On the first day of Literature and Psychoanalysis class, I thought wow what an interesting and unique class, and as the semester progressed my opinion of the class got even better as every day we would learn unique concepts. I thought I was prepared for college life but I was gravely mistaken as the workload and responsibility hit me like a truck on a highway. Initially being confused and feeling if I have been bombarded with words I would unsure about what was going on but eventually, I found my footing through zoom meanings, youtube videos, and writing commons allowing me to understand the rhetorical terms rhetorical situation, purpose, audience, genre, stance, media/design, and exigence. I began to grow more familiar with these words as I continued to write more discussion posts, essays and Reading literature such as Freud’s “Five Lectures on Psycho-analysis”, “A Country Doctor;” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” exposed me to more situations where I would need to use different rhetorical terms based on different assignments that I would face.

My first major challenge was the Summary/Response Essay where I would have to consider what the rhetorical situation is for both “The Yellow Wallpaper” By Charlotte Perkins and Sigmund Freud’s “Five Lectures On Psycho-Analysis”. Initially, I had to understand that the rhetorical situations were: text, author, audience, purpose, and the setting. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the rhetorical situation is: Jane is the narrator who is currently has a mental illness, the author is Charlotte Perkins, the purpose of this short story is to inform people on the dangers of the rest cure, the audience would be practitioners who promote the rescue and are layman’s to mental illnesses, setting colonial mansion in the countryside during the 1900s and the rhetorical situation for the “Five Lectures On Psycho-Analysis” was a lecture Sigmund Freud was giving, with the intent to inspire audience members to take interest in psychoanalysis, his audience is college students, the setting was Clark University. Unfortunately at the time, I was not able to convey the rhetorical situations precisely and the summary and response essay was a dud. But even though the failure I did not deter I have I continue to apply the rhetorical situation onto different readings that we were given as well as applying the rhetorical situation to my annotations to increase my familiarity with using rhetorical situations as well as when I was drafting revising and editing any writing I had. To get over this hurdle there was something essential to help me grow as a writer which is engaging in social and collaborative aspects of writing. This is essential for any writing class especially this one as it allows you to get different perspectives and different ways that people interpret ideas. in discussion boards and when reviewing each other’s work I would implement different strategies of rhetorical terms to try and help them in any way possible.

This process of exploring and analyzing, developing different strategies, practicing rhetorical terms, and especially engaging with my classmates and collaborating helped me fully master the rhetorical situation by the time I reached my Researched Critical Analysis as I was able to fully display the rhetorical situation found in “Sonny’s Blues” written by James Baldwin which was: a short story written about Harlem, the author is James Baldwin, the purpose is to inspire people in Harlem to play music instead of doing drugs, the audience is the people in Harlem who feel they are trapped, the setting is Harlem 1950s. In this paper, I was able to illustrate Baldwin’s rhetorical situation which helped me strengthen my argument and help me analyze and get a better understanding of Baldwin’s critique on society. Not only that I was able to strengthen my argument by bringing in outside sources such as articles through critical research. This not only strengthened my argument but also allowed me to convey my argument in many different ways, releasing the limitations of just using one article or being given an article and allowing the writing process to be free was very enjoyable as it allowed me to compose my text in different ways as I would interpret my sources and synthesize them into the argument.

After being able to understand rhetorical situations like anyone I wanted to try and share my knowledge with as many people as I possibly can. To reach as many people as I can I would have to develop my skills in Media and design to effectively convey my ideas in a way that can be interpreted by everyone who reads it. To do this I created a portfolio that not only displays my work but also allows me to customize it accordingly letting me express my writing in any form. This allows me to show my growth over the semester through my portfolio which anyone can see and find out how you can get to where I am by seeing the process that I took.

The next time I go into a college writing class I’ll always remember to stay on my toes because if I slip too many times it won’t be easy. Through this semester I’ve been able to improve and hone my writing abilities and have seen great growth of the rhetorical terms through the essays I write the responses I give and my view when reading articles and everything else I do in general as it has become integrated into a part of me.

My ability to compose a text that Summarizes, evaluates, and synthesizers can be demonstrated through my most recent “Researched Critical Analysis paper where I go over James Baldwin “critique on society of the importance of music by creating an escape from the suffering faced by African Americans in Harlem. Throughout the text, you can see my ability to summarize as I accurately describe situations in Sonny’s blue such as “This also illustrates the behaviors that the narrator shows as he too can’t escape the past and neglect the present reality by having a fixation on how the past was was” which is a summary of a quote that I wrote in my reading which allows me to refer to information in the text very easily and allows me to remember concepts and ideas. This process of summarizing quotes also helped me find the main idea for my research paper as it helped me connect different situations very easily and made ideas more distinguishable. My belief is to evaluate sources if it states “Through this statement, we can see that through music Sonny finds the same gratification he found when using heroin. Sonny has finally been released from his addiction to heroin and can replace drugs with music finding a better and healthier outlet.” This demonstrates my ability to evaluate quotes as this statement goes over the purpose for the author to write this quote which was to show Sonny’s transformation has a character as well as creating an argument stating that Sonny capable of giving up heroin for music. My ability to synthesize can also be seen as throughout my paper I connect different sources such as articles and documents to connect to Baldwin’s critique of the society as stated in the writing “According to the “Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis” Freud states, “We know of a far more expedient process of development, called ‘sublimation’… their sexual aim for another one which is comparatively remote and socially valuable.” (Freud 2238). This concept by Freud is found in Sonny’s behaviors throughout the short story. We can see Sonny’s trade and his impulses of addiction to heroin into something socially valuable and beneficial to him. This change can be seen as Sonny’s character develops.” This demonstrates my ability to synthesize two different sources into one thesis statement. In this situation, I used both “Sonny’s Blue” by James Baldwin and “Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis” by Sigmund Freud and synthesized them to prove that Sonny is becoming less dependent on drugs. This is a major improvement from my previous works especially from my Summary/Response essay as my synthesis would look like “which shows the doctors lack professionalism as they should understand the importance of mental illness and how it affects people.” which is a major disservice to my main idea as this synthesis does not connect the lack of professionalism seen in doctors with the yellow wallpaper as there is no reference to it either nor is there a reference to the main idea. Not only that my evaluations of quotes were very broad in general and not connecting to my main topic which shows that it needed improvement

Through all my work I demonstrate an understanding of citation conventions by using. I incorporate sources into my writing by summarizing paraphrasing quoting or generalizing. Unlike my first Summary/Response Essay where I did not include citations, you can see in my newer writings such as the critical research analysis paper where I demonstrate my understanding of how to cite quotes in each paragraph. My understanding of how to write citations in the MLA format has also improved as originally I would make errors in formatting by placing the author’s name in wrong places or forgetting to write the date but in my most recent works, these issues do not appear. Even through the pictures alone you can see major improvements from the Summary/Response Essay I have the citations are cleaner and more informative as well as being in the correct format in the Researched Critical Analysis paper.

My ability to locate and search for this such as academic journals and articles can be seen through my works cited pages especially my critical research analysis paper. To find my sources I Incorporated everything I learned on how to use the advanced search and different searching methods in the CCNY library database and archive to find incredible and accurate sources that align with my argument of how music can help people in a therapeutic way to readjust into normal life. after going through all the databases I finally came across one article “Treating Addiction with Tunes: A Systematic Review of Music Therapy for the Treatment of Patients with Addictions.” which described music therapy but to find what I was looking for I would have to read through the entirety of Kara’s article to find this statement “The literature describes music therapy as a stimulus for the release of the participants’ emotions. This emotional release may bridge the gap that addiction creates between the mind, body, and emotion ([19]). Allowing patients with addictions the opportunity to feel emotion may encourage them to surpass denial, an important aspect of addiction treatment in many treatment programs.” which greatly strengthened my argument and aligned perfectly with the point I was trying to make. This is a major improvement for my previous work where there was no research process which did not allow my paper to expand further into different horizons. The introduction of research allowed me to strengthen my argument in unique ways and make the writing process feel less restraining which was very enjoyable.

Through this discussion post, you can see how “I engage in collaborative and social aspects of the writing process”. One responding to a discussion post whether I disagree or agree I also like to incorporate my own way of thinking to give the writer a different perspective that I had to promote different ways of looking at the same argument. I also like to help my classmates find different situations where their arguments would work and fail for example I stated “Yes I agree with your statement and I also found another instance where your idea is seen when Dannerm states “These words come from those who find themselves as far as they can possibly be from the idea that, when they act, they “create their own reality.” Which shows the lack of power held by a single person to change reality.” as I not only demonstrate my understanding of their writing but also contribute to it by giving them situations where their argument flourish. This type of response was a major improvement from my previous responses which were very bland and lacking in ideas and original thoughts as they would just stay “I agree with what you’re saying” or “I agree” with nothing more to support or enrich the conversation with preventing me from engaging in the collaborative and social aspect of the writing process.

In this image, you can see my peer review on a classmate’s work which demonstrates my understanding of a Course Learning Outcomes to draft, read, and revise. In this image, you can see how I’m able to fully understand my classmates’ arguments and demonstrate my abilities and help them revive and understand how to better their writing. In this image, I point out situations where my classmate could have considered different points of views as well as situations where a different train of thought would help develop their writing such as when I suggested the introduction of “Sonny’s escape from a circle of struggle” which correlated with the writer’s way of thinking. This type of analysis on someone’s paper is a major improvement for me because usually, I tend to restrict myself to the questions that are provided for a peer review but in this situation where I was giving informal peer reviews, I was able to more freely give unique and helpful critique on their paper on top of the questionnaire. I was not only able to point out how my peer would be able to go out there formatting errors but also be able to help improve it unlike at the beginning of the semester where I would never give suggestions on how to fix their formatting since I was not confident in my knowledge of formatting paragraphs at the time. I also improved my strategy for reading and drafting as I began ahead of time highlighting and returning to previous quotes to connect situations as creating a document for only quotes that were impactful and had important meanings which allowed me to create ideas and concepts for my essays very easily. The image above shows this is something fairly concept that I started doing which was very helpful to me as I would usually take hours to continuously look overall my annotations to try and connect different situations but developing this new strategy allowed me to save a lot of time as well as make great connections between instances and create my thesis very easily as it was just a puzzle board with very few pieces.

In my research critical analysis paper, you can see my understanding of how to analyze rhetorical situations and rhetorical context, unlike my previous works which may be lacking in understanding. Throughout my critical research analysis paper, I analyze a character named Sonny who is having a dilemma of deciding whether he should play music or do drugs. In my writing, you can see the rhetorical analysis process occurring as it analyzes the author James Baldwin’s rhetorical appeals. Throughout the writing, you can see my understanding of Baldwin’s critique on society such as “This depicts Baldwin’s critique of society because music liberates Sonny from his addiction to heroin” which demonstrates my understanding of Baldwin’s argument on a deeper level. You can also see the use of rhetorical situations in my writing as the ethos pathos and logos are written clearly. The ethos is demonstrated through my understanding of psychology and Harlem during the 1950s as well as my understanding of music therapy which is all illustrated in the text. The logo is also present as my argument is logical and consistent throughout the text as I cite all information and make statements informatively. Pathos and also seen in my writing as “He describes Harlem as a trap which is nearly impossible to escape due to the hardships endured by the African American community of Harlem in the 1950s due to the lack of opportunities, racism, and trauma its resident’s experience. Due to these roadblocks, the only way people can escape is through education, drugs, or music.” which appeals to the heart by illustrating the hardships faced in society during Sonny’s generation.

I took a great interest in learning about Literature and Psychoanalysis after taking this class as it allowed me to see writing through different lenses. As the semester progressed I was able to have a deeper understanding of how to psychoanalyze literature. As I continued writing my “Summary/Response Essay”, “Exploratory Essay” and “Researched Critical Analysis” papers I became more familiar with rhetorical terms and my writing came closer to aligning with the course learning outcomes. Through my writings you can see the progression of my writing style from the beginning of the semester till the end. Through these two essays you can see how my writing has improved from the “Summary & Response Essay” to my “Exploratory Essay” you can see that my writing becomes more complex and synthesized, unlike my summary and response essay which was somewhat basic and lacking in understanding. My paragraph structure also improved as it was able to focus on conveying my topic sentence better since it did not go off track unlike the S/R which began to go off-topic every so often in the paragraph and each paragraph also had one argument that it was conveying. There was also an improvement in the transition of my body paragraph as you can see transitional language being used in my “EE” unlike the “S/R” and statements such as “Therefore Edgar Allan Poe, illustrates Freudian’s concepts of wishful impulse and hysteria which are displayed ” and “As the short story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe progresses.” which allows the idea in my essay to flow smoothly was seen which greatly improved my writing as a whole and was not seen in my earlier writings.

Throughout the “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin we see Sonny transform as a character through his fight with drugs and music. I feel that this image best illustrates how Sonny must have felt through his process of choosing music over heroin as throughout the story we see moments where Sonny might return as a heroin addict but seems to come back to a sense when reuniting with music. This image illustrates a person making a very meaningful and important choice who represents Sonny that sees only two options in their life which are represented by buttons one being drugs and the other being music which illustrates Sonny’s struggle throughout the short story “Sonny’s Blues”.