During the past semester I have learned a multitude of techniques that will hold significance throughout my career as a college student and as a writer throughout my life. This is displayed especially within my knowledge of developing a research topic or question which is not only specific yet concise and rich with points of conversation and exploration throughout my paper. One of the specific concepts which has assisted in my growth as a writer is the rhetorical triangle connecting the subject of the paper, the author of the paper, and the audience which is reading the paper. This has helped my direct my writing in terms of diction and phrases that allow me to cater to my audience in a crucial way and also allows me to get my point across concisely. With this also came a close attention to ethos while writing which is extremely important in an argumentative sense. I have found in the past semester ethos is one of the key components to making a convincing and informative piece of writing. This has allowed me to establish my background in the subject of Iranian cinema through phrases and vocabulary.

Another thing that I learned was how to improve my transition sentences to sound more natural and present pieces of evidence and explanation in a more effective way. This was also somewhat of an essential technique because previous to this class my writing seemed more robotic than natural. This also assisted in writing thesis statements that include all of my main points and clearly convey to my reader what my piece is about. My thesis statements and research topics have also gotten a lot better because of my procedure of asking a research question and then turning it into a thesis statement from there. At first during the beginning of the semester this was quite difficult to do, however with time I got accustomed to it and ended up making it a permanent process for writing in all of my classes. This was especially helpful for large scale research papers which required strong pieces of evidence from outside sources. In order to provide these sources and make their inclusion significant it was essential that I ask what else can be explored within my topic and what must I include within my paper to come to a significant conclusion. 

I also learned what is considered a scholarly article in order to ensure that I am looking for the best examples which are significant and trustworthy. This also changed how I approached inserting my evidence into my writing as well. I have also learned how to cite and introduce my evidence in a way which is smooth and relevant to the main topic of my paper. Within the last semester I have seen a ton of improvement in how I approach a paper and how I also edit it to ensure that I have the best piece of work that I can possibly come up with. I have been a lot more consistent and effective in my delivery and am eager to see where my writing takes me next.