This semester of dual English, the class went more into depth about Shakespeare. I learned about the background of William Shakespeare’s life and his family life too, but most importantly I learned how to understand Shakespeare. Before this semester, I would have trouble understanding Shakespeare and, I would always have to read Cliff Notes about the scenes to understand what was going on during the play. Now that Mrs. Waits gave the class multiple plays from Shakespeare, it has given me a chance to comprehend Shakespeare’s words better.

I also achieved my personal goals in English 1302. One goal that I valued the most was finishing out the last semester with a higher average grade than I did in the first semester. I knew to achieve this goal I had to switch the way I did things. I started balancing my time better and not doing the assignments last minute. Not doing the assignments last minute helped me take my time on the assignments and receive a better grade. Another goal that I have achieved was getting a passing grade on all essays that were assigned in the last semester. In response to that goal, I started asking my peers for more feedback on my essays to make sure the essay could reach its full potential. After asking my peers for their feedback, I would use Grammarly to make sure all my simple mistakes were fixed.

The things I did well this semester was managing my time on the assignments and reach more out to my peers. As I started asking my peers for help, I realized how my essays started improving more and more. I also started learning more techniques on how to write my essays faster, while maintaining a clear and easy to read essay from my peers. The most important thing that I did well, in my opinion, was getting my work done early. Getting my work done early gave me more time to correct my work before turning it in. But the thing I could’ve done better this last semester was doing more of the daily work. This semester I started to be more laid back and slack on the daily work, although not doing the daily work didn’t affect my grade heavily it still affected my grade. Lastly, I would like to thank my professor, Mrs. Waits, for being very lenient and helpful towards the class.

This week in English 1302, the outline of our Argumentative essay was due. Since the school is closed for the rest of the school year and we have to become more flexible with communicating and asking questions about our assignments with Mrs. Waits. Although we are not in the class with Mrs. Waits, she has helped us create a more effective outline by providing videos that show us how to correctly write a thesis and introduction.

In the article “Prospero’s Mirages of Power Struggle and Conscience in The Tempest” by Lauren Gifford, Prospero is viewed as a person overly obsessed with control over others. The other uses rhetoric by using logic describing Prospero. Gifford details the patterns of how Prospero’s psychological development is applied by the abstract of conscience. The article explains how Prospero’s mentality is witnessed through his ability to control everything around him and others. Miranda also falls a victim to her father as he abuses his power to shape and affect her conscience. Using this article will help my essay because the article goes into depth about why Prospero acts the way he does, and what makes him the antagonist.

This week of COVID-19 the government is stressing people to wear masks or bandanas to cover their nose and mouth. This week is different because last week the government was telling people to not act dramatic by buying masks. The soap brand Dove is creating COVID-19 commercials using pathos to appeal to their audience. The commercial shows nurses and doctors with mask scars on their face to show how they are working tirelessly to help the patients while keeping themselves safe. Being in quarantine can relate to The Tempest because when the people on the ship crashed, they became remote on the island, similar to us remote at home.

This week as I begged my parents to buy me a MacBook Air, I used rhetoric. I used logical reasons as to why my parents should invest their money into ordering me a new MacBook Air. I provided my parents with the latest news that makes the MacBook Air different from original and ordinary laptops. Then at the end of my speech, I used pathos saying how a good parent would want what is best for their child.

Due to the Coronavirus also known as covid-19, the class did not meet this week. Covid-19 has grown worldwide at a very quick rate, causing restaurants, gyms, schools, and concerts to close. Some people have covid-19 but they do not show any symptoms within 2 weeks making the infected person vulnerable to infecting more people. With the rapid growth of cases of covid-19, the federal health department has issued that people going to gatherings larger than 10 has to cancel the gathering.

In Act 5, Prospero finally has the urge to let his magic go by doing this he will drown his magic book and bury his magic staff. Before giving up on his magic Prospero removes the spell of his enemies and forgives them for what they have done. Prospero forgiving his enemies rather than casting another spell on them shows human-like characteristics. As Alonso still grieves because he thinks his son died Prospero shows Alonso his alive son Ferdinand with his soon to be wife Miranda. I noticed rhetoric when Prospero calls Antonio a traitor but refuses to treat him as a traitor because of Prospero was the same throughout the play he would have punished Antonio and treated him as a traitor. Caliban showed more humanity than any of Prospero’s enemies as he admits that he was in the wrong. This showed how honorable Caliban was compared to the superior people. At the end of the play, Prospero uses his magic for good and not to control someone or promote evil. Finally, Ariel gets his freedom back after he does one more task by making the sea at peace as Prospero plans to go back to Milan where he will die peacefully after Ferdinand and Miranda’s wedding.

During Spring break I studied the rhetoric of the genre hip-hop. I analyzed the song lyrics of “Heartless” by TheWeeknd. I noticed that the message in the song was that the artist became heartless because of his past relationships. TheWeeknd opens the song with “Never need a girl, I’m what a girl needs” this lyric shows that the artist knows that he will never settle because he knows his worth. In the music video of the song the artist went with a very expensive and fancy look, the artist chose this way of style to show the viewers that he has a lot of money and he is a classy man. This video helps define the rap culture because it shows how many rap artists will flaunt their expensive possessions to show the public that they have money.

In class this week we started off reading acts 1 and 2 of The Tempest. The language used in The Tempest had some of the students struggling to understand what the characters were trying to say. Mrs.Waits allowed the class to act out some of the scenes to help get a better understanding of the character’s personality and the character’s relationship with one another. Even Mrs. Waits acted out a scene for the class to help us notice the rhetoric devices used in the play with Ariel and Prospero.

At the beginning of act 2, all the passengers except Ferdinand on the ship land on this mysterious island. Gonzalo tries to brighten the mood by saying a speech about how they survived the storm. Later on Antonio and Sebastian plots but fails to murder Gonzalo and Alonso to make Sebastian King. In scene 2, Caliban swearing at Prospero because he thinks he’s about to get tortured. Prospero made Caliban his slave, even though Caliban had the island first. The character of Caliban isn’t a normal man, instead, he’s portrayed as a man that behaves like a wild animal. As a result of Caliban attacking Prospero’s daughter, Caliban receives the same treatment as if he was a wild animal too. When Stefano and Trinculo find Caliban under a cloak they did not view him as a human but rather as an unusual living creature.

When saying goodnight to my parents I always say the phrase “I love you to the moon and back” this phrase has a rhetorical device, a hyperbole. I use this exaggerated phrase to tell my parents that I love them so much. Using a hyperbole to explain how much I love my parents persuades them that the love I have for them is more than normal. Rather than saying the normal “I love you” phrase adding the hyperbole makes the phrase more sentimental and creates a greater emotional connection than the regular “I love you” phrase.

Works Cited

“The Tempest.” Scene 1, http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/t/the-tempest/summary-and-analysis/act-ii-scene-1.
“Baby Yoda I Love You To The Moon And Back Shirt.” Piepietee, piepietee.com/tee/baby-yoda-i-love-you-to-the-moon-and-back-shirt/.

This week in English 1302, was a blast from the past. Mrs. Waits reading us a book about William Shakespeare’s life and how he transformed into one of the greatest writers of all time in history. Also in class, we broke down some of Shakespeare’s quotes and got introduced to The Tempest.

Studying Shakespeare is necessary when it comes to literature, Shakespeare had a heavy contribution to the English language creating over 1500 words and many phrases. The words and phrases Shakespeare created are still used today in modern society. The themes and ideas Shakespeare created have helped influence many directors, writers, and actors to this day. This is why we should study Shakespeare to analyze how literature formed and how it changed over time and seeing how Shakespeare walked so modern-day literature could run.

This week I saw rhetoric in a beer ad, the ad stated “Cheating death is possible”. The ad is using pathos to their viewers as the ad displays a gun as a bottle and shows a man that looks abnormal shooting himself in the head and smiling about it. The creator of the ad wanted to make an emotional appeal to its viewers showing that drinking is a threat to your life. By adding the phrase “Cheating death is possible” the creator wants to send a message that not consuming alcohol is a way of cheating death.

This week in English 1302, as a class we listened and analyzed the songs of Hamilton in Act 1. After listening to the songs the next day in class we would discuss, ask questions, and answer questions that our classmates had about Hamilton. Our teacher would also ask the class questions to help the class find deeper meanings of the text. Also, the teacher helped the class find more rhetoric phrases in the play for our rhetoric paper assignment.

The song “My Shot” in the musical Hamilton the song uses foreshadowing when Burr says, “You’re gonna get shot”. The statement shows foreshadowing because later in the play Burr ends up shooting Hamilton. The allusion also appears in the song when Hamilton states, “Don’t be shocked when your history books mention me” the audience has to make the direct connection of how Hamilton ended up being in the history books to understand the statement. The song uses repetition when stating, “I’m not throwing away my shot”. The author uses repetition when using that sentence to express that Hamilton and his friends are not gonna pass up any opportunities.

An example of rhetoric in the song “Right Hand Man” was the repetition of “Thirty-two thousand troops” and “They surround our troops”. The author uses repetition of these phrases to emphasize that there was too many British troops and their troops were outnumbered. Also the song creates an allusion with the phrase, “Knight takes rook” the knight represents the British military. The rook represents Brooklyn and how the British took over. The rook has more value than the knights this shows how the Americans are at a disadvantage.

I noticed rhetoric in my US history class this week when hearing the speech “I Have A Dream” by Martin Luther King Jr. During the speech, I noticed that Martin Luther King Jr used pathos to his audience and listeners. MLK was using an emotional appeal to the people of America that supported segregation to feel pity for supporting such an inhuman and cruel thing.

In English 1302 the class talked about the the lyric songs in Act 1 in the musical Hamilton. In class we discussed about deeper meanings of the lyrics in the songs and the relationship between Hamilton and Burr. Also, we had to do a cover letter and a resume for a superhero applying for a certain job.

Ethos, Logos, and Pathos are modes the speaker or author uses to persuade the audience. Ethos appeals to ethics or credibility, Logos appeals to logic, and Pathos appeals to emotion to persuade the audience. Ethos mostly shows up in an argument in the statements about the speaker’s intentions. Logos uses facts and logic to persuade the audience. Pathos is a way of convincing the audience of an argument by creating an emotional appeal. For example, in the play, Hamilton the first song in Act 1 talks about Alexander Hamilton’s childhood. The uses pathos because the song used an emotional appeal to the audience talking about his loneliness and how he grew up with nothing.

This week I have noticed rhetoric on an ad on tv stating how texting while driving is dangerous. The ad persuaded showed a person and their family dying because the person driving was on the phone texting leading to the death of him and his family. The ad used pathos by showing death causing an emotional appeal.

In the second semester of dual English 1302, I want to learn a new technique when writing essays that can take my essay to a college level. Learning a new technique that can minimize the time it takes for writing an essay while maintaining a clear and understandable essay. Also, limiting the use of “Be” verbs and dead words and using a variety of more mature vocabulary words to strengthen my essay. Also, I want to learn how to add better transition sentences when adding more paragraphs. I would also want to learn how to recognize and understand ethos, pathos, and logos quicker when reading an article. I want to learn how to strengthen my introduction and conclusion when I write an essay. A strong introduction can lead to strong body paragraphs and a strong conclusion. Using proper grammar and punctuation is something I want to improve on in English 1302 when writing essays. English 1302 will come easier once I completely understand and learn from the mistakes I made in the previous semester.

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