My culture and identity greatly influenced my reading and writing process. For example, my cultural identity places a lot of importance on healthcare, especially vaccines, so It was difficult for me to understand the opposing sides' arguments. In Mexico, specifically, people get vaccines all the time, and they're seen as very positive thing; however, in the U.S., it's a bit different. Additionally, I think my power as a privileged student with access to various media and educational resources also impacted my writing process. Since I had access to more resources, my essay was highly well-researched; however, someone with limited access to libraries and other resources might find it more difficult.

I think that there are a lot of power dynamics that influence the language and communication that is used in writing. For example, people sometimes undermine and place less value on unfamiliar writings, whether it's because of language or cultural references. I've only ever been taught to write in mainstream English and not in my voice or language, so when I finally had the opportunity, I felt genuinely connected and proud of my writing.

The most helpful thing I learned from giving feedback was not to be nit-picky. Schools have always taught us that peer review is primarily based on correcting grammar and punctuation. However, to help someone elevate their writing and not discourage them, it's crucial to provide feedback that addresses their clarity, accuracy, and overall effectiveness.

This semester, I also faced challenges during the reading and research process, such as finding sources from opposing opinions and reading a lot to become knowledgeable on my research topic. When trying to find sources from vaccine-hesitant views, many of these sources were censored because they spread misinformation. However, I did a little bit of digging through Reddit posts to find a couple of anti-vaccination influencers on Instagram who had posts and blogs expressing their perspectives on vaccines. Additionally, to become more knowledgeable about vaccines, I had to do a lot of research, which required a lot of reading, so to get through it all, I would mostly skim through the study or only read the abstracts.

I used the APA format in my work and faced no challenges in crediting, evaluating, or integrating my sources. Overall, my citation process went smoothly; the only difficult thing about it was having to organize my sources alphabetically because it was tedious.

In my childhood vaccination argumentative essay, my position was pro-vaccine, targeting a general audience to inform and raise awareness. If I were to write this paper from another perspective, such as a mother, I would probably focus more on the emotional and personal aspects of childhood vaccination. Additionally, if my target audience was vaccine-hesitant individuals and I aimed to persuade them to become vaccine-positive, I would include my evidence on the anti-vaccination movement and debunk it.