The Power Of Words

I have a simple writing and research process. Usually, once I know what topic I

want to write on, I figure out what things I would like to include in my paper. From then I

found research that covers the specific things I want in my paper and after I have a good

amount of resources I began to write. When I start writing there isn’t much of a process, I

just start writing and let the words flow onto the paper. I chose to focus on mental health

in teenagers because I think it's something important with the recent changes in how

mental health is viewed but also with my personal experiences surrounding mental

health. In life, I had gone through things that had affected my mental health but also I had

friends who were greatly affected by their mental health, a few even pushed me to the

point of considering suicide. One of the projects we did this semester was a profile. I

chose to do it on a friend whom I knew had some struggles in life

https://youngstersmatter.weebly.com on the home page of the website my profile on how

they pushed through can be found. Throughout the semester my view on mental health

stayed the same, the only way it might have changed was by realizing how many things

actually can impact mental health and feeling more passionate about it. I chose to write

the majority of my projects as normal papers because that's what I knew the best and I

knew I would do them well.

When it comes to my persuasive project

https://youngstersmatter.weebly.com/change-is-needed.html I chose the write the paper

as a proposal because I felt that, it was the best method to get my point across to my

audience and make people realize that mental health is on a raise and should be taken

seriously. I also want people to know that some changes can be made to help with mental

health and proposing in this sense felt like the best option. With the proposal, I was also
able to provide data and persuade a reader to see how many people are affected by mental

illness and see why change is needed. When I was originally doing the information

project I did it as a normal paper with some pictures that also showcased data showing

the history behind mental health but when reviewing my work I chose to change my

medium https://youngstersmatter.weebly.com/what-is-mental-health.html On this website

the audience will see a slideshow rather than a paper talking about mental health. I

realized that this was a better option because it provided a more visual aspect and was

easier for people to read. Rather than having my audience sit down and read a long paper,

they could get all the information in a few slides. I chose to adapt this project because it

seemed to make the most sense to change, I felt like I wouldn’t do the other projects

justice if I switched how I had written them but this project I knew I could change it up. It

helped make my writing better by hearing what others thought about my work and how

they thought I could improve.

Oftentimes when writing a paper I have a friend review it before I turn it in, so

they are used to my writing style and understand what I'm trying to say. With classmates,

they don’t know me well or my writing style therefore they can be more open and share a

different perspective. When it came to peer reviews and discussion since we are in a

college class people provided real feedback that in turn made my stories better and

allowed people to connect with them more. When it comes to the magazine it was

interesting to work with a partner and see how our styles work with each other

https://youngstersmatter.weebly.com/about-the-editors.html but to also read from others

what they thought of our website because although we may like the look of our website it

matters how it looks to others. Having to step out of my comfort zone and write different
types of essays for this class helped me in my writing and changed my writing style a

little for each project.

Hearing feedback from classmates on my memoir helped a lot when making it

better. https://youngstersmatter.weebly.com/a-shatter-heart.html When it comes to

creative writing or telling personal stories I struggle with getting things on my paper. I

tend to be a closed book so when sharing experiences I struggle with how much to share

but also writing with having no resources is a challenge for me. I think something we can

take away from this class for all aspects of life is learning how to take feedback and view

it as a positive thing rather than negative. Often we feel like we are the best at what we do

but sometimes listening to others' perspectives can make us and our work better. Writing

is something that can create change but also a lot of emotion and this goes for any form

of writing. There are so many types of writing that affect people in different ways such as

songwriting, through lyrics people can make connections and feel like they are a part of

something big. Music can inflict a lot of emotion and motivate people to push forward in

their lives.

Writing poems or moving papers can motivate people to make a change in the

world and make people feel something. Such as the poem read during Joe Biden’s

inauguration, this poem moved many people and made people think about what was

being said and how the world was turning out. But there is also movie writing or simply

just being a writer that allows someone to escape reality and change who they are for

even just a moment. Rhetorical writing allows us to understand why these things work in

the world and why some forms of writing work better than others. After looking through

all my projects and seeing what I did I was able to analyze each piece and see what things
worked and what didn’t. When it came to my memoir and profile I realized that what

made those things special and why people connected to them was because of pathos and

the emotion my readers felt.

With my memoir https://youngstersmatter.weebly.com/a-shatter-heart.html, I

discuss what it can feel like to suddenly lose someone close to you, this is something that

not everyone experiences but I was able to showcase some of the emotions that I felt

when going through the process of putting a seed into the reader's mind of how mental

health can affect people and border their view of mental health. When it comes to my

profile people feel the emotion that someone is experiencing but also realize that often it's

the people around you that you wouldn’t think twice about that are usually affected the

most by mental health. https://youngstersmatter.weebly.com Rhetoric is a bit harder than

just making someone feel something but when it came to my persuasive project I used it a

lot https://youngstersmatter.weebly.com/change-is-needed.html with this I tried to think

of what things I could use that would get people to listen to me so I used a lot of ethos

and logos so that people understood how serious mental health truly is and why we need

to make some changes in how we view mental health but also in people are treated.