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"Don't Say Gay" Bill Counterargument Analysis

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"Don't Say Gay" Bill Counterargument Analysis

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I'm a fairly politically involved person and I'm highly opinionated on most subjects.  Suffice to say without going into my entire ideology, I have severe disagreements with most Republicans on bill H. B. 1557.  As such, I had an immediate sense of connection with the author of this article.  But I actually think this kind of bias can be really dangerous and if not, at the very least it is unhelpful when examining arguments objectively.  Therefore, to give a truly full understanding of both sides of the argument, I had to disengage with my ideology and try to understand where more conservative thinkers are coming from.  This is another example of how I had to use Metacognition to understand my own thinking and what biases I had as well as Openness to get in the headspace of someone I have disagreements with.  I actually think I did a better job of treating the opposing side fairly than the author, but I digress.

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They Say/I Say Templates for Summary and Disagreement

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They Say/I Say Templates for Summary and Disagreement

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I was facing a lot of obstacles in my personal life around this time of the semester.  I was not especially confident in my abilities as a writer around then and so I was worried about my performance for the final unit.  Receiving this list of templates was like receiving a life preserver and it reminded me that Persistence is, while not usually a problem for me, something that I always need to be mindful of.  By going through this list and finding the right style to phrase my arguments I was able to persist through this final leg of my journey in Composition 1.

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This was one of the first arguments we examined fully in class.  The essay "Write or Wrong Identity" was appropriately challenging enough for me to actually practice Engagement.  I have a history of interest in argumentation so staying engaged and focused on the topic was something that I think came easy to me, but I had an unrefined skill, and so with my full engagement in the activity, I created the first steps of a more formal process for examining arguments.

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This portfolio demonstrates how I developed the academic habits of mind of Metacognition and Openness, but it also shows how I engaged with almost every one of them throughout the semester.  I feel confident that I can use my new understanding of Metacognition to not only understand how other people are thinking but also understand how I am thinking about my work.  This, along with keeping up with my Openness, will allow to fully engage with ideas and concepts that I might not connect to initially.  Going forward, I hope to further develop the habits of mind that I wasn't able to focus on as well as the others, like Engagement or Responsibility, so that I can stay organized and fully invested in my academic career.  I'm admittedly somewhat weak in these so I know that I have to improve if I want to be the most effective student and learner I can be.  Being able to understand the material is one thing, but staying up to date and well organized is equally important for me to get the grades I know I can achieve.

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Rhetorical analysis is a skill I've developed almost passively throughout my life and my time as a student.  I've always had an interest in argumentation and effectively communicating so this assignment was fun for me to engage with.  In addition, by formalizing a lot of my ideas on rhetorical analysis, I was able to use the habit of mind Curiosity.  I used this habit of mind during the assignment both in how I examined the piece "Thick of Tongue" and how I can take what I learned in class about rhetoric and arguments in my real life and personal writing. I like incorporating humor into my writing, so this was great to read and learn how I can be funny and informative at the same time.

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I originally wanted to make this essay about Metacognition, but after looking over the story fully, I made the decision to focus more on Openness instead.  The story involves me going through a lot of new experiences and ideas, so keeping an open mind was essential during these events.  By looking back on my time in rehab I was able to use this assignment to examine my past Openness and by extension develop that habit for my future work in class.

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For my final assignment I felt like it was a sort of culmination of all the rhetorical skills I had learned in the class.  I had to effectively use my understanding of logos, ethos, pathos, and kairos as well as the various forms of arguments so that the "I Say" portion was strong.  I had to use Openness here so that I can put the author Heath's arguments in the best possible light.  Good faith is important when arguing so that you don't end up attacking a strawman and not addressing the actual arguments on the table. Thankfully, I had examined my biases beforehand with Metacognition and remained Open to her arguments and ideas.

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This outline was one of the first times I really grappled with "metacognition" as a concept. I think I somewhat understood the habit of mind before, but by putting a name to the idea and going through my thought process I was able to really consider how it is my mind usually operates. This outline made me reconsider a potentially traumatizing event and show how it caused me to grow as a thinker and as a person.

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The primary habits of mind I used and cultivated this semester were Openness and Metacognition.  By remaining open, I was able to fully explore many arguments and ideas that at first blush seemed strange or even downright wrong, but Openness keeps me from writing off new ideas immediately.  Metacognition is in my opinion an overlooked but deeply important habit of mind.  How you think about things can be even more important than what you think about things and so I've tried to examine how I make decisions and what I can do to optimize my internal organization.  In this portfolio, I've included my Unit 1 and Unit 3 essays as well as five other homework/classwork activities to show how I kept my mind open and engaged while examining my thought process throughout the semester.