Reflections

Photo essay: 
The photo essay was something new to me. I have never done anything quiet like it, but it was a learning experience that i enjoyed. At first the essay seemed overwhelming. I felt like there was so much that needed to be learned. Once i started i felt a little more comfortable. It is something i have no regrets in trying out. The photo essay taught me so many things about photography that i never knew such as: aperture, lighting, cropping and blurs. The photo essay sparked an interest that i never knew was there. The photo essay also helped me think of a research topic that i chose for my final paper. The photo essay mentally prepared me for what was to come. 

Visual rhetorical analysis
Like the photo essay, i was overwhelmed. I have never done an academic paper with photos incorporated within the text. I learned how to use figures in MLA. It was a skill that im glad i learned. I used that knowledge and carried into my culture and civilization and psychology papers. The visual rhetorical analysis was my favorite paper to write because it was a smooth transition between the photo essay and the argument synthesis. It kept the things i liked about both assignments and brought them together. I liked the photo essay because it was something new and the pictures told a story. The visual rhetorical analysis was something that interested me from the start. The goal was to analysis a poster and put my interpretations into word. I chose four posters on completely different topics that somehow carried a similar theme. The theme was to give the general public advice on a topic. They were public service announcement posters. One i enjoyed more than the other. It was the NSA surveillance poster. I picked that one because i had just finished reading 1984 by George Orwell and the government keeping its people suppressed seemed like it would be a good poster. The assignment was able to allow me to analysis the book as well as the poster. 
Argument synthesis
The argument synthesis paper was the paper where i learned the most about sentence structure. During this paper the professor taught us how to avoid using a passive voice. In my previous i was advised to stop using a passive voice. As it turns out, i have been using passive voice throughout my entire academic career. I never realized that i did not sound authoritative enough due to using a passive voice.   
 Research paper 
The research paper was the paper where i brought together everything i have learned throughout the semester. I was able to incorporate everything i have learned into this paper. I was careful to not use any passive sentences as well as try to learn from the mistakes from the previous paper. This paper was challenging to me because of how the paper was set up. I did not want to use as many passive sentences as I did in my Visual/Rhetorical analysis nor did i want my sources to synthesize as poorly as they did in the argument synthesis. The weakness i had was throughout the paper was that i did not want to overstate my previous statements. What i mean by that is that i wanted to be concise. Overall i felt okay with this assignment. What overwhelmed me was the amount of sources i needed to incorporate.