Personal reflection

This portfolio shows the ways I’ve changed in my approach to writing, research, and self-reflection. Throughout the process of creating these pieces, I moved away from just presenting ideas and began thinking more carefully about how arguments are shaped, supported, and received. Writing about social media and self-image helped me enagage and critically analyze topics that felt personal, while still having my claims grounded in research. I was able to use academic sources mixed with lived experience to balance credibility with honesty, and it made my writing feel much more meaningful.

Writing about social media and self-image made me look critically at how digital language like filters, captions, trends—quietly teaches people what is considered acceptable or desirable, often at the cost of authenticity. After seeing Safwat Saleem’s TED Talk, i deepened my awareness. His experience with being mocked for his accent helped me realize how linguistic standards can be used to silence people and question their intelligence or legitimacy. Studying his rhetorical choices—especially his use of vulnerability, humor, and personal narrative—helped me see how rhetoric can challenge these hierarchies rather than reinforce them. While taking this course, I began to understand writing as not just self-expression, but a space where identity, language and power meet.