Alan McLawhorn

Aaron Kashtan

UWRT 1102

6 May 2017

Job Application Email Reflection

For my job application, I met with and sent an email to Mr. Rogers, the manager of one

of the Food Lion store in Kinston, my hometown. To appeal to him, I chose to use logos, or

logic to persuade him to hire me for the job. The reason I chose logos was because in this

particular situation, it was the only choice that was applicable. While writing my job application,

I honestly was not thinking about how the job applied to American Identity, as all I cared about

at the moment was getting a job. However, afterwards I see how it applied. Most American

students in high school or college get a summer job: this is part of American identity. I know

that in other parts of the world, students also get summer jobs, so this experience is not only part

of American Identity.

Also, afterward, I saw how this experience applied to the fifth assignment of this E-

Portfolio, the paper I wrote for European History class. That paper dealt with trying to pass child

labor laws in England during the Industrial Revolution. As I said in the reflection for that paper,

the Industrial Revolution was also happening in the United States, and there were similar issues

with trying to pass child labor laws. Even though these issues do not relate to me directly, since I

am nineteen years old, applying for the job made me think of them.

This example shows that in everyday situations many people do not think about the

American Identity, or at least my view of American Identity. When I met with the store manager
and sent him an email, I was not thinking about them as to how they applied to American

Identity. Overall, this email did not trigger a reaction, or epiphany about American identity. It

was instead just another part of everyday life, and as mentioned before, it is pretty difficult to

think about American identity on a daily basis.