and rehearsed what each person would say. My Participation, Contribution, and Effort in the Class: When it comes to participating in class, I did not speak too many times, but I feel like when that when I did it was useful. I have brought up some interesting points about the novel that we read, which sparked conversation between other classmates. I did not ask many questions during class, but I always asked questions or for help from Professor Payte after class. I have helped my classmates by giving them constructive criticism on their essays when we did peer review. I like to be specic on how they can improve their paper because I like it when people do that for me. I cannot stand it when I get a paper back from a peer and there are barely any notes on it, I like to see how I can improve and what I am doing right. For collaborative group work, if I was not a leader, then I was very active with participating in the group. Overall Performance: I think my overall performance is this class was very good. I worked very hard on my papers and I am a perfectionist when it comes to writing, so I always am hard on myself when something is just a little off. I really took Professor Payte!s comments seriously and I think I improved my overall quality of writing. Even though I might not have been

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very vocal during class, I think I have contributed by having intellectual conversations about not just what we were studying in class, but also the topic of writing with my classmates and Professor Payte. I usually do not have much condence in my writing, but for this class I felt very strong about all three essays that I wrote. I have also turned in all my work in on time and have been present for all classes. Something that I denitely need to work on for not just this class, but really anything in life is time management because I am a really bad procrastinator and it might affect my writing since I feel kind of rushed. Besides that, I think I deserve an A in this class because of my dedication for improving my writing and the quality of my work.