1. How has/does/will your new understanding of genres, or your ability to 'read' different texts, visual artifacts, or situations rhetorically, affect how you interact with or think differently about these things, now or in the future? (Such as, in your other classes, in your personal interactions, while watching movies or reading books, looking at signs or ads or flyers, being convinced/not convinced to do something, etc)

My understanding of genres has improved a little bit. I think I have a better understanding of what makes a good genre, such as how to be eye-catching in a quick visual format. I would say that I am now more aware of when someone is trying to employ rhetorical strategies. This is why it is important to know rhetorical strategies, not only so you can use them, but also so you can know when they are being used against you. 

2. How will you continue to write or compose in other classes or activities for your major, extracurriculars, personal life, etc?

I think the most important thing to do is to appeal to all of the rhetorical strategies at some point, especially for a persuasive essay, to make the most effective argument. For example, in my K-pop essay, I appealed to ethos by providing idol testimony, pathos by discussing their hardships and Jonghyun’s tragic death, logos by making logical arguments regarding their sleep schedules, and kairos by writing in a time of heightened awareness of the issues within the industry. In the future, when writing persuasive essays, I will make sure to cross off every rhetorical strategy and employ them efficiently. 

3. What's a situation you've recently encountered in your life that you thought about rhetorically? Such as:

• responding differently to 2 audiences

• crafting a text message or email for a certain audience

• using pathos in a group chat

• thinking about the exigence of a weird situation

• realizing when someone is employing a rhetorical strategy to convince you of something, etc.

There was a time when a friend of a friend was trying to get me to convert to his faith. Once this individual figured out that I was a Catholic, he tried to use my beliefs to support his faith and to see things from his point of view. I feel like this was a clear example of knowing your audience and logos, as he was trying to bridge my beliefs into his and making logical connections between his and my faith. There also may have been an appeal to ethos as well, as he may have been attempting to create credibility by knowing about Catholicism. Overall, I think I learned that anyone will use rhetorical strategies to get you to believe anything, and again, it is important to know when someone is trying to use rhetorical strategies to influence you. 

4. As you work on projects for other classes in the future, how will you continue to think about audiences or discourse communities?

I will always be aware of who my audience is. For example, it is okay to use slang and contractions in order to appeal to your peers or younger people if they are your audience, but it is important to be aware of your audience if that is not the case. For example, a business audience and a science audience would have different writing and presentation norms. It is important to be aware of these norms when writing. 

5. Do you plan to take any other writing courses? Courses that will require writing or creating different genre compositions? Creative writing courses?

I do not plan to take another writing course, but I would not be opposed to taking another one. If I did take one, I would prefer that it be something with a lot of creative freedom to write about what I want. For example, I found this course enjoyable because I was able to write about things I cared about, such as Formula 1 and K-pop. I feel like this is an important part of writing, and more courses should adopt an assignment structure where there is an emphasis on writing about anything you want. I feel like this would greatly improve students' perception of writing classes.