RESEARCH PAPER: Statement of Purpose

This paper will be written with the intentions that the audience has previous basic knowledge of the topic, solitary confinement, and is well educated on national affairs and policy regarding how the U.S. incarceration system works. I am specifically writing to U.S. policy makers and legislatures calling for their attention to the flawed and unethical use of complete isolation in prison, but this may also be relevant to correctional and medical officials/experts since the sources I will use are pulled from those realms of expertise. The purpose of this paper is to use the expert opinions and research findings from published professionals in the various fields of medicine, psychology, justice, and statistics to argue for the need of policy reform concerning the practice of solitary confinement. I will stress the idea of incorporating BOTH sides of the argument (pro solitary confinement and against solitary confinement) and using the reasoning for the two to find a middle ground. The professional journal sources I will use will either support or disagree with the use of solitary confinement. I plan on the middle ground being the idea of policy reform, thus preserving the benefits and getting rid of the negatives of inmate isolation. The conflict of solitary confinement in the U.S. incarceration system deals with alot of conflict concerning its cost efficiency, safety, and psychological affects and those ideas will be explored in this research paper.

Synthesis Reflection

My Overall attitude towards this paper/project is negative. I have written several synthesis papers before, especially in my high school AP english classes and this would not be one of the better ones. My main problem with it is the lack of time I could find to devote to writing this. With the idea that all these writing projects are subject to revision at the end of the semester in the back of my head, It was extremely difficult to prioritize this essay above the unsettling amount of other things I had to get done. Quite honestly, I am pretty impressed with the amount I was able to turn out compared to the the amount of time I was able to write this, but I know the quality could be better.

I feel as if I followed my design plan closely and successfully showed both agreeing synthesis and disagreeing synthesis between the authors/sources. I feel as if my essay accomplished the synthesis aspect of the assignment well, but is missing the stylistic flow and length that a second revision (that i did not have time for) would correct for.There are ideas I could have added to. However, I am pleased with how my synthesis touches on both sides of the argument and uses a variety of authors to compare and contrast opinions between. I believe I followed the structure for a synthesis paragraph discussed in class for all my body paragraphs and I make constant appeals toward my young college age student audience.

Synthesis Essay

Synthesis Paper Purpose Statement/Design Plan

For this paper, my intended audience would be the college age student, specifically the more impressionable and less committed to a specific career choice student, like a freshman or sophomore. They need to be educated in order to understand certain big-idea concepts and interested in their future career.
This paper will argue the necessity of a college education AND experience in terms of what it will provide future employees in the modern and unpredictable workforce. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize articles by Richard Judy & Carol D'Amico, Thomas Friedman, Alan Blinder, an article from the Economist and a publication on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to argue for how to best prepare for a working life in which change is a constant. I will argue that the future of work ensures less job security, mass exportation, and declining impersonal services, and that a college education/experience is the best way to overcome them.
 I will employ ethos with my well introduced expert opinions and factual generalizations. I will employ pathos by stressing the complications the workforce will see in the future since future jobs should be a major concern of my audience's. Lastly, I will Employ Logos with the factual appeals of statistics and trends as well as present my synthesis a logical flow.My overall strategy for writing this paper is to introduce both sides of the argument then pick the side that supports a college education and then use expert synthesis in my body paragraphs to support my argument and conclude with the relevance this all has on the future generations.

In Class Writing Assignment

In reference to "The Changing Landscape of Work in the Twenty-First Century"

In my opinion, "work" is idea of  doing something in exchange for something else. Whether it be for material things or for pleasure, the person or object doing the work is gaining or at least not losing from the experience of working. Joanne Ciulla's observation that, "There may be no one particular feature present in everything we call work, but rather many characteristics that overlap and intersect" seems to be contradictory of mine. While both of our definitions or ideas about work are very general, mine seems to I've it a definition while Ciulla makes an observation that it cannot be defined. However, I still fail to see how work could not match my definition given that its very general.The word "work" is a verb; work has to be a subject acting on something else. And while work is also used as a noun to describe a place or idea, it is always closely tied as a thing someone or something does to that results in something that is trying to be changed or kept the same. Work is a use of energy with a purpose.

Analysis Reflection

After reflecting on the rhetorical and visual analysis essay I think it went better than the photo essay. I have more experience rhetorically analyzing literature and incorporating the visual component was not that difficult, especially because of examples from the book Compose Design Advocate. However, I did have an issue with the time span of the essay. It seems we were given much longer or an extension to the due date on the photo essay, and much less time for this one. I still managed to get everything done on time though, but I feel like I could have produced a better quality essay if I was given more time or at least had a more organized peer review session.

                I believe I ended up following my design plan pretty well, and since I got to change and tweak my design plan before I turned in my essay, I got them both to match pretty nicely. I ended up only using 4 visual examples instead of 5 because I was already over the word limit, and I also decided to keep the photos in line of the text instead of presented before their corresponding paragraphs and almost separate. I did this because it essentially has the same effect while also saving space. My ethos, logos, and pathos arguments started off strong but general, and as the essay moves along they become more specific. Since all these ads essentially have the same method of presenting things to the audience, I didn’t want to repeat myself so I left out some analysis in later paragraphs if I already mentioned it before. I think I involved and made my evolving thesis clear enough and the general format and flow of the essay is smooth. 

Rhetorical and Visual Analysis