I can proudly state that I came into English Composition fairly confident that I would be easily on top of it. At the time I thought I knew I could tackle the class with what I've been taught in high school. It was kind of a shell shock the first day. I thought I could address higher order concerns easily in my papers. But I couldn't to say the least. English Composition has definitely challenged my previous teachings in a way no other course has. Writing is something I take pride in doing. Mainly because I know I have to perfect it to be successful in the career I am choosing. This allowed me to intake most of the experiences and concepts learned in the course and be able to apply them personally to my life. With that said, I'll introduce you to a subject of importance, the writing process.
Everybody has a different writing process, and everybody changes their writing process per scenario. Let's say Warren Buffett is writing a proposal to buy out a business, his writing will be more persuasive and explain in basic detail what will be happening if the business is bought out. Now let's put Warren Buffett in a different writing scenario, one where he is writing a annual report for the revenue of Berkshire Hathaway. The scenario, and criteria have changed. His writing will probably be extremely detailed to inform the shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway exactly what is going on. This is an example of how writing processes change depending upon context. He will also most likely be doing different types of research. For the first scenario, he will most likely be looking at what will be happening to the business he is buying out. The second, he is trying to inform shareholders what is happening with Berkshire Hathaway. This is an example of different writing processes. This is a perfect example for me to understand that writing processes change per scenario and per demanded criteria. It is also in the spectrum that I understand the most, business. My writing process is most likely completely different from Warren Buffett's writing process. On my third paper assigned in English Composition 1, I got to study myself and my writing process. To say the least, it was completely different from every other person I've ever met. A bunch of my friends and colleagues can just sit down and write away, but I need to be in a quite environment without many distractions. With this setting, I can easily write away with minimal writers block. If I am not in this type of ideal environment, I experience heavy writers block. Not necessarily because I don't know what to write, but because I can't think of what to write. In the second scenario I would have multiple distractions going on around me that wouldn't allow me to focus on my paper. I have to be in this ideal environment to even think about the next outcome, the rhetorical situation of the text.
I can argue that the rhetorical situation is the most beneficial piece of work I have added to my knowledge. Understanding the four constituents of the rhetorical situation help me piece together texts that might be more on the difficult scale to read. Being able to understand where an author, or a rhetor is coming from is very impactful in the way I read a paper. I can connect to the result of the paper more, and in a deeper sense. Being able to understand the exigence behind the authors intentions can also make a text more informal, and more applicable to myself. Also, understanding the constraints a paper makes, can help me understand what the author is limited to. Lastly, the genre in a paper can really determine how I read it. If a paper is research based, but in a blog format, I'll have a harder time to accept what is presented to me; if a person is providing research to me in a non-research format, I lose trust in the authors credibility. The best piece of evidence to proof my understanding of rhetorical analysis is something I cannot really share visually, although I can tell you how it has improved the way I look at papers. It has helped me tremendously in reading business related papers. I read a lot of Warren Buffett's writing, and understanding the rhetorical situation helps me break down all of his texts into easier to understand terms. I find myself reading everything in less than an hour's time, and having minimal confusion. This is plenty of evidence to show how the rhetorical situation has helped me in aspects not necessarily locked down into English Composition 1. Although I will only give a whisper about this next matter within the rhetorical situation, it is still important nonetheless. The rhetorical situation has allowed me to get into the readers mind before the reader actually reads the text. Being able to think about the four constituents lets me foreshadow how the reader will react to my writing. This almost allows me to manipulate the reader in the way I want them to think about the text. Technically this is what a proper text is supposed to do, but the rhetorical situation allows you to address these higher order concerns before getting any form of feedback from the reader nonetheless. The rhetorical situation has also helped me break down complex texts!
English Composition 1 has definitely helped me grow in one aspect: the ability to read and understand complex texts. Now this ability alone is backed up with the other course outcomes I have written about in this assessment. Being able to read complex texts rhetorically gave me the ability to use the four constituents to break down the complex text. This makes it easier to read and understand everything the author wanted us to understand. In the beginning of the course, I would take maybe an hour and a half to read through one of these readings completely, and I would not completely understand what was written about in the text. Throughout the course, I began to pick up on my reading speed and on my understanding of the text by use of the rhetorical situation, and the use of skimming texts. This gradually improved, and one day while reading Tony Mirabelli's "Learning To Serve" (although not a particularly difficult text) I noticed that I only read through it once and completely understood everything discussed in the text. This reading only took me an astounding hour! That's a half hour wiped clean from my time! That was something that I felt very proud of, not only because I could read complex texts faster and understand them completely, but because I would have more time to debate what I would write about in the follow up assignments.
All in all, my journey through English Composition one has been a roller coaster. I've been able to identify key strengths that will help define my career. The course benchmarks that I have brought up are great examples of areas I have not necessarily mastered, but am able to achieve with a little bit of work. This shows that I am able to grow in each field. Reading rhetorically has helped me understand big businesses and complex texts. It has also helped me put myself in the right state of mind, and asking myself the right questions when writing papers. Also being able to discern a paper by the scenario it was written in can help me put myself in the writers shoes, and see exactly what they are writing about. I very much enjoyed English Composition 1 to say the least. It heavily challenged how I go about reading texts, and writing texts. With these new skills, I am positive I am on the right path to becoming a better writer, and becoming a better person.
Everybody has a different writing process, and everybody changes their writing process per scenario. Let's say Warren Buffett is writing a proposal to buy out a business, his writing will be more persuasive and explain in basic detail what will be happening if the business is bought out. Now let's put Warren Buffett in a different writing scenario, one where he is writing a annual report for the revenue of Berkshire Hathaway. The scenario, and criteria have changed. His writing will probably be extremely detailed to inform the shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway exactly what is going on. This is an example of how writing processes change depending upon context. He will also most likely be doing different types of research. For the first scenario, he will most likely be looking at what will be happening to the business he is buying out. The second, he is trying to inform shareholders what is happening with Berkshire Hathaway. This is an example of different writing processes. This is a perfect example for me to understand that writing processes change per scenario and per demanded criteria. It is also in the spectrum that I understand the most, business. My writing process is most likely completely different from Warren Buffett's writing process. On my third paper assigned in English Composition 1, I got to study myself and my writing process. To say the least, it was completely different from every other person I've ever met. A bunch of my friends and colleagues can just sit down and write away, but I need to be in a quite environment without many distractions. With this setting, I can easily write away with minimal writers block. If I am not in this type of ideal environment, I experience heavy writers block. Not necessarily because I don't know what to write, but because I can't think of what to write. In the second scenario I would have multiple distractions going on around me that wouldn't allow me to focus on my paper. I have to be in this ideal environment to even think about the next outcome, the rhetorical situation of the text.
I can argue that the rhetorical situation is the most beneficial piece of work I have added to my knowledge. Understanding the four constituents of the rhetorical situation help me piece together texts that might be more on the difficult scale to read. Being able to understand where an author, or a rhetor is coming from is very impactful in the way I read a paper. I can connect to the result of the paper more, and in a deeper sense. Being able to understand the exigence behind the authors intentions can also make a text more informal, and more applicable to myself. Also, understanding the constraints a paper makes, can help me understand what the author is limited to. Lastly, the genre in a paper can really determine how I read it. If a paper is research based, but in a blog format, I'll have a harder time to accept what is presented to me; if a person is providing research to me in a non-research format, I lose trust in the authors credibility. The best piece of evidence to proof my understanding of rhetorical analysis is something I cannot really share visually, although I can tell you how it has improved the way I look at papers. It has helped me tremendously in reading business related papers. I read a lot of Warren Buffett's writing, and understanding the rhetorical situation helps me break down all of his texts into easier to understand terms. I find myself reading everything in less than an hour's time, and having minimal confusion. This is plenty of evidence to show how the rhetorical situation has helped me in aspects not necessarily locked down into English Composition 1. Although I will only give a whisper about this next matter within the rhetorical situation, it is still important nonetheless. The rhetorical situation has allowed me to get into the readers mind before the reader actually reads the text. Being able to think about the four constituents lets me foreshadow how the reader will react to my writing. This almost allows me to manipulate the reader in the way I want them to think about the text. Technically this is what a proper text is supposed to do, but the rhetorical situation allows you to address these higher order concerns before getting any form of feedback from the reader nonetheless. The rhetorical situation has also helped me break down complex texts!
English Composition 1 has definitely helped me grow in one aspect: the ability to read and understand complex texts. Now this ability alone is backed up with the other course outcomes I have written about in this assessment. Being able to read complex texts rhetorically gave me the ability to use the four constituents to break down the complex text. This makes it easier to read and understand everything the author wanted us to understand. In the beginning of the course, I would take maybe an hour and a half to read through one of these readings completely, and I would not completely understand what was written about in the text. Throughout the course, I began to pick up on my reading speed and on my understanding of the text by use of the rhetorical situation, and the use of skimming texts. This gradually improved, and one day while reading Tony Mirabelli's "Learning To Serve" (although not a particularly difficult text) I noticed that I only read through it once and completely understood everything discussed in the text. This reading only took me an astounding hour! That's a half hour wiped clean from my time! That was something that I felt very proud of, not only because I could read complex texts faster and understand them completely, but because I would have more time to debate what I would write about in the follow up assignments.
All in all, my journey through English Composition one has been a roller coaster. I've been able to identify key strengths that will help define my career. The course benchmarks that I have brought up are great examples of areas I have not necessarily mastered, but am able to achieve with a little bit of work. This shows that I am able to grow in each field. Reading rhetorically has helped me understand big businesses and complex texts. It has also helped me put myself in the right state of mind, and asking myself the right questions when writing papers. Also being able to discern a paper by the scenario it was written in can help me put myself in the writers shoes, and see exactly what they are writing about. I very much enjoyed English Composition 1 to say the least. It heavily challenged how I go about reading texts, and writing texts. With these new skills, I am positive I am on the right path to becoming a better writer, and becoming a better person.
