The New York Times article “What is DACA? And How Did It End Up in the Supreme Court?” written by Caitlin Dickerson explains the DACA program and gives the readers an update of its stance in the Supreme Court. Dickerson is a “national immigration reporter based in New York State” whose work has received a Peabody Award and a Murrow Award. Since she is based in New York State, which has a high immigrant population, and primarily focuses on immigration and immigrants, it is clear that Dickerson is more than qualified to write this article, though she does lean in favour of the immigrants. In this article, Dickerson highlights the DACA Program, gives a brief overview of how it was created in 2012 by President Obama, and how it is now trying to be dismantled by President Trump. Seeing as the majority of this article was dedicated to explaining what DACA is, who it benefits and how it benefits its recipients shows how this article was aimed at people who are not yet familiar with this program. Dickerson carefully crafts her writing to make sure that she doesn’t use highly opinionated words or stark phrases that may offend people who may already have opinions on the DACA program. Instead, as a news article, she takes a more neutral stance, focusing solely on the facts of the situation by linking other articles and demographics to inform her audience. She chose to include demographics that had a favourable light towards immigrants and even made sure to mention how “Contrary to what President Trump has said, people with serious criminal histories (meaning a felony or serious misdemeanour conviction, or three convictions for any type of misdemeanour) are not eligible” for the program. Though Dickerson doesn’t use much pathos in her writing, the videos that she chose to include, especially “What ‘Dreamers’ Gained From DACA” By A.j. Chavar, which showcases the lives of DACA immigrants and their struggles, makes her sympathy clear. The point of all of these positive demographics and the sympathetical videos goes to show how Dickerson wants to imply that these immigrants are simply trying to better their lives in America.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/article/what-is-daca.html

Name: Jaden Fabro

Intended Major: Architecture

Preferred Gender Pronouns: she/her/hers

After reviewing the syllabus, I am most eager to develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing. This is because I believe they are very versatile and will prove to be useful no matter what I continue to study. Although I do understand that in order to achieve these strategies I will have to write a large amount, I’m anxious about the multiple page essays that we will have to submit. In high school, I became used to my teachers limiting my page count to two or three pages, so I always kept my writing concise. I hope that when I write these essays, I won’t sound redundant to fill the page count.

Good writing has a purpose and is delivered concisely and effectively. In order to achieve this result, practice is key. The more someone writes, the more they’ll become familiar with different techniques and writing styles that will improve their writing. It’s important to be a good writer because it’s one of the most used forms of communication. In everything we do as students and later as adults, we will have to communicate our thoughts, ideas, and feelings efficiently in school and the workplace, which being good writers will do for us.

The easiest part of writing for me is getting words down on a page. I may not know what exactly to write, but I almost always have some idea of what I’m trying to get at. I find that when I’m on my first draft, I work better with quantity over quality. Then once I have all my ideas down, I focus on the quality of my paper. Revising and editing on the other hand, is more difficult for me. I have a hard time determining how much I should cut out or expand on certain ideas from my original draft.

I plan on becoming an architect after college. In this field, I’ll be expected to write reports on different projects and possible proposals for new ones. By becoming an effective writer, I will be able to clearly express my ideas to my colleagues and coworkers. This will also allow us to have a coherent end goal and will make communication between us a lot easier. I believe this will result in successful projects that will then result in an increase in career opportunities.