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 agendas. But the way you approach them is different. With written text, language is the key. With an ad or data, you're listening for tone, visuals, numbers, and how all those things work together to move someone. One place I saw my analysis stretch was on my piece about the University of Oregon's "Calling All Ducks" advertisement. Instead of just saying that it was cool, I examined how the visuals and lack of scholarship statistics told a greater narrative of identity and belonging. That was a step forward for me as an author. Reading assignments from my classmates showed me how diverse viewpoints give life and meaning to analysis. I most enjoyed Jordan's dissection of a question about campus safety in a survey—he didn't just report on findings, he asked why people felt unsafe and tied it to broader social concerns. Maya’s reflection on a college brochure used great visual analysis; she noticed how students of color were shown in ways that felt performative and backed it up with tone and design choices. Lastly, Dani’s piece on college marketing was super compelling because it challenged the idea that college is always about "becoming" and argued that some students already know who they are. Reading what they had written made me understand that analysis is not all about having all the answers—it's about having better questions. Before this unit, I used to think of college as just a stepping stone to get a job or career. But now, after everything that we've read, viewed, and written, I think it's something more than that. I see college as somewhere people are finding out who they are, finding communities, and sometimes being shepherded down paths they did not even know they were on. I have changed my own thoughts—college is not necessarily getting where you are going, it is becoming who you are. If I were debating what college is for, I would want the readers to consider emotional growth, community, identity, and how schools must assist students beyond the classroom. College should be about learning, sure—but also about belonging.