5115 Hampton Blvd
Norfolk, VA, 23529
December 11, 2018
Greetings Mrs. Emerson,
I hope you are doing well. My name is Zhamerah Newton. I am a freshman at Old Dominion University, majoring in exercise science. This past semester I took English 110, and it was a great experience. I made new friends and had an astonishing instructor. I enjoyed taking this course because there was never a dull moment.
As a full-time college student, I work part-time at Dollar Tree to pay for my tuition. While working at Dollar Tree I would have to sell items occasionally. For example, this past semester, Dollar Tree had multiple kinds of cereal boxes at the front of the register, and my job was to sell as many as I could on my shift. One experience from my English 110 Course was learning about ethos and how it relates it to being credible. I also learned about pathos and it’s different emotions. I would use ethos and pathos, and practice what I’ve learned in English class to the sales floor of Dollar Tree. For instance, “how are you today,” I might ask a customer and they would reply with, “great, how are you,” and I would say, “good thank you, but I would be even better if you bought this box of ‘Very Berry Cheerios,” and they would give in and buy it. By using what I learned in English, establishing my credibility, character, and honesty to sell boxes of cereal, as well as setting my tone with persuasive emotion. After seeing the way the rhetorical elements have helped me in a different environment, I will continue to use them in different settings the future.
Throughout this semester, there has been new knowledge that I learned in my English course and my Public Speaking/ Communication course. One subject that both courses have talked about this semester are the three forms of rhetorical analysis. Those three forms are ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos meaning credibility, pathos being emotions, and logos being logic. In my English class we used the three elements of Rhetorical Analysis to evaluate a commercial advertisement and to give our opinions on the documentary 13th. In my Public Speaking course the rhetorical elements was used in a persuasive speech. When I gained knowledge of ethos, pathos, and logos in my English course I didn’t think that I would use it again, but when my Public Speaking instructor introduced it in his lecture, I was glad that I learned about it in my English class so that I could have a little bit of background information on it.
I will apply the information I learned from English and Public Speaking into my major. In the future when I become a physical therapist it will be extremely important for me to use the three forms of rhetorical analysis wisely. I will have to have a strong tone to enhance my trustworthiness and credibility. I would have to use the information I learned in the physical therapist courses to state facts and reasons. I will have to have a lot of emotional support for my future clients.
An example of integrated communication is the photo of my B.E.C sandwich from Handsome Biscuit. This image can more effectively demonstrate my skills because it shows and has more visual. It has more of an imagery when reading my food review paper. Although when writing essays, I can struggle with imagery and examples that the reader can visualize, but with Handsome Biscuit, I included a plethora of imagery so the reader can visualize and put their self in a different setting.
One challenge that I faced this semester was completing weekly journals or even completing the journals on time. I did miss quite a few weekly journals. Once I missed a journal, I wouldn’t do it until a week after. Eventually, missing the weekly journals turned into frustration because I knew that if I kept missing the due date I wouldn’t be able to turn in a late one. Another challenge that I faced was reading the English textbook. This was a challenge because some of the chapters were quite long, making me not want to read it anymore. By resolving this issue, I started to read the chapters that was on the syllabus early, took notes, and studied the notes I had taken. This skill set has become very effective and will continue to be effective in the future. Doing work early, has become a useful skill set because as a college student, papers and homework are usually due on the same day, at the same time.
Sincerely,
Zhamerah Newton