It took me a very long time to pick an article that had enough information to write my essay on and ultimately I found one written by a high school student on a topic that is extremely important to me. When first coming across “What we should do about standardized tests” by Carlos Alejandro De Los Santos I was hesitant because of the lack of factual information the author brings in. After analyzing many others, I realized that this was the strongest because of his use of pathos. Bringing in personal examples, and as being a high school student himself, I thought it was a very strong article. However I had to focus a lot of my attention on other information and articles because of that. Bringing in the factual information from other sources, while still using De Los Santos as my main focus point and letting his words guide my essay. Most of the articles I found directly backed up what De Los Santos said but using factual reasoning and logic. However overall explaining the mental and physical health consequences and other reasons we should remove standardized testing. After researching all these articles and understanding the topic further I was able to go against the counterargument articles. I became much more knowledgeable about the subject as  I continued to further my research and found many different views and ideas. Finding factual proof against testing and the statistics with mental illness really helped me to develop my paper. As writing my paper, my thesis and specific ideas continued to change and get cut, focusing on only the most important parts. 

Although this is a highly debated issue that people have strong opinions about, it was hard to find the type of articles and arguments I wanted.  This was surprising for me and I had to source deep in the internet to find the best articles and quotes. I wanted to make sure I included ethos logos and pathos and find a few different articles for those. I also wanted to include a strong counter argument and make sure I included all the necessary points. Beginning the essay and finding my articles and sources was one of the hardest parts for me. After making these decisions the writing went by quickly, however i’m still not sure if I analyzed my article correctly.  This assignment was one of the most challenging essays and I found it very hard to grasp. After finishing it, I believe I understand it more but not fully. I went through a lot of trial and error and had to eliminate many ideas and sources. Including some articles that talked about the problems with race and standardized testing, however I decided since De Los Santos did not discuss that at all, I really just tried to focus on mental health and other minor issues. I thought that adding too many ideas and big picture problems would take away from the essay and make it hectic and unclear. This helped me to just focus on what De Los Santos was saying and not stray into my own ideas but really let him guide the way for the ideas in my own essay. 

Writing this essay was actually very interesting  because this is something that I have been passionate about since I was in middle school and have always had very very strong opinions on. I had always struggled with this in school and saw the amount of anxiety that came from it. I would look around and see the pressure my friends and peers were feeling and wondered if it was truly worth it to have tests. Carlos Alejandro De Los Santos’ article really stood out to me and the way he is able to make his story so relatable and persuade his readers in a silent way, without having an outward angry stance. I thought his article was a good one to choose for my critical analysis and despite lacking certain aspects was overall very  interesting to write about.