Textual Analysis Reflection

The textual analysis was an interesting approach to writing that I had never really experienced before. When deciding the article, I wanted to find something that was prevalent in today’s news, and nothing fit the bill more than Hurricane Harvey. More specifically, I wanted to try and right something that was outside of my comfort zone. My end goal is to work somewhere within sports media, but I also realize that I may not be involved with sports writing right away so I like to use opportunities such as this to strengthen my skills writing about other topics. The persuasive strategies that I decided to write about were not ones that I had to search for, but rather ones that I casually noticed as the reader the first time I read the article. Because of that, my thesis remained the same throughout most of the process. I enjoyed the article and admired how well it was written, which made it easier to make points within my analysis. I read the article a few times, just refresh on ideas that I wanted to include within my analysis.

After my peer review, a few things were brought to my attention about how I could take my analysis to the next step. One thing that I struggled with in the previous writing assignment and wanting to get better at was my transitions between body paragraphs. When writing my rough draft, I felt like I was getting a little better but still needed a grasp as to what makes a good transition. After meeting with the professor and my peers, I made changes and now feel that my transitions were the most improved part of my analysis and writing as a whole.

 

Textual Analysis Mid-Assignment Reflection

I felt like I came in today with a pretty well developed paper. I still felt like there was something from my article but was hoping that would be brought to light from the peer review. As my group members were reviewing my paper and giving feedback, they brought to my attention that I should add more quotes and use more of the vocabulary to help create a better analysis. With this, I hope to consider these notes and come back on Tuesday with a well-rounded analysis.

A Homeless Man In DC

Response

The article gave the reader a lot to think about and almost created a dispute within one’s own mind about Sheptock and what he was doing. As an advocate, Sheptock continues to be active but he can only do so much through the internet and social media. Multiple instances throughout the article, it is shown that Sheptock’s message isn’t getting across as well as he wants, such as the lack of Facebook comments or the administrator just putting his e-mails into the spam folder. He says that he would not take a job or buy a home if it hindered his advocacy, but if he is not getting across to people as he thought he would, when is it time to move on and better his current situation?

Analysis

Homelessness draws a lot of emotion for communities, mostly for varying reasons. Some have empathy for those who have hit hard times and others argue that fact and imply that they put themselves in that situation. Eric Sheptock draws neither of those emotions from the reader through this article. Sheptock takes his current situation and uses his platform to bring light to homelessness. His purpose is to make a difference within his community, and so far he has certainly made a name for himself. A hint of pride fills the reader, as even with his lowly place in society, he is determined to make a difference. “I’m a homeless homeless advocate”, a title he carries with pride.

 

Article Summary Reflection

Throughout the process of writing the article analysis, I learned a lot about myself as a writer. In my first college writing assignment, I could sense the immaturity, for lack of a better word, in my writing style. I felt like I was falling short of what I was presenting to the reader but didn’t know how to fix it. I think part of the problem was that I was trying to be too detailed, but I stretched too much to try and achieve that and ended up downgraded the paper as a whole in my opinion. Overall, I think that I know what I want to get across to the reader, I am just having a hard time translating that in my writing. I I wanted to write with a more professional style but I am just not there yet as a writer, and that was probably the most difficult thing I had to face in this assignment. In my next assignment, my goal is to have more flow in my writing instead of being so choppy.