My rhetorical analysis paper was over the essay "On Dumpster Diving" by Lars Eighner. In my paper I talked about how he used logos, pathos, and ethos to express how he lived from a Dempsey Dumpster. He used logos to show us what was safe and unsafe to eat, ethos to express his feelings about other scroungers, and pathos for things he learned about humans through what they consider trash. My paper was ok but had a lot of errors. My thesis lacked clarity and I had quite a few punctuation and grammar mistakes. The grammar mistakes could have been fixed before I turned in my paper if I evaluated it a little more carefully and having someone else read the whole thing before I turn it in. My ideas also did not flow perfectly with the main point. This could have been avoided again by a better evaluation and by taking my ideas a step further than just what is on the surface. My main focus for the rest of my papers is to make sure my silly grammar mistakes are caught before the final draft and have others read my paper to make sure my ideas are clear and precise with the main point. I also think I should have picked a better way to write my last paragraph about how Eighner used pathos for the things he learned through the trash. Even though he talked about it, I did not have enough to write about to make it a well structured paragraph and that could have been avoided by finding something he talked a little more about, like the food situation and the other scroungers. Another kind of big problem I had was sentence structure. My sentences made sense by themselves but did not complement each other when I put them together in a paragraph.
Even though I had some flaws, since I am only human, my paper also had some good points. Throughout my whole paper I engaged the audience the whole time, and I also used good examples from the book and cited them as well. I felt like I could relate to him more since I am from Texas and I have heard of his story before. University of Texas is only three hours away from my house and we have swim meets there every march and July, also a lot of my friends go there and their parents and grand parents went there as well. I have heard of his story from one of my dad's friends even though it obviously was not as real as when you read it from Eighner first hand. I felt like a had a better understanding going into this paper since I already knew what I was reading.
Overall I think my paper was good, but can always be better. I need to focus more on grammar mistakes that should not have happened, and putting sentences together better to make my point clear. I also need to make sure that even though I used good examples and kept the audiences attention, I can not forget that in my next paper.
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3 comments:
A really useful and interesting analysis. Keeping in mind what you did well, and not to let that fall by the wayside on your next paper, is a very important point. As you realized, having someone look over your work will help catch mistakes that you might have missed. Great job on your paper and thanks for participating in the reflection so effectively!
I agree with you when you say that someone else should read your paper because it is not always possible to catch all your mistakes on your own. I also found it interesting that you have heard this story before and you could relate to the story. I thought your reflection was very good in that you pointed out what you did well and some of your mistakes. I think it is important for everyone to remember what they did good in their paper.
I think after reading classmates blogs, grammar errors were common and the idea of someone else reading over their paper sounds like it would be a great idea. I know it's something i will take advantage on my synthesis paper. I think It's hard to catch your errors and the flow of your ideas when your a writer. Have you considered going to the writing lab to have them edit your paper? I haven't been there personally but I believe it could help. Overall your analysis on your rhetorical paper was very informative. I think you learned from your mistakes and thats what is most important!
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