Writing Project #3 Reflection

1. When I first got handed this project I felt very comfortable picking the topic I wanted. I

did a speech on school shootings in my Public Speaking class because it's something I

care deeply about. I am a student myself and I go to school so hearing an issue that

involves people just like me concerns me. The research process helped me strengthen

what my argument and supporting evidence was going to be. It also helped me learn new

things about school shooting that I had no knowledge of before. I was able to find the

statistics and studies of school shootings. One source that I found very helpful and

informative was the article, “An Analysis of U.S School Shooting Data”, by David

Paradice. The article showed all the statistics of school shootings that have happened

from 1840 to 2015.

2. The “Identifying an Issue” activity helped me assess my audience and apply appropriate

organizational approaches and language to capture their attention (EO 3). Picking the

topic of school shooting was perfect for my audience because this issue affects all of my

audience, students, staff, and teachers. In my other essays my topic was not really

directed toward my audience as much as it was directed for my community. So I feel that

this process artifact showed evidence of my progress toward this specific course learning

outcomes.

3. I integrated the article “Global Online Subcultures Surrounding School Shootings,” by

Jenni Raitanen in my fourth paragraph. I used her studies of online ethnographies of

people infatuated with school shootings. I used her own research to help strengthen my

points of how social media and the internet trigger people to school shootings. Showing