In the course, I have learned much about what growth I should be taking with me as I write future essays. My peers supported me as their comments and adjustment to my essays helped me understand my writing style and how I could improve it. In the course, I learned much about rhetorical devices that make my work more effective in expressing my point of view on global warming and land acknowledgment. Having such a broad subject as global warming because of the widespread ways we contribute to global warming, I focused my vision on one idea, such as the greenhouse infrastructures that mitigate global warming. Further on, I researched much about ideas and events that, in other cases, I wouldn’t have passed my mind to look further into, such as the history of the terrain of New York and the changes it has gone through. These skills and lessons I have learned would further push my writing skills and open my mind to new ideas and information I had before ignored.

The first essay brings us to the ideas of Pathos, Logos, and Kairos and their effectiveness in an article. I further explain their contribution to each piece and how they are used further to develop their ideas and effectiveness on the reader. Elaborating on the use of Pathos, Logos, and Kairos in the articles allows me to understand further the use of these rhetorical terms and how I can implement them in my writing as in other essays. Using these rhetorical terms for reference in my essay allowed me to analyze further and understand the author’s point of view for each article. It made it easier to break the information down and apply it to my own words and understanding of the message. For example, the use of Pathos in “land Acknowledgment” brought emphasis and deeper meaning to the history of the land and the people who have battled to preserve it. In “Let Water Go Where It Wants to Go,” having supportive pieces of evidence proves that the information being talked about is defendable and supported, which is the use of Logos. Kairos is also introduced in “Why New York Is Unearthing a Brooke It Buried a Century Ago” as it proves how New York has done wrong for the environment and is now trying to correct its actions.

The second essay I wrote compares two films, “Princess Mononoke” and “Don’t Look Up,” as they portray similar messages in different actions. “Princess Mononoke” expands on the wilderness and how it is affected by global warming due to deforestation. The spirits and animals of the forest protect their grounds as the humans continuously tear them down. This is a great way to portray forests’ experiences, as, in the real world, we don’t acknowledge or see the damage it goes through. Still, in the film, the director does a great job expressing those emotions and hostility to the people harming it. In “Don’t Look Up,” we are taken through the experiences of two scientists who discover a meteor coming toward earth that will result in the total extinction of all life on earth. We see the scientists’ efforts to get to the people and explain the situation. Still, they keep encountering naïve and deluded people who pay no attention to them as they are too distracted with their regular life. This excellent eye-opening film goes over how distracted and disconnected we are from our natural world. We are entertained by distractions such as media and phones that divide us from what’s important and just entertainment, which is what I learned.

The third essay dives into the problem of global warming and what is being done in our city to stop the pain. Using texts like “NYC indoor farming startup Gotham Greens raises $310 million”, “The Brooklyn/Queens Greenway, Landscape Architecture Magazine,” and “City of Aspiration:150 Ides from new Yonkers for Building a More Equitable NYC, 9 Make NYC’s communities greener, cleaner, and more just by investing in infrastructures and open space” I was able to acknowledge and elaborate on what these specific organizations are doing and how effective it is as a New Yorker. After doing all the research, not only was I knowledgeable about what changes New York City is making to combat the effects of global warming. Having credible evidence of such a change that can be seen making an effort shows the effectiveness originations have and how we, the people, could contribute.

During my process of creating these essays, not only did I develop as a writer by learning more about things like Logos, Pathos, and Kairos but learned to look deeper into pieces of text to see what kind of emotions and hard evidence authors put into their work to convey the reader their message. From what I have seen, pieces of text become much more effective if they can attach to the reader in a way that relates to some type of experience they have gone through and with a meaningful intention to take action to whatever topic is being talked about. This will allow me to develop my essays more in the future and become more effective when expressing my ideas.

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