Jessica´s AP Lang ePortfolio

         Quarter 1 Columnist Rhetorical Analysis Reflection:

My columnist was Richard Cohen who works for The Washington Post. His most used rhetorical strategy was Pathos. He often wrote wrote about the 2016 presidential candidates, mostly about Donald Trump. Since his articles were mostly opinionated he used Pathos more than any other strategy. He tried to get his readers to see Trump as he saw him. To do this he had to appeal to their emotions.

                   Quarter 1 Novel  "The Great Gatsby":

 In The Great Gatsby Jay Gatsby was a powerful tycoon, had all the riches and glory but wasn't always like this. He grew up in a poor family with farmers as parents, but this didn't stop him from working hard and achieving the american dream. But having this enormous wealth didn't satisfy Gatsby who wanted only Daisy's love. I think if one does work hard enough for what they want they can achieve their dreams, but not everything can be achieved. You might work hard for something your whole life but when you do get it the satisfaction may not be what you expected.

                       Timed Write "The Common Life":

  My favorite timed write was "The Common Life" because I really liked the prompt. It was easy to understand and come up with a response compared to the other Timed Writes. It was asking more of your opinion than a right or wrong answer. 

          Jefferson-Stanton Rhetorical Analysis Essay:

   I will manage my time better when writing the essay. I will also try to make my writing more sophisticated and well thought out.

                                    Quarter 1 Reflection:

 I learned how to improve my writing, write a precis paper, annotate better and how to break away from the formulaic essay structure. The timed writes were the most meaningful assignments. They're helping me manage my time better, and is good practice for the AP exam. I wished we skipped the socratic seminar because it didn't really help me that much. 

                                           Quarter 2

               1. "Their Eyes Were Watching God" Prompt:

 Rhetorical/literary devices Hurston uses in her novel to advance her theme of gender and race are diction and imagery. Her word choice isn't formal at all and is mostly dialogue. The dialogue she does use between characters is accurate of what people would've sounded like back at that time period. This helped develop the plot and make it easier to understand

Imagery is used a lot throughout the book. It helps create the setting and help you visualize the characters. Such as Janie for example her hair is mentioned many times which makes it important. Her hair is a symbol and helps to distinguish her from the other characters in the book. Imagery in the book also gives you a better understanding of characters because they're described in detail.

            2. Quarter 2 Columnist Precis Paper Prompt:

The columnist I chose was Jennifer Rubin who writes about politics frequently. The rhetorical device she used the most was Logos. She would create this appeal by using facts or statistics relating to the topic she was discussing. She would also use Logos to convince or agree with what she was writing about. By creating logos she sounded like she knew what she was talking about and also created Ethos. She also used pathos and ethos a lot. She used pathos to get her audience to relate with her. If she didn't create some kind of connection with her audience they wouldn't be interested in what she was saying or agree with any points she was trying to make. Ethos was used to help her get credibility. If she didn't have any credibility then she would be just a random woman talking nonsense. Her diction helps her create this appeal make her seem knowledgable about the topic and get people to understand her message or agree with that message.

                 3. Quarter 2 Synthesis Paper Final Essay:

                         4. Synthesis Paper Reflection:

                                  5. Quarter 2 Reflection:

In Quarter 2 I learned how to improve my writing like writing for a synthesis paper. I also learned how to use multiple sources to support my argument. I learned how to do MLA citations and in-text citations. The timed-writes were the most meaningful because they were good practice for the AP exam. It puts into perspective how much time you really have to write an essay on a timed test. The socratic seminars were meaningful too because they helped give me a better analysis of the readings we had and using them in my essay. 

I wish we had skipped reading "Their Eyes Were Watching God." I didn't find it that interesting. I'm looking forward to our next novel in Quarter 3. I'm not looking forward to the precis papers for Quarter 3. My learning goals for Quarter 3 are to learn how to manage my time better, how to write better counter-arguments and how to have better syntax in my essays. I also want to learn how to do better on timed-writes and get better scores.