Reflection on Pre-Production

This blog post will reflect on this past week’s work. I will make sure to include the challenges and successes of my work.

        1.     There were a few things that were successful this past week. For one, I developed a pretty good idea of my argument and why I am arguing against social media. The Rhetorical Analysis blog post helped me realize that I have somewhat of a bias towards this subject do to my upbringing. This was a success because I now better understand the context of my own argument, and that I can work to reduce my bias in the QRG.

I also believe I was successful in recognizing the counter arguments that my audience my have. The largest reason is because I have heard these arguments made first hand. The other thing I think I did well is recognize the type of media that I need to include for my QRG. I am so used to writing essays that it is often hard for me to think in more colloquial language when constructing a paper.

        2.     There were also some things that didn’t go so well. For one, I don’t know if I made each of my arguments clear in my content outline. This is because I was trying to stick to the format of an outline/the google doc that I forgot to elaborate on my position.

Another thing that I had trouble with was proving the validity of some of the authors in the research report post. This is because some of my sources were from opinionated websites that had no credible author. However, the very nature of my argument requires some subjectivity.

I also had trouble finding ways to explain the significance of a piece of evidence (content outline) when I believe that the source provided this. For instance, what is the significance of a pie chart on the amount of time spent on various activities? Well, it explains how much time we waste on social media. I feel like more was required and I wasn’t sure how to provide that.

     3.     I think next week will go a lot smoother than this week did. I have a decent framework for my argument and solid pieces of evidence to back it up with. I also understand what I am arguing for and why, so that will help me put my QRG together more efficiently. I also understand my selected sources a little better. This will help me use them more effectively.

         4.     If I were to give a number out of 10, I would say I’m at a 7 (with 10 being the best). There are a few things holding me back from giving the full points. For one, I need to think more about my claims and how to effectively present them. I will need to use plenty of ethos and logos in order to relate to my audience more effectively.

      The other thing that is keeping me from a 10 is using the conventions of a QRG. I’m afraid it will 

look more like an essay than anything else. I need to make sure that I include plenty of images and 

hyperlinks to aid my discussion.