Reflection: The freedom in this assignment proved to be extremely beneficial when discovering the impacts of grammar at the start of a story. I chose multigenerational family sagas because of their scope in narrative; I wanted to better understand where long stories tend to start. Furthermore, the assignment required me to conduct close reading to the most scrutinizing degree: every comma and word choice was evaluated. I now found myself using a similar lens when revising my own writing or copyediting a piece.

Reflection: I really appreciated how this one assignment worked three separate functions. First, the rhetorical analysis reminded me that rhetoric is present in all writing and must always be considered. Even simple correspondence between coworkers and/or employers inevitably (though not always effectively) leverages ethos, logos, and pathos in many ways. Second, by analyzing a SWOT memo, I learned not only proper formatting for my own SWOT analyses, but also how to correctly identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats when evaluating a situation. Third, I became familiar with professional memo formatting.