Op Ed Reflection

            So, first of all, when I first tried to think about a topic for this paper, nothing really came to mind.  So I was actually surprised to discover how easy it was to write three pages on this. 

            I had to really work on not being “whiny.”  Because I was so close to this topic, I wanted to speak in first person all the time.   I had to force myself to be a bit more objective, but I worry that my tone isn’t as . . . steady, maybe? As it could be. 

            I think my paper has quite a lot of pathos.  Maybe too much.  I noticed as I wrote it, and then again as I went back to edit, that my tone got progressively more passionate throughout the paper.  I felt like it sounded almost like I was growing hysterical, which isn’t what I wanted at all.  So I tried to fix that by cutting out some of my first person statements and making it a little less . . . accusing.  I sort of developed an accusing tone in my first draft that I wanted to get rid of.  Hopefully I accomplished that. 

            My paper has either a lot of ethos or very little, depending on the perspective you take.  I’m very close to my topic; I speak with authority there, because I’m an illustration major and people have told me this joke.   But in a way that almost lessens my credibility, because I’m almost too close to the topic.  It diminishes my perceived ability to speak reasonably.  I tried to combat that in my final draft by focusing more on respect in general, rather than respect for art majors, and by including examples of others who I know have been hurt by a lack of respect for their career choices.

            Logically, I feel like my topic is pretty sound.  I don’t feel like it’s too much to ask that we respect each other.  But I felt like my final draft needed some more logos, so I included some statistics on finances and the like.   I don’t feel like logos is my strongest area, but I also don’t feel like it’s weak.

            So, yeah.  I think I need to work on my writing tone a bit more.  I’m not sure how to paper turned out in the end.  I’ll have to give it a few days and then go back and reread it to see what I think.