Summary & Response Paper- Reflection #1

Reflection #1
I was surprised to see how much the authors, based on the works that I have chosen to mention in my paper, made me come to my senses and realize how much harm humanity has done to the environment that has led to the ongoing rise to the issue of climate change. To start their works off, the authors would immediately start testing the reader on their knowledge of the environment around them such as knowing the origins as to where the things we see on a daily basis come from. In this case, what society has ignored for the past couple of years are the origins of our water which plays a major role in the growth of climate change. This approach made by the authors is well-done in captivating their audience’s attention and forcing them to think about a subject disregarded by society. Following up this approach the reader would be presented with information that ties along what the people are doing wrong that seems to be worsening the condition of the environment. By creating this relatable relationship, the viewer’s attention is captivated, and the information presented is being taken in more efficiently.

Throughout my paper I acknowledged the author’s works for being well-formatted but the same cannot be said towards my paper. Upon clearing my summary & response paper I came to notice some flaws with how my paper was structured. First was the ability to thoroughly explain the context behind the quotes cited and did the mistake of letting the quote speak for itself. After working with my peers, I had to first imagine that “my” audience isn’t informed about whatever I am talking about and must precisely guide them through it. Second mistake made frequently in my paper was the inability to refer back to my thesis in my body paragraphs, giving the impression of bringing up more ideas that do not correlate with my thesis. In other words, in my body paragraphs I did mention the idea of climate change being an ongoing issue that is being disregarded by society and how the authors tried working on confronting the people on this subject before it’s too late for humanity to defend themselves against the potential danger the entire planet could face if no action is taken from this issue. Instead of explaining what these authors meant based on their works and providing solutions of mine as to what humanity can do to prevent serious consequences, I went ahead and summarized the article in my own words. There were signs of repetitiveness with all of the re-wording of the authors statements with no explanations as to what they actually mean. It was just a bad habit that was taking a toll on this paper without me realizing it with the help of my peers who revised my paper while pointing out the flaws in them. I can even say that despite all the revision made on this paper, after submitting it there was still the presence of not clearly explaining my quoted words and thanks to the comments made by my professors, I knew that for my next paper there had to be changes made.

Then again, as I look back to my Summary & Response paper, I cannot just look at all the flaws but instead look at the pros in my first paper of this class. This paper gave me the chance to connect more with my professors to learn more about the basics on writing a paper in MLA Format. This may sound tacky, but from even knowing how to properly cite all of my resources I had to learn from scratch. Second was having a better understanding of the rhetorical devices (Pathos, Logos, and Ethos) and how the authors incorporate these devices into their works with the goal of being able to convince the reader with their points/opinions over a specific subject. Before even taking this class, with the help of the professors and these articles, I had to immediately think about how my actions are harming the environment. This whole issue would bring the question as to whether the public should immediately react to this problem, the answer would be yes because this whole discussion holds a great significance in warning the reader about the consequences, we all face for not educating ourselves on the negative impacts our actions have and how the natural beauty we once had is slowly fading away from existence.

Comparative Analysis- Reflection #2

Reflection #2:

After looking back at my first paper being the Summary & Response essay, I knew there were some things I had to watch out for. These bad habits that I had watched out for were being too repetitive with my wording, explaining the use of some quoted words instead of just letting a quote speak for itself, and not having some of my body paragraphs correlate well with my thesis statement. My very first thoughts that came to mind when it came to writing this second paper (The Comparative Analysis Paper) was that this assignment was going to be relatively easier compared to the first, but I later found out that this wasn’t the case. In the Comparative Analysis paper, the class had to compare two films being “Don’t Look Up” directed by Adam McKay, and “Princess Mononoke” directed by Hayao Miyazaki with the task of proving which of the two films is more effective in showing the audience the dangers of climate change. The comparative analysis paper had to be written in MLA format and I had a pretty good understanding of the format thanks to the past assignment but now we were dealing with films instead of articles. 

From a rapid shift from reading Articles to analyzing films, now one strategy that I had to work on was being able to successfully interpret what the directors have produced in their films and make a connection as to how their works relate with the rise of climate change. It took about two re-watches per movie in order to get a grasp as to what each movie did best on. What both directors use in their films while having completely different plots, symbolism, and style of production (live action for Don’t Look Up and animated for Princess Mononoke) is the use of the rhetorical strategy of Pathos. In the film Princess Mononoke Hayao Miyazaki was able to perfectly demonstrate how in a society the action of one can be perceived as outrageous but instead have a good reasoning that not everyone gets to see at first glance. Meanwhile Adam McKay would use the same strategy but since the film is produced in a live action setting, we get to see more of how each of the character’s behavior reflect how society reacts towards climate change. 

The main issue that I ran into was deciding which one out of the two options was more effective because both films did a good job while holding some strong key points that made me begin to doubt who to choose as my final decision. Despite choosing Princess Mononoke as the more effective film in this subject, at first, I was really aiming towards talking about Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up for its realism. Don’t Look Up is filmed as a live-action setting with no animation, immediately targeting a more mature audience, and each of the characters involved in the film represent how the people in current-society act. Even though the ending and some aspects of the film are unrealistic such as how some people would travel to another planet, the script and acting really brought up the amazing implementation of Pathos by the director. However, what ultimately decided to choose Princess Mononoke over the more “realistic” Don’t Look Up was the presence of another rhetorical strategy used by the director Hayao Miyazaki being the combination of pathos and ethos. I would say that the only biggest downfall to Princess Mononoke can also be seen as its biggest pro which is it being an animated film. The animation quality of Studio Ghibli is gorgeous, but it places a restriction on how the audience interprets the whole movie. Children will believe that the gist of the movie is simply the main character fighting for peace but for adults the gist has a whole different meaning. Moving aside the audience restriction, Hayao Miyazaki was able to have each of the fictional characters show a moral that modern society still maintains such as how one perceives greed, or power, which the film Don’t Look Up does not touch on a deeper level. This presence of Ethos makes the audience relate to the fictional characters and appear as not just a drawn persona but more as a good representation of how people do actually tend to react towards more realistic subjects. Once again, with the combination of pathos and ethos the film Princess Mononoke touched the topic of climate change/ the harm done to the environment alongside symbolism behind the characters and beautiful animation. 

Research Paper- Reflection #3

Reflection #3:

Figuring out how to start my research paper was quite the struggle, and surprisingly was the part of my research paper that was time consuming and prevented me from continuing my paper for a long period of time. For the third time in a row, the question that came in my mind was figuring out a way to start my research paper. After taking a look at how current society is dealing with the rise of climate change, I wanted to touch on the matter of why the people are not acting on this subject despite all of the warnings shown across various entertainment platforms. What came to mind was the relationship the people/public have towards the information given to them. Then the development of my thesis statement was showing more progress. My plan was to find a way in ensuring a more effective response from the people, educators in particular are the targets in finding better ways to reach out the public since not everyone would think in the same manner and successfully consume all of the given information. I had to go more in depth to my thesis statement and give a more descriptive solution to the issue of the majority of the public reacting against the rise of climate change, educators or the ones distributing research on this subject does not ignore the importance of relating to the audience on a more personal level to get their attention. Relating to the audience on a more personal level is the trick into captivating the eyes and ears of the public since now you are bringing the idea of “your life being put at risk if nothing is being done” in the minds of everyone you are talking about. Plus, this research paper is not about manipulating the minds of the people but to see the urgent need of taking action or else each individual will see how climate change will eventually affect the entirety of humanity if nothing is being done.  For my sources that would support my thesis statement, three sources of media (two articles and one film) come into play in providing the importance of how educators should have a better approach to their audience and reinforce a better relationship with society. As a whole, each of the sources used in my research paper would function as a step in a staircase, one article would lead to the next one and by the end have the reader understand how these sources tie along with my thesis statement. The purpose of my research paper is to not simply go along with my thesis statement, but to convince educators to take more time in developing a better method of communication with their community. Better communication among both sides will most likely have a desired outcome after releasing collected data from the rise of climate change instead of seeing no results after releasing informative data with no despair. The better the approach to slowing down the rapid rise of climate change, educators will have to reach a specific audience based on their knowledge on the subject. This is one point even I have to admit that I was in the same situation because sometimes one has to understand that despite all the problems happening around the world, as an individual with all the things we all deal with in life sometimes we don’t always follow everything going around us. Thus, resulting in us having different levels of knowledge towards this issue. These levels of recognition can range from having no clue to having a decent amount of recognition as to what is going on. After being educated on the origins of our land (including water), the public will have to change their view on the poorly designed infrastructure that society has been accustomed to and immediately make changes on their behavior with their surroundings to prevent further issues. In one of my sources, Princess Mononoke, despite being an animated film, it would show a side of the world that is being ignored by many others that proceed to go on with their personal lives and show how nature is being negatively impacted by industrialization. The film Princess Mononoke shows the importance of having good communication with the community which is what I want to see in the modern world. As stated in my research paper, the relationship between the community’s attitude and behavior seems to matter more than what educators do not realize and must be taken seriously for the sake of humanity and the environment.