Thomas Cushman

Instructor Gammage
Eng. 220-007
16 May 2014
Reflection
This course has improved my writing as well as my ability to construct clear
arguments that are supported by research. Three outcomes that this course has
helped me progress with are analyzing rhetorical evidence, presenting documents,
and composing documents. Ultimately, these three outcomes are what writing
influential papers rely on. Without the ability to compose, write, and analyze a
writer will struggle attempting to write anything of significant importance.
Our class has been required to analyze rhetorical evidence since the
beginning of the semester. In our expository cultural analysis we had to analyze
Nietzsches Will to Power and make valid inferences to answer the question what is
nihilism? In discussion we found that nihilism is essentially the idea that life is
meaningless. We then were presented with the problem of how to react to the
problem of nihilism. Reading Dreyfus and Kelly among other sources led me to
realize that nihilism is problem that can be answered through profound human
experience. For example, experiencing nature is profound and is void of nihilism.
Composing documents was the best part of this course because we were given free
reign to decide how we felt about nihilism and how we were going to express our
feelings regarding nihilism in society today. I found nihilism in pop culture and the
media because they both pour out enormous amounts of meaningless garbage for
the public to become distracted with. In my cultural analysis I analyzed how people
preoccupy themselves with pop culture distractions like Justin Bieber in an effort to
avoid responsibility. That is to say that Justin Beiber, and other meaningless pop
culture icons, distracts society from achieving anything of real value. In this course I
presented documents in a way that I had never done before. We used a website to
attractively show our work for our cultural analysis as well as our research
argument. This was an effective mean of presentation because it made our papers
technologically trendy. There is a sense of validity that comes from seeing a paper
online instead of on paper. Reflecting on major writing assignments was effective
because it allowed me to take a step back and analyze how effective my arguments
were. For instance, in my research argument I realized I was not doing a satisfactory
job at framing the research I was attempting to present. I simply quoted my
research and did not introduce it in a way that made it seem relevant.
Overall, this course has opened my eyes to the problem of nihilism and
showed me that it is still present in todays society. By making progress on class
outcomes I was able to explore how nihilism is present in my life and learn
strategies to avoid nihilistic tendencies.