Emma Duffy

Sandra Alden
Reflective Argument
2 May 2014

Introduction
This semester, in my English 102 course, I have grown as a writer. Starting this course off I
didnt know much about rhetorical situations, proposals, or genre analysis. With this semester
wrapping up, I can say with confidence that I have gained these skills, and they will be of use to
me in future classes as well as in future career situations. I know I have made progress in
advancing towards all of the student learning outcomes this semester, however I believe I have
made the most progress towards student learning outcomes A, B, D, H, and J.

Student Learning Outcome A
This outcome asks that the student makes notable progress in critically thinking about, writing,
and reflecting on various arguments from various genres while using new ways to find
information on each argument and genre through mediums of technology that fit with the
rhetorical situation.
I advanced towards this student learning outcome very early in the semester. I started off
confused as to what a rhetorical situation even was and how to go about analysing it. In the first
month of class we watched the Bobby Kennedy speech and the Martin Luther King speech while
considering the rhetorical situation of each, in preparation of writing a rhetorical analysis. Our
teacher would periodically put us into groups and ask us to pull out the rhetorical arguments. The
arguments being ethos, pathos and logos. I didnt really understand those three elements before
this semester but with extensive amounts of group work, and assignments on the project (such as
reading guide questions, small writing assignments, and discussion board posts), I have advanced
immensely towards these concepts and feel as they will be good use to me in the future. Also, my
teacher this semester introduced a new way of sharing information through technology while
writing a rhetorical analysis. This was sharing information by way of Google Docs. This was
helpful to me in this class because while writing a group SWA we could all contribute to the
paper equally and simultaneously. I have used this technique in other classes after learning it in
here.

Student Learning Outcome B
The second student learning outcome I have advanced towards this semester is SLO B. This is
a goal to advance towards writing as a social act by learning how to look at the social role of
discourse communities at a multituted of levels and being about to describe them and write a
research paper about them.
I advanced towards this SLO late in the semester, during sequence 3. For sequence 3 we had to
research our future careers and write a discussion board post, an annotated bibliography, and a
genre analysis on them. To prepare us for these tasks, we had many in class discussions of
discourse communities and how they affect society. Our teacher gave us a visual example using a
Star Wars reference displaying why it is important to be aware of others discourse communities
at all levels. This was helpful to me when writing my discussion board post and my major
writing assignment 3 because I know a lot of terminology about my field (future discourse
community), however I was aware that the readers of my paper may not know the terms of my
future field of study. I was careful to use unknown terms and made sure that I described, in
depth, words that may appear as unfamiliar to the reader.

Student Learning Outcome D
SLO D asks that each student makes advances in the dialect of Standardized Written English
by making improvements in sentence structure, paragraph formatting, and the fluency his/her
writing documents as a whole.
This semester I did advance towards this student learning outcome by being taught how to
appropriately use grammar and formatting, through instruction by my professor. A couple days
out of this semester my professor dedicated to giving us a handout explaining how to use
grammar tools effectively (such as commas, semi colons, etc.). This I found very helpful because
I havent been given any grammar instructions since my early high school years. It was
beneficial to my writing to get a college professors explanation on each grammatical tool.
Knowing these knew tools and rules added emphasis to my papers technical strength, rather just
than the content itself. Also I learned some new formatting techniques this semester, from the
early proposal stages, that I have made use of already in my college writing career. Overall, this
semester has really been helpful to me in the way of advancing towards improvement in my
fluency using the Standardized Written American English.

Student Learning Outcome H
SLO H asks that in English 102 students advance towards using the ideas and perspectives of
fellow peers into his/her writing and research. It also asks that the student makes progress in the
way of using new means of technologies while writing and researching assignments this
semester.
I advanced towards this student learning outcome throughout this semester in English 102.
Everytime we had a small writing assignment due, or a major writing assignment due, we had a
specified day for peer reviews. I found this very helpful because my peers thought of ways to
improve upon my paper, that I hadnt considered. They also had a new perspective to what I was
writing about (especially in my proposal) and gave me interesting ways to approach all of my
writing assignments. Having peers perspectives added creativity and dynamics to my paper. Also
i advanced towards using various mediums of technology for research. For small writing
assignment 6 we had to make an annotated bibliography finding 5 different genres about our
future career. This forced me to find different kinds of technology to display my future career as
a speech pathologist and it really opened my eyes as to all the different genres that there is when
researching a subject.

Student Learning Outcome J
SLO J states that a student should learn how to look into a certain academic field and be able
to describe the writing conventions and understand them in order to explain the different ways of
writing and researching in the specific field.
The writing assignment that helped me advance towards this student learning outcome the most
would have to be every paper I was assigned in the third sequence this semester, consisting of
SWA 5, SWA 6, and MWA 3. In this sequence I did extensive research in my chosen field of
study, speech pathology. I already knew a lot about this field because I have chosen to major in
it, but I didnt know much about the writing conventions. When looking into the subject I found
out a lot of new information that was helpful to my assignments as well as to my future life. I
wrote about my career as a whole in SWA 5, found different genres that displayed the
conventions of my future career for SWA 6, and compared and contrasted two different genres
explaining my academic field and described the different ways they created and communicated
knowledge.

Conclusion
This semester I have learned a lot about writing and researching. I have gained many skills that
will make themselves useful in my future schooling as well as in my future career. Through
advancing towards student learning outcomes, A, B, D, H, and J, I have become a better writer,
researcher, analyser, and communicator. I learned the importance of grammar as well as the
importance of integrating others perspectives into my writing. In English 102, I have gained
skills that will last me a lifetime.