Theory, History, Research in Writing: “The Power in Naming: the Bear Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition Against the United States”

The main objective in Writing 2555: "Diverse Rhetorics" was to understand how rhetoric interacts with diverse subjects in unique contexts. The highlighted text from this course explores the deployment of rhetorical strategies within the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition as they fought against land reduction proposals targeted at Native land in Southern Utah. This piece emphasized the power of naming with Indigenous culture and the contrasting titles of the region based on the media source. This exploratory project allowed me to critically assess popular culture sources and pinpoint nuanced language that manipulated or defamed marginalized Native groups. I detailed the legal situations of the case in law courses, so it was beneficial to widen the scope of my exploration to include rhetorical perspectives provided by the marginalized communities themselves.

This piece written in Writing 2000: "Theories of Writing" came as quite a surprise to me while curating this portfolio. It was interesting to see that I deployed research and analytical skills at the lengths I did within this project being that it was my first course within the writing minor. This text explored commonly suggested writing advice, the impact of each suggestion, and the rhetorical strategies employed by each source. In hindsight, I wish I had curated the information with more awareness of an intended audience, because I am now unable to identify who I wanted this project to reach. If my intended audience was students, I believe they would have benefitted from an abridged analysis including effective writing tips.

The sky was the limit for this English 1000: "Introduction to Creative Writing"  project, so I chose to rewrite a character, Walter Moon from one of my older short tales. Walter was a blind astronomer and a stubborn man (clearly), but he never lost sight of his passions and dreams (pun intended). In “Out of Sight” I said ado to my comfort character and let those closest to him tell their side of the story. It was difficult to change the narrative around Walter’s life, but I appreciate the mysterious twist added to his character. This project serves to diversify my writing portfolio and highlights the unconfined creativity I usually withhold in other texts.

The revision I wrote in Writing 3500, “Writing Design and Circulation” asked that I manipulate a previous writing project into a new form. I chose to reform a rhetorical analysis from my Diverse Rhetorics course, “How To Bridge Communities: An examination of Jell-O and Funeral Potatoes.” The analysis only included my perspectives on the rhetoric of Jell-O and Funeral Potatoes serving as artifacts for community connections in Utah between non-LDS and LDS members. I rewrote the piece into a scientific inquiry on food as culture and identified historical situations in Utah and LDS culture that facilitated the creation of each dish. This project came as a challenge to me because it was difficult to integrate sources into a piece initially intended to be curated solely by my opinions. This work improved my ability to adapt texts without creating an entirely new project and created a blend of my scientific and creative writing abilities.

This text explores who I was, who I am today, and who I aim to be as a writer and was presented in my writing capstone Writ 3500: "Writing Design and Circulation." I chose to compare pieces from my Advanced Writing and Rhetoric course and my Theory, History and Research course. Writ 1622 was the first writing class I took at the University of Denver and I felt very confident in my writing abilities at the time, but I have grown tremendously as a writer in “skill” and ability since then. I wrote “What it Means to Be Responsible” as an exigence analysis in this course to call attention to the lack of adequate safety services on campus. The second piece I chose to analyze was a rhetorical analysis “How to Bridge Communities: An examination of Jell-O and Funeral Potatoes.” In the past two years I have transitioned from exploring social justice issues from the perspective of others to identifying my alignment with the people and places they affect to become a well-rounded ally and scholar.