Yasha Kosarev
Professor Echavarria
ENC 2135
26 April 2026

Project 1 Reflection: The Rhetoric of Quantum Logic

Certainly, Project 1 turned out to be harder than expected. Initially, I believed that my assignment would involve describing the principles of quantum computers, their speed, potential threats, and possible influence on the current security technologies. Nonetheless, it became evident later that the technical side of the issue cannot be discussed alone. Thus, it was necessary to redirect my attention to the rhetorical exigence of the scientific community and address the profound conflicts experienced by researchers at present. Undoubtedly, such an extraordinary change posed certain difficulties for me, complicating the entire process, as it was no longer simply about describing but providing a coherent and persuasive argument.

Firstly, meeting the word limit turned out to be quite problematic because 2,000 words were needed to be written. Consequently, I had to think of additional things to include into the paper. In other words, the amount of research conducted exceeded my initial expectations. The necessity to maintain a technical tone and adhere to the assigned style while adding the required number of words made the process somewhat complicated. I realized that the genre of a long-form technical paper requires a specific level of detail that I had originally underestimated, forcing me to expand my scope significantly to meet the expectations of an academic audience.

Explaining the basic math of the algorithms (like Shor’s and Grover’s) was actually the easiest part because the facts are very clear and I like math very much. However, navigating the rhetorical situation of explaining code transitions for quantum hardware was a major obstacle. It was very confusing even after several hours of research. It took a lot of time to make sure I was not making mistakes when describing things like qubit connectivity and the physical constraints of modern hardware architecture that limit algorithmic efficiency.

This issue exposed my weaknesses in technical communication. What I learned from the situation is that while I could understand the mathematics behind the technology, being able to explain the same in layman's terms using appropriate rhetoric became essential. Initially, I wanted to write two essays only describing how quantum computers can break the internet; however, after expanding the themes, I got more topics that I could focus on. These included issues regarding software engineering and hardware constraints, and they reflected the evolution of our understanding of computers. Through recognizing themes that are varied, I was able to cater to my audience effectively since I segmented my discussion in a manner that is sequential.

I spent almost 15 hours on this writing assignment. The time spent on conducting research was approximately half an hour out of all that time. In total, I used the majority of time looking for information and citing it. Overall, the time spent on research proved to be most productive since I was able to build my credibility and establish stronger ethos by providing concrete evidence for the theoretical claims I was making.