The RWD assignments covered a wide range of articles from a variety of authors, covering themes such as the viability of arguments, the nuances of the English language, and philosophical analyses on the meaning of reality. I had no prior experience or exposure to any of these arguments before taking this class, meaning that I was essentially going in blind. For this reason, I believe that the RWD summary assignments were of great help, as they focused on giving a short 1-2 sentence summary of the article in a predesignated format. In some cases, like as in RWD 2, the format also required examples to back the one-sentence summary, which created a more thorough examination of the entire text. As for their rhetorical purpose, the RWDs are structured to communicate another person’s argument in shortened language; additionally, they allow for self-reflection based on how the reader interprets said argument. This is demonstrated by how students will independently choose to empahsize or omit certain passages of the text depending on how relevant they believe it to be to the overall thesis. The RWDs also allow for readers to question the validity of the evidence the author of the original text used to support their argument.
