Amalia Caamano

Professor Bickmore
English 2010
Group Project
On Communicating and Collaboration
I chose this subject because it has always had a lot of importance in my life.
Growing up my father used to always push me to became the best I could and he
always made it known that as a woman I deserve no less than a man. This issue has
also always stroked a spark in my attitude. I formed this perspective from a very
early stage and from example by the strong women and men around me who raised
me. I have always believed in the strength of women and their rights. My research
process for this class was very new to me. I had never used a legitimate search
strategies, I always thought Wikipedia would suffice (I was terribly wrong). I had to
go about using SLCCs database which turned out to be rather easy to use. I do not
think my perspective of my social justice issue changed at all this semester, I think it
got stronger. As I educated myself and used trustworthy sources I realized so many
new things about my social justice issue. I learned about more court cases that were
completely unfair, and that truly made me support gender equality more than
before. I think the best source that helped shape my opinions this semester was
Congressional Digest. When I would use SLCCs database this site and magazine
would always give me such great and new information. I used that source quite a bit
throughout my research papers and I think it gave me new and reliable information.

I chose to write in genres I did because I felt that they truly showed my
writing capabilities. I chose a review over a report because I felt in a review you
could more clearly state your feelings about your social justice issue. I wanted to
show why some peoples argument against gender equality was weak, and I knew
that a review of someone opposing my stance would be the best way. I think my
review was also one of my strongest pieces this semester, but I did not want to
showcase it. I wanted to include more pieces that I could revise a bit more. I think
all these papers connect because they all aim to educate an audience.
Throughout my writing I think I used many different rhetorical approaches
to create Kairos. I tried to use Logos the most because I think hey best kind of
arguments are those based on facts and logic. The papers I chose for the magazine
project used more Pathos. I really wanted my pieces to evoke emotion in people, so
therefore I used my own emotions. I wanted to show the passion I had for the
subject, whilst still using Logos. I used reliable sources for accurate information and
adding a heavier impact of Pathos. I dont think I used much Ethos and I now know
that I can use this further for my next English courses. I think with all of my pieces
combined on our magazine group project I truly accomplished Kairos. I wanted all
my information to flow and to have the right thing said at the right time. I think the
order and timing of my text truly showed the best overall rhetoric of Kairos. I
persuaded my audience to see my points in my papers about gender equality at the
right time and in the right manner.
I had a very interesting process with the translation and adaption. I chose to
translate and adapt my notebook four. I had originally responded to a slam poem

with an essay, but I thought it would be fun to respond to a slam poem with yet
another poem! I thought this would show just how I understood the poem as poetry
by showing how I felt about the subject with passion of another poem. I learned that
my original could have been much more creative. I responded to most my
notebooks in a mediocre way, when I could have easily done a much more creative
approach.
My experiences in collaborating this magazine project were very interesting
and a bit stressful. I think in the beginning this project seemed very intimidating
and nearly impossible. As I was assigned my role I felt very nervous to think the
success and overall impression of this project would be on me. In my particular role
I tried to ensure everyone was on the same page. I first sent out many emails then
learned that text messaging was a better and more efficient way for me to
communicate with my group. I was constantly messaging them in efforts to meet
and discuss our outcomes. In all honesty as a group we met once, but Brooke the
visual editor and I met once more to truly discuss and move forward with our
efforts for the group project. I think I tried my best to ensure that each individual
group member did the part they were assigned. As editor and chief I will admit I did
a lot of the work in the end, I was too worried it would not be finished in the end. I
messaged each group member their assignments and would check after to make
sure that they had done those assigned roles. Overall I think our group worked very
well together, and I think we each put in our best efforts to complete what we felt
we needed.