Campaigns, Conversations, Comments, and Cortisol

SMC Reflection

I think the SMC helped me get a good overview of what issues exist for my species. I think the most important and most likely the one I will advocate for in the AP essay will definitely be orca captivity. I deem it the most important one because of the issues, it is the one issue most specific to killer whales. Issues such as bycatch and plastic/pollution are dire, but are issues that affect dozens of other animals asides from killer whales. Some solutions I found to the issues included supporting research, condoning inhumane captivity practices, and making impactful changes to one's lifestyle. The most feasible ones were probably any of the solutions that didn't involve money. But truthfully I know deep in my heart that it's an uphill climb to make drastic efforts without money. I also was glad to have looked further into the organization Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) as they served as a primary source for many of the tweets in my social campaign. My two best tweet threads I'd like to think are my "Organization Spotlight Thread" about WDC (which actually received a like from the organization!) and my orca captivity awareness thread!

Making Arguments

Considering I don't personally feel qualified (at all) and have lost confidence in anything I do these days, I think my ethos has thrown itself out of the window long ago. However, I can probably still make use of logos with whatever future sources I will utilize. Then pathos comes along afterwards when pushing the philosophical questions and engaging with the audience. I think I will definitely be using the notes I took while watching the videos to maybe use later on for introductions/conclusions in the AP. I also want to be able to adapt an open tone similar to Singer and Dawkins' conversation.

Peer Review

In the peer review, I looked over Anthony Vo and Bayan Tabbaa's literature reviews of studies about elephants and corvids, respectively. To be quite frank, I despise peer review because I don't think I am in a position to judge anyone's writing knowing/feeling that my own writing is as I'd like to often call it "hot garbage". But for the purpose of this blog, I'll be brief about my critiques for the two, so here's a quick fire list of my thoughts: UNQUALIFIED COMMENTS I GAVE:

-Lack of transitions made the essay feel choppy and incohesive

-Some content/summaries of studies were unclear and it took me until the conclusion to realize what aspect of the animal was being written about

- Minor word choice/language hiccups that need to be cleaned up to sound more credible/professional

COMMENTS I RECEIVED: -Formatting issues to clean up the essay and make it more organized -Don't need to use quotes when summarizing -Some main ideas/connections can be expanded upon -Need to paraphrase more -Pretty sure I saw "use quotes everywhere" in the guidelines and took it to space

Honestly, every time I have to look back at my LR draft, my cortisol goes up so much there's probably enough to give another person an actual heart attack. There's not enough professionalism left in me to hide the fact I hate my own writing and wish it were burned like a Salem witch.

All right, 'til the next blog.