I enjoyed writing about the food industry. I feel like I gained a lot of knowledge from researching. This first assignment forced me to reflect on all facets of an argument. It also helped me realize that when writing about a controversy there is not always one simple solution. What is key in the way to for your argument is to take a stance on an issue and offer a different way of thinking or a start to a solution. I struggled with synthesizing my resources in my first paper. It was difficult for me to relate the arguments in these specific sources to the argument that I was trying to convey. Overall I feel that I have become a stronger writer because of this struggle. Now I know that it is important to weave together sources and not simply state facts.

Some other challenges I encountered was sifting through research on a complicated topic. When I chose the Syrian Refugee Crisis as my final research topic I did not realize how many arguments and sides there are to the issue. Not only did I have to decipher what my sources were arguing but along the way I had to form my own opinion. The exercise of finding different types of sources helped me see that news articles, journals, and even late night news have vastly different views on certain topics. This experience has helped me as a research writer because I feel that I am now able to interoperate the voice and meaning of multiple articles and form my own views on them as a whole.

The Ted Talk exercise helped me to communicate with my audience. Not only did I have to be knowledgeable on my subject, but I had to synthesize my information in a way that would make sense to someone who is not versed on the issues of the Syrian Civil war and Syrian Refugee Crisis. This ultimately helped me format the structure of my research paper in a way that made the most sense for the reader. This exercise helped me incorporate visuals and facts into my presentation and strengthened my knowledge of ethos and pathos.

All of these experiences have helped me become more aware of the language and content of my resources. They have helped me put these ideas together and relate them in a way that strengthens my argument, while commenting on different sides of an issue. By having this skill I am able to better strengthen my writing and I am more effective at conveying my ideas to an audience.

The most recent way that my practices of research and rsearch writing in WRT 205 have helped me are in some of my other classes this semester. In my art history class we are required to analyze different sources and develop an argument for a final paper. WRT 205 has helped me to be able to synthesize sources and my argument in a way that creates a coherent paper. When I have to write this paper of my art history class I will have a better skillset. Many of the assignment that we have done are research based but the articles themselves are less scholarly because of the context and the audience. The field of museum studies and art history is very scholarly and the audience is mostly educated people who are familiar with the arts. This contrasts with the style of writing in this class because the majority of time I will be writing in my field will be for a more scholarly audience. In contrast if I ever want to write for a broader audience, I feel that I have more skills because of WRT 205.

 

As I began to read more and learn more from documentaries, I was more engaged in the topic. I found that the more I learned the more disgusted I was with our food industry in America. I had a similar response to the Political Controversies. Once I began researching and learning more about Syrian Refugees and the injustices they face, I began to have more of a concern for the issue and felt that there is a real injustice that many people are not aware of.

In the beginning of researching both of these topics I did not have a lot of background information. Since I did not know much on the topics I had not formed my onion yet. I learned that it is important to think of both sides of an article and issue and that in fact there are many facets to an issue. Once I realized this I found that is was very important to analyze my texts and find the core of what they were trying to say. By doing this I was able to form my own views on the topics that were informed and considered all sides of the issues. This processed helped my argument and helped me become better informed on each topic.

Once I finished the documentary Food Inc., I was more invested in the topic. This helped me realize that there are different forms of communication outside of articles and newspapers that are reliable. The story that Food Inc. told was interesting and had the most impact on my opinions of the topic. Another example of my interest in the topics we studied was the late night shows and how they covered serious topics in an interesting and informative way. Some of the best information I got was from Ted Talks and Late Night shows because of how they synthesized numerous sources in a way that made sense. Although the journal articles were informative, I found that the news paper articles like form the New York Times were the most up to date on international issues and controversies. These were the most helpful in sparking my interest as well as informing me on these issues.

 

I would continue working on my Syrian Refugee piece because I feel like there are so many different factors that I did not get a chance to cover. There are so many issue concerning the refugees and I feel like I only covered the basics of what is happening. I would like to follow up with what the United States is doing and how they are choosing to deal with the crisis, how the UN is dealing with the lack of resources, how Syrians are living in these refugee camps and how that is affecting the children, and I would like to go further unto how we might start to educate these people. There are so many facets of this issue that it was impossible to cover all of them. I felt that in my article I needed to start at a level of informing the audience and to try and break that cycle of fear. There is so much happening with this topic that was a difficult issue to tackle.

 

 

5.

I would share the Ted Talk with people outside this class because I feel like the majority of Americans are not aware of what is really happening with the refugees. I think I would like to share this information first with the Syracuse campus but then also reach out to other parts of the community. I think it is important for people to know the facts, especially before they vote. I think it is difficult to change someone’s opinion on an issue like this, but I would hope that I would get people thinking about how we are treating these refugees. Hopefully people would react positively and would want to help educate Syrian Refugees and their children.