TOW #29: Letter to a future APELC student

Dear future APELC Student,

          First of all, welcome and well done! You have made an excellent choice by deciding to take this class. It will change and challenge you on so many levels, as both a student and person, and it will be a lot of work but you will have fun while doing so.

          This class is one of the best classes I've taken throughout the course of all of my years in school. I was extremely intimidated at the beginning of the year based on what I had heard about how hard and strenuous the course was and I signed up merely for the sake of improving my writing. However, as the year progressed, I realized that with hard work, I could not only improve my writing skills but also develop into a more confident and successful class member. It was silly of me to be intimidated by the workload because my performance in the class was dependent upon me. My biggest piece for advice for you is to be ready to work hard. What you put into this course is what you get out of it and working hard will help you grow into a better student and thinker. If you put forth your best effort, the results of your hard work will definitely show.

        Aside from hard work, take advantage of all of the resources that Mr. Yost and Ms. Pronko give you, whether it be personal guidance or a practice essay. They are here to help and they want you to succeed. Have a question about note-making? Ask them. Need someone to edit your take-home essay? Conference with them. Do not hesitate to approach either because they are ready and more than willing to help you. Each week, you will be writing a text of the week, or TOW post, to help you practice reading and analyzing various texts. Be sure to take advantage of these assignments, as they provide constant practice of important techniques. After the 1st marking period, the class begins to move away from analysis writing to other forms, and the TOWS allow you to apply analytical strategies on a regular basis and keep your skills sharp for when the exam comes in May. If done right, you will also expose yourself to various texts and topics, which can potentially broaden your perspective as a member of society.

       APELC is a really unique course and you will hopefully be excited and intrigued with all that you encounter throughout the course of the year. If you participate and are inquisitive, you will reap the most benefit from course, by not only getting AP credit but having fun while learning so much. Remember to always work hard and to take every opportunity available to you because you may never have the chance to take a class like this again. ENJOY IT and no matter what score or grades you receive, if you put forth your best effort, you will leave this class a person and a thinker who has grown and changed for the better.

GOOD LUCK!

With the utmost respect and admiration for you and your choices,

Fiona Kelly

TOW #28: TOW Reflection

Throughout the course of the year, after having written numerous TOW posts, I realized that my overall style of writing has become smoother. With each post, I felt less and less like I was writing a specifically structured response to really just writing a clear and personal analysis of a text, whether it be visual or written. Although the posts could at times be a nuisance, I believe that writing one every week helped me develop and implement my skills as a writer. I think that these posts helped me in mastering the formulation of proper thesis statements and I attempted to include a context, claim and consequence in each. I also tried to vary my use of rhetorical strategies and utilizing different terms and examples aided me in remembering the many devices. At first, I used many texts from the source, Time magazine, but as the year progressed, I got tired of seeing the same sort of text and I thus attempted to use many different credible sources. This exposure to various sources allowed me to analyze texts of numerous topics. Though these posts really helped me, I believe that there are many things I could have done in order to reap more benefit from them. Towards the end of the year, I felt that my own writing style started to show and that I was not really following a set format. However, I think that I could have embraced this fact to a larger extent and done so much earlier in the year. I also often wrote the posts in one large paragraph. If I had broken them down more, I feel that the writing would be more complex and would maybe even provide more practice with topic sentences. However, despite these facts, I believe that these TOW posts were incredibly beneficial. Relentlessly writing one every week provided constant practice of analyzing different texts and of writing a mini-analysis essay of sorts. Since we wrote analysis essays at the beginning of the year, the TOWs kept those skills fresh in our mind by allowing us to write them on a much smaller scale. I really enjoyed the exposure to many texts and I appreciate how the TOWs helped me develop into a better student and writer.

TOW #27 - Hillary For President??

In an article found on a website advocating for the development of small businesses, which is more of a republican approach to economics, Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign was attacked. This picture, one of the many found online that criticizes her past political approaches, was found along with the article. Attempting to get their message across to many Americans, SBDC (Small Business Development Center) utilizes an image with a quote from Clinton herself and a distorted portrayal of her appearance in an major effort to sway voters against supporting Hillary Clinton as a presidential candidate. The image uses a quote that Clinton apparently said in 1993, while discussing her healthcare plan. The first few lines of the quote state, "We just can't trust the American people to make those types of choices…". This usage of this quote indicates how the SBDC believes how incompetent she is for the job and how they are trying to use her own words against her. This quote shows Clinton in a light that could potentially cause Americans not to trust her. Also, by stating that the quote is from 1993, the SBDC emphasizes the fact that they believe that Hillary has been around for too long and has too much controversial political history in Washington. The image also uses a picture of the candidate, except it is not quite normal. Her teeth are blown up, the wrinkles around her mouth are emphasized and her nose and cheekbones are not their normal size. The use of this distorted version of Clintons face is an attempt to make her look foolish, along with her ideas. The use of distorted caricatures against opponents has been seen in multiple political cartoons throughout the past and it serves to make them appear foolish. Overall, though I don't agree with the SBDC, I could see how these tactics could push someone who is on the fence or unsure, away from voting for her. Though immature, mudslinging can have profound effects on the outcome of elections and I suppose we will have to wait until 2016 to see how this one plays out.