The Pokedex a tool handed to Pokemon Trainers, when they first begin their journey. The Pokedex serves as a personal encyclopedia to trainers. When pointed at an unknown Pokemon, a Pokedex reads, analyzes, and provides evidence to the trainer about the unknown Pokemon. This information can be used by the trainer in various ways to improve their battle skills.

Outcome 2 requires the writer to be the Pokedex. It is important that writers are able to read, analyze and pull out evidence from unknown, complex pieces of texts and then use this information to better improve and support their persuasive paper.  

Writer's Memo: 

Writing Short Assignment 4 proved to be challenging in many ways because it required the compilation of both Short Assignment 2 and Short Assignment 3. I had difficulty planning out exactly how I wanted to argue the issue of accidental racism, and then to effectively convert these ideas into a claim. In the first draft of my paper, I showed confusion and hesitation when deciding possible ways to approach counter arguments to my claim. These issues were resolved in the final draft. For example, when people argued that acts of accidental racism “are truly incidental” and that no action is required, I would respond that although intentions may the accidental, these acts “create real negative emotions” within the victims. Additionally, I elaborated more the points I brought up. Instead of addressing, and assuming people knew what Wong Fu Production was, I gave a brief background by explaining that “Wong Fu Productions is an independent production company” that is most known for their “YouTube channel”. After that, I had trouble finding key points in the complex texts I had found and coming up with ways I could incorporate pieces of evidence into my writing to further support my claim. For example, in the first draft of my essay the outline that I had formulated at the end was very vague and lacked specific points. The key to resolving this issue was through careful reading, analysis and synthesis of each complex text. Therefore, much revision was needed in order to fulfill Outcome 2.

Short Assignment 4 accurately fits into Outcome 2 because I portray my skills of close reading as a reader because I had to analyze and pull quotes from complex readings that helped sum up the main points of the article. For example, through close reading of the video, Accidental Racism, I was able to identify 3 main techniques that Wong Fu Production use to help articulate the ideas, which are “dialogue”, “shot types”, and “setting”. Through effective analysis of the article, Accidental racists: Experiences and Contradictions of Racism in Local Amsterdam Soccer Fan Culture, I found that the author’s main points were that the vague Soccer league definition of racist acts left a “space through which they [soccer players] can avoid accountability” and still be racist. Secondly, Short Assignment 4 allowed me to fully demonstrate my understanding of Outcome 2 because after I had carefully read and analyzed a piece of text, I had find a way to incorporate and synthesize the evidence into my claim that I would later on use in Major Paper 2. For instance in the case of Isabelle Khoo’s article, 4 Reasons Asking “Where Are You From?” Is Offensive, I connected her ideas that accidental racist remarks are usually said out of ignorance and cause people to take offense and connected it to my claim by stating they specifically cause feelings of separation and alienation because as Khoo said, they’re labeled as “other”. Additionally, when synthesizing Wong Fu’s YouTube video and using it specifically to prove my claim that accidental racism has negative effects on a person’s emotions. I stated that shot types allowed viewers to see the actors become “anxious” and “nervous”, but it also allowed us to see when a smile vanished, a person “sighs”, “stutters” or “avoids eye contact”, which are all negative reactions to the racist comments.

All in all, Outcome 2 improved strengthened my ability to critically read different mediums of texts and then find pieces of evidence that will help further emphasize and support my argument. In my case, I critically analyzed a YouTube video, a Huffington Post blog, and published articles. This skill can come in handy not only in different course of writing but also in any class that involves reading. For example, I can apply close reading skills to classes that involve textbooks, such as, Chemistry, Psychology, Physics or Math to identify key and main points which I will then incorporate and apply to solving problems relating to that topic. For example, when reading a Psychology textbooks, my ability to critically read and analyze the text will help me identify key terms, and concepts that I will need to know.