Cole Burgess

ENGL-2010
Brandon Alva
December 9, 2015
Reflection
1. During all of our studying of the media over the summer I have learned how much of an
influence it has on the modern America. Whether it is things as simple as ads in the
middle of your show to make you want to purchase items, to complex aspects that inform
the viewers of news and politics. Almost all of the politics that are discussed in America
take place on the media, where things can often times be hidden and distorted from the
truth.
2. We learned how to not be one sided viewers who look at a situation, pick a side and then
only look into the positive aspects of that side and the negatives of the other. To do this
we had to pick a topic that we felt strongly for and do research for both sides of the
argument to see if it would be able to change our opinion. This is a very beneficial
concept to incorporate into ones life, because it will make one a less ignorant and well
informed individual. One of the assignments that we had to do was create a media
journal. I kept track of all of the media that I consumed for a straight week and decided
what was: educational, entertainment and informative. After doing this assignment I
realized how little of informative media I consume on a day to day basis and along with
this, how many ads I witness. This assignment helped to reinforce the notion that the
media plays a bigger role in American life than anticipated.

3. One of the last assignments that was completed in technical writing was a PEAR paper

that was supposed to for student to look at both sides of an argument and then come to an
informed conclusion. When I first began this project I only had one opinion on the topic I
was researching and I knew very little about the other side of the argument. The first step
was to gather articles and information that supported each side of the argument. After
this, I wrote a brief editorial for each side of the argument as though I had all of those
beliefs. This helped me to see which side of the argument I felt like I was more for and
which one that I felt I disagreed with. It was very interesting to write an editorial
supporting the side that I had always been against, however it did give me a much
broader perspective of the issue. The last step of the project was to combine it all together
to create one strong final argument that contained facts from both sides, yet attempted to
persuade the reader towards my opinion. Although my stance on the matter did not
change from when I began, I found it very beneficial to look deeper into the issue at
hand. Overall this assignment taught me how to look at both sides of an argument to
make an educated and well informed opinion about a topic rather than turning my focus
to the side I initially agree with.