Within the essay, I used the chosen sources to back up my opinion while also creating a conversation. If the two quotes I chose had differing views, I used that to create a conversation on how one is not necessarily correct over the other because nothing is black and white. I learned to select quotes that meant exactly what I was trying to say rather than quotes and trying to force their meaning. The assignment where we read experts from the book “They Say I Say” was incredibly helpful in the sense that there were provided examples for integrating my ideas and other people’s ideas. It was also helpful with integrating counter arguments or even ideas that are similar. Throughout the semester I became better at explaining the analysis of quotes and explaining the connection between multiple quotes in a Barclay style paragraph. An example of this is in the third body paragraph of this chosen work. 

Gladwell states, “In fact, it’s the kind of commitment that will bring only social acknowledgement and praise.” Being the center of attention is a hope that most people have even if it is only for a brief moment of time. People want to be known as a good person and this is the best possible way to do so. After doing a good deed, people love to post about it on social media as much as possible whether it is trash pickup or redoing a garden for the nearest church. Turkle says, “Why not focus on the positive…We like to hear these positive stories because they do not discourage us in our pursuit of the new…” (Turkle 349). People would rather hear the positive stories than the negative in order to create a sense of happiness. On the other hand, people love to share positive stories and pictures because they want their lives to seem better and more exciting than they are in reality.

This short part of my essay demonstrated my ability to take quotes from different writers and use them to work together to assist in making my point. It also demonstrates how I am able to explain quotes to uncover the meaning behind them and how they are truly interpreted, rather than forcing them to mean what I want them to. In the past I had a much harder time integrating the quotes so it flowed smoothly, as well as trouble with the analysis in the sense that I would not analyze and explain as much as I should have.