Pick one concept or idea from any point in the semester, or in Chapter 14, that you found useful or interesting.

I found the various concepts under the Appeals to Emotion both interesting and useful. I as mentioned before many of these concepts were familiar, both from previous conversations and from previous readings. There were many that I had encountered such as; appeal to fear, appeal to pity, and appeal to vanity, but others such as appeal to nature, appeal to spite and appeal to novelty that were less familiar. What was interesting however is that each of these was based on a psychological strategy to convince or coherence but affecting or altering a specific emotion. I would not be surprised if specific legal and advertising professions required their employees/students to take classes in this powerful form of reasoning. Besides subjective and objective claims, these appeals are some of the more common concepts that we can incorporate in our college writing. I will definitely continue to write with a more critical eye and now intend to use more of the concepts we studied in this class in my future classes.

What was your favorite thing about this class? What was your least favorite thing about this class? How can this class be improved?

My favorite thing about the class was the interactive blogging. This exercise gave me the much needed time I needed to compose my thoughts and write a detailed explanation on my understanding of the reading and covered concepts. It would be nice to allow posts in an increment of less than 12 hours, but the time limit was not too restricting. My least favorite thing was taking a timed quiz. I don’t know what it was about seeing the minutes tick away, but it made the process of online tests more stressful and tense. I don’t know what can be done about this, except maybe to add more time. In addition, it would be helpful to be able to see what questions were missed, along with the actual question. This would be helpful in making sure we understand the concept for further assignments, projects and for the midterm or final.

What have you learned in this class over the course of the semester?

I wasn't sure what to expect from the course, but what I found interesting was learning the formal definition, and sometimes correct use, of many concepts that I had used previously in my writing assignments and daily conversation. The online course was helpful in that the blog interaction provided some clarity to some of the more difficult to comprehend concepts. For me the examples the book provided were extremely helpful in further defining the concept, as were my classmates examples. The online interaction offered a different perspective in analyzing concepts, which is what I find beneficial for retaining the details of a subject. It also presented the opportunity for crucial feedback on postings and sharing of ideas not previously considered. The expressive forms of writing often humorous and enjoyable to read and probably allowed many who would have remained quiet in a classroom setting, a more comfortable forum to communicate.