Looking Back, Thinking Forward: What This Unit Taught Me About Analysis, College, and My Voice as a Writer (Unit 2 Part 3)
This course taught me to slow down and really look at things—not as words on a page, but the meaning behind numbers, images, and messages. Maybe most importantly, I learned how to take apart and break down information from different sources. Whether it was an advertisement for college, a sampling of survey responses, or a fellow student's writing sample, I started looking at intention and effect more thoroughly. I remember how in-class exercises such as the ad break-down and the "10-on-1" approach challenged me past superficial observations. Peers' feedback also assisted—I knew that having more personal context in my writing made my writing stronger and more readable. I would then surrender to using emotion and description to underpin my analysis instead of just describing what something appeared to be after revising on comments. Reading survey findings or an ad was closer to reading text than I expected. Both times, you're looking for undertones, trends, and agen...
