Capstone Reflective Essay

Ahliyah Williams

LTC Knepper

ERH-481W-01

5 Dec 2021

Help Received: Essays from previous classes Ahliyah Williams

English Capstone Reflective Essay

My senior English capstone has been one of the most liberating and unique experiences I’ve had as an English major at Virginia Military Institute, here is why. Over the course of both my pre-capstone class, last year, and my current capstone class, this year, I have switched my topic multiple times, discovered my strengths as a writer, and created a piece of work that is reflective of my personal beliefs and experiences. Not only that, but I have been introduced to professors such as, COL McDonald, who assisted me with exploring the perspectives and angles I can take on when considering the topic of women in sports. I have also had the privilege of working alongside with my capstone advisor, LTC Iten, who helped me significantly with creating ideas, organization, and analyzing and deconstructing rhetoric, and its role in the world of sports, specifically coaching collegiate athletes. Last, but not least, LTC Knepper, my senior English capstone professor, has been extremely helpful and understanding in my capstone journey with sharing his expertise of experience with students capstones and making each step of capstone development worthwhile and enjoyable. This capstone was one of the most difficult projects I have worked on as far as analyzation, being sure to include many sources from scholarly articles, and using my best foot forward with my rhetorical understanding. Through all the difficulties, my capstone has become a project that has matured me as a writer and critical thinker.

TALK ABOUT THE PREVIOUS CAPSTONE>>

To start from the very beginning, my capstone project was originally based on the rhetorical analysis of the Misrepresentation of Female Athletes in the Sports Media. This was created based on my interests in the relationship with rhetoric and sports, especially in media. To be specific, I did previous work as a sophomore in an unexpected helpful class, Gender Health. In this class, I wrote an essay called, Wo[man]s World, which talked about the global gender health gap and its role in measuring gender equality in multiple factors. This essay played a role in this capstone topic because it introduced me to approaching the topic of women’s rights, and inequality in the world. To be specific, one of the things I talked about in that essay was how the government played a positive role in women’s rights in Finland by using a “sensitized “F” word for feminism” (Williams 1).

One of the most difficult parts, and the reason to why I changed my subject was the lack of data and research done on the topic. After many weeks of searching for sources, there was little to none about the specific field of rhetoric I was focusing on, the sports media, like ESPN. This was not the only reason the subject fell short. The other reason was because of my realization of the lack of commitment with the topic. One of the most important things to me with this project was to have interests and cohesiveness with my capstone, so that was a deal breaker. From there on, I actively sought out to create a capstone topic that I personally find interesting and engaging for my current life situation, so in that case, I would be more willing to write more passionately. Doing this active searching led me to where I am now, creating my topic based on what I am experiencing right now, conversations with coaches while in the collegiate- athlete recruiting process. Of course, I had to create this into an English majors topic, so I took a rhetorical approach on it.

One may wonder why it is important to mention my previous capstone project, here is why. Even though my topic has changed, many of the same ideas have stayed the same between the two different projects. One of those being the discussion of .

Learning Outcome 6: To Know Rhetoric is to be Powerful

May4

reflect on multiple learning experiences in order to synthesize knowledge

This assignment was made for my Rhetorical Traditions II class. It was made to exemplify how rhetoric has changed my life and ways of looking at the world, and how it can change everyone else. I described the different uses for rhetoric that could be beneficial for people in many ways.

When expressing all of the things I had learned in the class, I was able to think about the ways I personally have experienced rhetoric as an English major. While writing the essay, I was able to mentally process it as a whole and what it can contribute to in my daily life.

This new knowledge fits in with many things I have done before because I tend. To write many reflective pieces as an English major. This essay is very similar to many other reflective pieces I have completed, especially when reflecting on what I have learned and how I can apply that to my own daily life. This assignment was very significant to me because I have a place in my heart for learning work, and then being able to apply that to my own life. Personally, I absorb more when I am able to experience the things that I have learned.

This assignment makes me want to tell other people about how significant rhetoric is in their daily lives. Also, how important it is to notice that many things are rhetoric, so that one will have the ability to approach them appropriately.

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Learning Outcome 5: Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age Rhetorical Analysis

May4

Analyze and produce creative works that express the richness of the human experience

This assignment was for my Writing and Rhetoric II class. It was a rhetorical analysis of a piece of text from Sherry Turkle’s book, “The Power of Talk in a Digital Age”. Writing this essay on Sherry Turkles book, I learned how to analyze a text that is based on the 21st century, and something as relevant as technology. I have also learned how to analyze how technology influences the human experience.

This new knowledge fits in with other things I have learned as an English major because it displays a way of using rhetoric for current events and real-life issues. What I learned from this assignment is significant to me because technology and media are two interesting mediums to compare as an English major in this modern day. I find this topic important because although this book was written a few years ago, it remains relevant today. This means I am able to use this when approaching my work in the future. This new knowledge helps me to look forward to doing more analysis about current topics such as Covid-19 or politics. I look forward to what other things will become of interest in the realm of rhetoric.

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Learning Outcome 4: Wo(MAN)s World

May4

Evaluate and use sources to produce effective and ethical arguments

This assignment was for my Gender health class. It was made to express the limitations and ethical failure that the economy has created to divide men and women, specifically in the business field. I used many different sources to support my arguments. These sources allowed me to make factual statements, which made my arguments more credible.

With researching and getting information from supporting sources, I learned a lot of statistics and facts that I had not known before. It was an eye-opener to see the difference in economical levels between not only men and women period, but even the difference between genders that certain countries can have based on their rank in the economy. I have not done much of anything that is similar to this piece of work. As an English major, research-based work, such as this, seems to be not very common. Being able to do this kind of work is very important to me because it opens my eyes to different ways of arguing. As I stated before, as an English major, I don’t find myself using statistics or facts, so having the opportunity to do this, expands my knowledge of how broad the English field can be.

This knowledge makes me want to dive deeper into how I can begin incorporating statistics and facts into different subjects of English essays and literature, such as rhetoric, Greek tragedies, and ethics. It would be interesting to see which way the paper might turn.

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Learning Outcome 3: Rap Culture and its Rhetorical Influence

May4

Disciplinary terminology and methods of criticism to analyze texts

This assignment was made for my Rhetorical Traditions I class. It was an argument-driven essay to discuss the influence of rhetorical messages on the listening audience.

From this essay, I gained more insight into the rhetorical message’s influences on the public that often go unnoticed. I used terminology such as logos, pathos, and ethos to analyze rap music’s rhetorical appeals. I also compared other types of music and its rhetorical appeals to see if there were any differences in the influences of rap music or “lyrical music”.

This assignment fits with other assignments because there is the discussion of rhetorical appeals, which is a topic I often hear in the field of English. Not only that, but this essay also brings up the role of music media and influential people who are both equipped with the power of ethos.

It was very significant to me because this essay expanded on how I looked at rhetoric. It broadened my perspective of seeing old, Aristotelian rhetoric to seeing how relevant rhetoric is in the modern age, which is important to how I develop as an English major. When comparing the two types of music genres, it was interesting to see how the rhetorical appeals influenced the audience in different ways.

This new knowledge makes me want to do more research on how relevant rhetoric is in this day in age. This new knowledge also makes me more aware of rhetoric used in our daily life such as television, sports, and social media. I am intrigued to learn more about this topic in my Capstone Project.

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Learning Outcome 2: Aristotelian View on Greek Tragedies

May4

Cultural context influences the production and interpretation of texts

This assignment is written on how the context of Greek culture has an impact on the interpretation of texts, in this case, plays. This essay was made for my Ways of Reading class.

From this assignment, I learned about the ways that Greek culture interpreted the role of tragedy in plays. I analyzed the text of Oedipus and the King to provide an accurate example of how significant tragedies were in the texts of the Greeks.
Before this assignment, I did not know much about the topic of plays nor greek culture. This new knowledge did not fit in with the “traditional” things I had been learning before.

This analysis of tragedy in Greek plays was an important aspect in teaching me how to approach varieties of text that are culturally different than what I am used to. As an English major, it is important to be versatile and considerate of the influence culture has in the interpretation of texts. This new knowledge compels me to do more research about how other societies or cultures may have interpreted different texts like, the Bible.

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Learning Outcome 1: Addressing the Present

May4

Academic, Civic, and Professional Situations

This assignment was made for the class, Rhetoric and Public Address. In this essay, I addressed the rhetorical techniques used by two orators from the present day.

Their civic discourse was through public speaking. From this assignment, I learned how to compare and contrast the professional rhetorical techniques used by two different types of speakers, President Barack Obama and George Marshall. The analysis of the orators taught me how different rhetorical approaches in speeches can result in different outcomes of influence on the audience.

This assignment was different for me in comparison to other works I have worked on because I am focusing on relevant orator’s use of rhetoric. Rather, in other words, rhetorical devices were mainly focused on people from the past such as Aristotle. This difference in time and date significantly changes the methods in which those devices are used. I have gained a new perspective on how to approach rhetoric through civic discourse.

Based on this new knowledge I look forward to reading modern texts on popular news media websites. Reading more relevant texts will be helpful moving forward when approaching my Capstone, which I plan to focus on modern, and relevant news media. This new knowledge will also be useful when comparing different contexts or time periods of rhetorical speeches. It would be interesting to see if there are any significant changes, or if there has been any change at all.

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Visual Analysis for Corsica and the Satyr

Feb23

Reflective Tag:

This essay is about a painting made by Artemisia Gentileschi between 1630 and 1635. It highlights Gentileschi’s ability to use artistic techniques that are visually appealing to the viewers. The background of the painted is discussed briefly.

Visual Analysis

Artemisia Gentileschi’s, Corsica and The Satyr is a large 155 x 210 cm oil painting created between 1630 and 1635 (Wikipedia). Artemisia Gentileschi’s ability to use color, detail, proportioning, and scale in diverse ways, give the viewers access to a story told solely through art. In this case, the painting narrates a story that illustrates a nymph, Corsica, on the left, escaping by the means of her hairpiece, from an aggressive Greek mythological creature, a Satyr, on the right who holds it in his hands.

Gentileschi uses color in many ways to emphasize and highlight key features of the painting. Corsica’s clothing uses coloring techniques (coloring) to imitate the reflection of light emitted from her clothing. This technique of tinting is made by mixing white with the color yellow to lighten it at certain spots of the dress. The perceived reflections of natural sunlight with the use of tinting are consistent with the idea of the characters being in the outdoors. In addition to that, Gentileschi used a light tint of yellow, such as golden yellow in Corsica’s dress. She also uses shades with the use of maroon-red in Corsica’s shawl. As a result, these colors are accentuated due to the contrast they create when beside each other. In the background, an analogous palette of colors such as brown, yellow, and orange embodies the warmth and even more-so the darkness of the day. This darkness of the day creates a foreboding setting for the painting. In the foreground of the painting, there is some use of analogous colors such as blue and green on Corsica’s sandals. In contrast, the foreground uses complementary colors such as yellow and purple in Corsica’s dress and shawl.

Another technique used by Artemisia Gentileschi is proportioning. Painted sitting, the Satyr appears the same size, if not larger than Corsica Not only does Gentileschi use proportioning to focus the viewer’s eyes on both of these significant characters in the story, but the proportions play into the role of the Satyr’s threat to Corsica. Similar to proportioning, the action of the Satyr sitting while Corsica stands, shows the use of a Hieratic scale. It is used for the viewers to acknowledge the cleverness and intelligence that Corsica has over the Satyr, even with his sense of threat. In this case, it plays into the feminist point of view of Artemisia Gentileschi’s artistic style.

The relationship between Corsica and the Satyr visually demonstrates the focus of the painting. This connection is illustrated by the visual details the artists provide to both characters. To start, Corsica has very small, but intricate patterns of a flower design on her blouse lining. The Satyr also displays intricate details such as wrinkles in his forehead. These wrinkles play a role in his facial expression, they show a sense of shock towards Corsica. Other details such as chest hair, muscles, and protruding veins symbolize the Satyr’s manliness or dominance over Corsica. Compared to Corsica and the Satyr, the background has less detail. For example, the hills in the background are painted with smear-like brush strokes. Similar to the hills, the tree to the right of the painting appears to be made with little detail. This minimalist approach to the background keeps the viewers’ attention and focuses on the connection between Corsica and the Satyr.

Works Cited

“Corisca and the Satyr.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Dec. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corisca_and_the_Satyr.

Final Reflective Essay: A Look Back Into Time

Jul24

Ahliyah Williams

Dr. Hinks

07/24/19

Help Received: None Ahliyah Williams

Final Reflective Essay

Going into Epidemics of Society class, I prepared myself to sit and learn about the biological story behind diseases. I truly expected to be sitting in class looking at slides of different viruses and how they attack the body. Never had I imagined that I would be doing so many essays and watching so many films in class. I have to say it wasn’t at all what I expected, it was much better than what I expected. Epidemics of Society class allowed me to see real-life situations. It also showed me the reality of ethics when it comes to the spread of diseases. This class has allowed me to use essays, something that I’m not usually fond of, to learn so much about the impact of diseases in the world. Some artifacts were especially beneficial because while doing essays. I was able to reflect so much about the relationship between epidemics and diseases. The artifacts expanded my knowledge about so many diseases. These artifacts have given me experiences by making me feel like I am in certain positions that I am grateful to not be in a certain society affected by epidemics of diseases. This is something that has helped me to prepare for possible diseases and even evolutionary medicines that could affect me and reflect on the way other people in society cope with these outbreaks of diseases. Ultimately, this class has helped me to become more aware and understanding to people that I once may have judged tremendously because of a disease that I was ignorant about. Also, I was able to learn about the relationship between epidemics of diseases and society.

When beginning Epidemics of Society class, I noticed the improvement of my artifacts every time. The reason they improved was because of the better understanding I began to have on what I should be provided in the essays. Diseases were the least of my worries before the Epidemics of Society class. Going into the end of this class, I now feel confident enough to teach others about many infectious diseases. With me being able to not only learn, but teach others, I feel as though I have met the goal of what every class should meet. Rewinding to before I even attended this class, I had no idea of all of the infectious diseases that have come to play such large roles in history. Not only did I learn so much history behind epidemics and diseases, but I was able to learn the relationship between society and epidemics. Since epidemics can happen anywhere, societies are at huge risks to diseases. Socially, diseases are super easy to spread due to them affecting numerous people at once. Visually seeing so many diseases in class

There were nine artifacts that we completed in this class. It’s a few articles that in my opinion had the most detail and credibility about the effects epidemics of diseases on society. Those artifacts are 1-3. The first artifact was based on the history behind plagues. My main conclusion of this essay was that society has affected the spread of infectious disease. In artifact 1, The History of Plagues, I made points that throughout the history of plagues there has been a pattern of social and cultural factors. Artifact 1 was so significant because it was all about the history behind plagues. The fact that history was the main subject of this artifact just played more into how epidemics have a role in society. This artifact played a role in how society affects epidemics because it was an artifact that included many plagues that changed technology and even climate change. Now that we are more knowledgeable than plagues are not able to survive in colder seasons, we can see that if warmer temperatures result from climate change, we might be more susceptible to possibly go through another pandemic. With this information from the history of plagues, we can be more prepared as a society for those types of dangers to society. To be able to change climate and technology for how it is now is probably the biggest things epidemic of diseases can have on society. Artifact 2, The Infectous Disease That Has Everyone Talking: Zoonotic, was based on the spread of zoonotic diseases. Zoonotic diseases are diseases that are spread by an animal to human contact. This artifact revolved so much around society because daily, society is coming into contact with different animals even if not on purpose. From birds flying around to even simply consuming meat, zoonotic diseases can easily affect society by mass. Societies have changed a lot from epidemics of zoonotic diseases. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is one of many organizations that administer closely how to keep people safe from contaminated food. Lastly, another very influential artifact of the impacts of epidemics on society was the third artifact. Artifact 3, Plagues Kill, Alot, was based on the Black Death plague. Similar to artifact 1, but very much more specific. The Black Death, also known as the Great Plague had a huge impact on society. Society was especially significant to this artifact because so many things were changed and introduced to society to cope with the plague. London was a horrible place to live during that time. After the plague, London made a complete 360 degree turn around. for 200 years after the Black Death struck in the 14th century, living conditions in London improved and life spans lengthened” (Whitte. PLOS). This shows the huge impact of how a disease that is killing millions of people, can turn around unexpectedly and be the hope because of a society’s efforts to make change.

In conclusion, Epidemics of Society class has been one class that is able to show the true significance that diseases has had on society all throughout the world. The artifacts used in this class has led to the discovery of how far societies have gone to cope with epidemics of diseases. Not only that, but how much diseases have had an impact on society. Artifacts 1-3 were just three, of the nine artifacts, that I have reflected on which have proved the significant correlation between diseases and how they shaped society. From plagues changing living conditions and even lifestyles to zoonotic infectious diseases changing the interactions we have between animals, in return, lifestyles and our social ways have been ultimately changed to decrease the risk of falling into new epidemics of diseases. Despite the horrible effects that diseases have had on society, ultimately society has had its way always to get back on its feet. From the CDC to better living conditions, society is still on top, for now.

References:

Ahliyah Williams. Artifact 1: History of Plagues.

Ahliyah Williams. Artifact 2: The Infectious Disease That Has Everyone Talking: Zoonotic.

Ahliyah Williams. Artifact 3: The Black Death

Griggs. The Black Death Actually Improved Public Health. Smithsonian.

Snowden. Epidemics and Society. Yale University Press.

CDC

GraceThe consequences of human actions on risks for infectious diseases: a review. NCBI.

Artifact 9: Breaking News! The Cure To HIV… Has NOT Been Found

Jul23

Ahliyah Williams

Dr. Hinks

07/22/19

Help Received: None Ahliyah Williams

Breaking News! The Cure To HIV… Has NOT Been Found

Many factors led to the epidemic of HIV in the US. Some of those factors being the rapid spread of premiscous homosexuality in the US. Homosexuals were blamed for the spread of HIV in the US. Not only were they blamed, but many other groups of people were blamed. Hemophiliacs, people who cannot clot blood normally, were also tremendously slandered in many ways. Politics begin to play a role with the spread of HIV within homosexual communties. Society was completely against a certain group of people, showing complete discrimination against a certain type of people. All of these events were not only ethically wrong, but completely ignorant. Although there is still no known cure to HIV, there has been a “powerful tool to end HIV”, called PreP. Still, there is of course challenges with finding a true cure of hiv, but advanced management for the virus has helped to control it within people are affected with HIV. During the 80s people were completely clueless and struggled to find the true cause of the HIV disease and to identify how it spreads.

Image result for bathhouses gay Homosexuality has always been hidden and ignored for many years in the US. Even though homosexuality has been known to be prevelant even in ancient history with Alexander The Great who had a male lover. Due to California seen as one of the most liberal states in the US, homosexuality was very prominent in especially Los Angelas, CA. From gay bars and clubs to ‘bathhouses’, homosexuality peaked in the 80’s. The first case of HIV was from a homosexual man named Ken Horne in San Francisco, CA. Shortly after that, many more cases of HIV begin to flow in the hospitals. All of these HIV cases at first were seen upon homosexual men. Of course with that, people begin to gain more hatred for the homosexual community. It became a question when HIV was mostly seen in the homosexual community. People began to ask “how”? Bathhouses in the gay community was one factor to the increase of the spread of HIV. Bathhouses were saunas, specifically for gay people to go and have premiscous sex with many partners. These were super popular during the 80’s. So, when one infected person had multiple partners at once, those partners spread it to other multiple people just making HIV spread like rapid wildfire. Homosexuals were also not the most admired group, still in this time of day. What group of people are better to blame about a virus that is killing people than gays? Hemophiliacs are people who cannot clot their blood by themselves. Blood Plasma banks made it possible for people to donate their blood for some quick cash. What happens when a majority of those people who are donating blood are homeless and/or infected with HIV? Hundreds or even thousands of hemophiliacs are now infected simply from blood. Hemophiliacs were now a point of interest for HIV. Hemophiliac children were even kept from school because it was thought that HIV was spread simply from regular daily contact with other people. Politics came in the story when the president during that time, Ronald Regan began to speak on the issue. The president who was the very person who was supposed to calm down the public and protect all citizens only did worse by publicly saying that until he knows what the true problem of the spread of HIV was, he will keep the people who are believed to be the source of it from being around others. Instead he could’ve been spreading education and keeping children in school. This was all just a whole turmoil of events and HIV was so disturbingly misunderstood.

Image result for hiv virus Why is HIV still not cured after all these years? The HIV virus is such a complicated and sneaky virus that because of the structure of it, locating and getting rid of it is a very difficult thing to do. Life is very hard for people living with HIV, if untreated it can turn into AIDS, where your immune system is severely damaged. Lives of people with HIV or AIDS will forever be a hardship, built with the invention of some modern technologies, life is somewhat better for those people. People living with HIV are normal people and can have normal lives, they can even have a partner. Pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, is used strategy is used by HIV-negative people who are in contact with those who are infected. According to Livia Ripka, Australia are on their way to fully eradicate HIV by using PrEP. PrEP is helping to prevent new infections from happening. It reduces the risk of becoming infected with HIV, but it is still not a complete cure for HIV. Another strategy is Antiretroviral Therapy or ART. It is used to treat HIV- infected people. Both ART and PrEP are two strategies so far that have been helping the lives of many HIV- infected people and getting a step closer to a cure.

In conclusion, HIV has been a long misunderstood virus that only recently has been understood better. From discriminating against homosexuals to even taking hemophiliac children out of school HIV has been a long troublemaker in society. Political figures such as president Ronald Regean caused much controversy and the misleading of how necessary education is for progressing. The world still does not have a cure because of the complexity of the HIV virus, but it has been managed through systems that could control the spread of the infection and make many people’s lives better. With these systems of prevention, we are getting one step closer to the cure to HIV.

References

Ronald Regean

2019. Ripka. How Aulstralia Could Almost Eradicate HIV Transmissions. The New York Times

What is PrEP? PrEPFacts.org

HIV Treatment. AidsInfo.nih.gov

HIV and The Blood Supply. NCBI.

History of Homosexuality. Wikipedia.

1987. President Ronald Regean Speech. ABC News.

Searching For a Cure For HIV and AIDS. Avert.org

Why is it so Hard To Cure HIV/AIDS. Science of HIV.