Reflection Paper

Reflection Paper

            Writing my opinion editorial was harder than I was expecting.  Going in, I kind of thought that all we were going to have to do was state our opinion about something and say why we think so.  But, that’s not how it really was.  It was fun to learn how to structure an argument that actually persuades others.  I think the part I liked most about writing the paper was being able to think about the people I was writing to, and try to formulate my paper to be the most effective towards them.  However, the most difficult part form me was trying to back up my claims with substantial and meaningful evidence, that was specific to my topic.  I think that I just like to have opinions about things without really thinking about all the reasons I have that opinion. 

When I was first introduced to the Style Academy website in class, I went home that day and started exploring it.  In my exploration, I found a topic that sounded interesting to me, and that I recognized that skilled writers often use: the appositive.  I learned about tit the first day and tried to implement it into my paper.  One example of my use of an appositive is when I say, “That being said, some may be surprised when they hear that BYU, a private university owned by a church that is one of the largest supporters of religious freedom, is being criticized with the very denial of it.”  Before I watched the instruction on appositives, I guarantee that I would’ve worded that sentence very differently, and much less eloquently.  Another example of my use of appositives was when I stated my source, Jim Slaughter.  Instead of saying that he was the University Chaplain of BYU in a different sentence, I was able to combine the sentence to help the overall flow of my paper.  I really liked Style Academy because of how clearly they explained the concepts.  I usually struggle with English terminology, but with Style Academy, I was able to remember it quite well.

            With regards to GASCAP, I think the one I used most in my paper was generalization.  Almost my whole paper, I was talking about the entire student body of BYU, or an entire group of people in general.  I generally stated the opinions of a mass quantity of people and what the general consensus was concerning saying prayers in the classroom.  I also used the concept of principle a lot in my paper.  When I talked about whether it was right or wrong to pray in the classroom, I based my argument on the principle of religious freedom, and how it applies to everybody.