Freewrite

Through working on my microtheme in this course, I am learning that I have been very conditioned as a writer. I was taught a very strict way of writing and have written every paper with the same backbone. I am learning that the way I was taught to write doesn’t really apply to all types of writing. In this assignment I struggled with writing about a problematic question rather than a topic. It felt so wrong not having a typical five paragraph essay. I had to learn how to condense my thoughts and add in my own opinion rather than researched facts. I would say that I am learning to become more creative in my writing. I feel myself thinking about things that happen in everyday life more closely. Overall, I think this course is making me think deeper about a lot of things that I never really looked at that way. My work on the documentary project and the microtheme has taught me the nature of knowledge and truth. It has definitely made me a more knowledgeable writer. As far as truth, the documentary project was very insightful. That’s as true as it gets since a documentary follows real life stories.

Self Review for Microtheme

So far I am pretty confident in my micro theme draft. The most challenging part of writing my microtheme was creating the third paragraph. In this paragraph, you are supposed to recognize the problem. I know what the problematic question of my microtheme is but I had a hard time starting this paragraph with, "If we could"... I think I did a fairly good job of overcoming this obstacle for myself. I was able to find a way that the "If we could.." statement fit my problematic question. However, it was surprisingly easy to write the first paragraph since it is based off of my own viewpoints and opinions. I think the main reason I was struggling with this assignment is because I was overthinking it all. Once I made sure that I had a problematic question rather than a topic, it all kind of fell into place.

Discussion of Documentary Films

I believe documentary film is a great tool to teach rhetorical knowledge and skill. Even without thinking about it, documentaries include many elements of rhetoric. Documentaries can use pathos, ethos, and logos to persuade their audience to feel a certain way. Whether the documentary is using facts or emotion, they are meant to get through to an audience. At the same time, documentaries are valid sources as they directly show information for what they are trying to persuade the audience about. Working with documentaries helped reframe my understanding of how to select good questions because they force you to make your own assumptions and opinions on the topic being discussed. I also think documentaries are a good way to teach writing to students because they are interesting. While some students may get bored from reading text all day, being able to watch a documentary on something that interests you is refreshing. It’s always nice to be able to enjoy the material that you have to do homework on because then it won’t feel like work. I believe using documentaries is a fun way to teach writing.

My Reflective Blog Post vs. a Published Review

I chose to read an article by The New York Times reviewing the documentary War Dance. The reflective blog entry I posted and this published review are similar and different in many ways. For example, both explained how inspiring the children in the documentary are. In my reflective post, I talked about how strong the children are to be able to overcome the horrifying realities of their pasts. I explained that the children’s love for music gave them a sense of hope. Music plays such a big role in the children’s lives and helps them to forget about the war. The published review expresses this when the author says, “presented in a spirit of hope”. The author of this review clearly believes that this film gives off a sense of hopefulness. Also, both my reflective blog post and this published review talks about the emotional scene when Nancy visits her father’s burial site. One difference is that I believe that most of these kids are sincerely sharing their sad stories publicly for the first time. Other than possibly telling any loved ones or friends they have left, they have held onto these deep dark secrets that are haunting them. For example, when Dominic describes the day he had to kill three innocent farmers to save himself from the rebels, he expressed that this was the first time he has ever told anyone that. However, the published review thinks that these interviews were “rehearsed.” I do not believe this is the case. Overall I enjoyed reading this published review because while I agreed with most of the statements made, I also liked to see a different point of view and opinion. It is clear that my reflective blog post and The New York Times review share similarities and differences.