Char Fusitu’a

English 2010

Jane Stringham

May 6, 2020

Final Course Reflection

I chose Mental Health as my local/social issue because it has been a big and scary issue

that I’ve noticed in my own personal group amongst family members and friends. I have had

friends struggling with sever depression, anxiety, and self-harm. I have seen people in my

community and people that I personally know suffer from mental health issues and some even

suffered in silence and have lost their lives to it.

In the Polynesian community alone, if one were to say “I am depressed, I need help” it is

looked at as a sign of weakness. Some may not even believe the person. Depression is looked at

as something made up, or we are simply told to just “get over it”. Such toxic ways are what

drives people into a deeper state of depression and makes so many not want to come out about

their struggles or even feel like they have a voice to speak up.

Over the course of the semester my perspective has definitely changed, but more for a

better and deeper understanding on the issue. My knowledge was very surface level and I believe

doing research on Mental issues and finding more facts about it just made the issue more real for

me. In my Information effect it mentions “According to the National Alliance on Mental

Illness (NAMI) “A mental health condition isn’t the result of one event. Research

suggests multiple overlapping causes. Genetics, environment and lifestyle influence

whether someone develops a mental health condition”. I haven’t realized how deep
and how much negative or bad things go into building that deep sense that leads

people down that mental health issues road.

The mediums I chose for my assignments were chosen based off of my vision

for the assignment. I would look at the list that is offered and then think of what is the

easiest yet effective way for myself to get my point across without the information being too

overwhelming for my audience. For example, my Profile assignment was done as a webpage

online on Daniel Reynolds who is an American Singer, songwriter, producer, and lead singer of

the Grammy award winning band "Imagine Dragons". Daniel is an advocate for mental health

and for LGBTQ+ community. I could have easily written a paper, however part of my profile I

included a YouTube video showcasing LGBTQ teens and their struggles as LGBTQ teens and

their encouragement for everyone to “Love Loud”, which is the name of not only the foundation

Daniel Reynolds has, but also the name of the Music festival he holds annually in Salt Lake City

to ignite the conversation between the LDS church and the LGBTQ community. I feel like the

video has added a special touch to the assignment and emphasized on the issue at hand.

I enjoyed the peer review discussions because it allowed my peers and I to creatively

critique each other. I liked the peer review option because it allowed me to sit with those that

were critiquing my paper and ask them questions and get a better understanding on what I am

lacking or what I could do better with my writing. This allowed me to improve on my writing

goals. I was able to better identify different writing genres and techniques used as well as explore

the different genres in my writing.

The idea that “Language and writing are resources people use to do things, be things, and

make things in the world” is very true to me. Without language how are we to communicate to

each other our ideas, our emotions, or our thoughts and feelings. All great things start with a
thought, with an idea. From there we utilize language and writing to build on that thought or the

idea and allow it to blossom to something beautiful. Writing is very important because it is

another way of communication. Writing allows us to document our ideas, history, stories,

memories, important information etc. Using writing as a resource has benefited me in writing my

Flash Memoir. I was able to document and tell my story about a very eye opening memory. A

memory that has helped influence my decision to choose Mental health issues as my local topic.

I have used rhetoric to help construct meaning in the assignments that I have done. It

helps me grab my audiences attention in an organized way and allows me to break down counter

parts of my essay to create an effect of persuasion on my topic. I believe this is very important in

writing because it gives your work more insight and appeal to your audience. I have tried my

best to utilize this writing example in my Editor's Note to gain my audiences attention.

Overall this class has been very effective and has helped me with exploring different

writing techniques. I feel like I have grown as a writer and look forward to using these different

techniques in future classes and assignments.