Savannah Clinton

A3
Reflection- Debtors Prisons
When reviewing and finalizing the rhetorical analysis essay, Debtors Prisons, I noticed
several strengths as well as weaknesses. Those weaknesses focused primarily on the amount of
time, or lack thereof, the class received. Timed writing is always difficult, but when it came to
this particular assignment we had even less than allowed on the AP exam. This made it difficult
to get much done, as I only finished annotating the passage and had about two paragraphs written
out in my essay. Worrying about finishing distracted from what I was writing, and took away
from the overall piece. In addition, this is the kind of essay that the class spent the least amount
of time learning how to write. I was not surprised that the grade I received originally was only a
five. It was not altogether awful though; on a previous assignment we covered another passage
by the same author, and on the same subject. Having answered a multiple choice section on it, I
was already familiar with the author, making things flow better and more quickly. I feel as
though I choose appropriate quotations to back up my points. I structured my paper to first cover
logos, as this was the most common strategy he used, and then transitioned into pathos. I was
glad to have made this decision as turning the timed, half-finished essay into a complete one was
much easier having already separated the strategies into groups which would become my body
paragraphs. While I felt my opening and closing paragraphs were a little short, I was pleased
with overall piece once Id finished. It covered most, if not all, of the things I noted while
annotating the piece and came together in an essay that was easy to follow. This type of essay
made the two hundred or so literary terms flashcards worth the effort!