RJ Jones

Dr. Guenzel
ENC-1102- 0M12
25 April 2015
What I Learned In Boating School Is..
Any fool can know. The point is to understand- Albert Einstein. This last
semester of my freshman year at The University of Central Florida has definitely been
one for the books, and completing ENC1102-0M12 was no different. I started the
semester with a rough start, not taking the course as seriously as I should, just making
sure I could get by. But so much has changed since the beginning; I am now treating it
with the utmost importance, learning new writing strategies and ideas constantly. The
course is setup for success, offering multiple assignments designing to help to reach each
learning outcome of the course. The different learning courses expected to occur during
the course are; to demonstrate awareness of the dynamic relationship between rhetorical
situation, discourse community, genre, and inquiry, to engage in meaningful, dynamic,
and inquiry based research process, to read, analyze, and synthesize complex texts and
incorporate multiple kinds of evidence purposefully in order to generate and support
writing, to produce complex, analytic, persuasive arguments that matter in academic
contexts, and lastly to develop flexible strategies for revising, editing, and proof-reading
writing. Throughout this semester the entirety of my works have shown my great
understanding and use for all of these outcomes.
The first outcome, to demonstrate awareness of the dynamic relationship between
rhetorical situation, discourse community, genre, and inquiry, to engage in meaningful,

dynamic, and inquiry based research process, and knowledge regarding such has been
proven throughout my work in ENC-1102. Even before coming into this course I had a
decent understanding of this outcome because of ENC 1101, but never really had a
completely developed understanding. I first expressed my understanding when asked to
writing a research paper in ENC 1101 relating to discourse communities and genres. I
was asked to analyze different genres involved in my discourse community. Then after
the brief introduction in the beginning course as introduced to the idea in a new way, on
that dug a little deeper. This course made me challenge my ideas on the topics, which in
turn made my go from knowing the information to understanding how and why we need
to learn this. In Reading Response 3 on our discussion board we were each asked to
connect critical thinking and reading to our future majors and occupations; this was when
my understanding blossomed. Using something that mattered to me, and connecting it
with concepts in rhetoric like rhetorical situations, genres, and discourse communities
really boosted me up to a new level of understanding that I could use to make myself a
better writer in any situation. One relatively heavy weighted assignments asked of us was
the Research Dossier which also impacted this outcome in a great way. We were asked to
annotate several sources describing what they could possibly offer our research our
research as a whole, but the thing is, it required at least four differing genres researched.
Since genres are different types of texts this really made us think and study the articles
chosen.
Throughout this course I have shown growth and knowledge regarding the second
outcome, to read, analyze, and synthesize complex texts and incorporate multiple kinds
of evidence purposefully in order to generate and support writing, to produce complex,

analytic, persuasive arguments that matter in academic contexts. One discussion that had
a huge impact on this outcome for me personally was Reading Response 9 on our
discussion board. We learned about the Rogerian Model of Argumentation. I was able to
stray from the Aristotle Model and use this new idea on my paper to begin synthesizing
multiple perspective on the issue and use them together to create my own view on the
issue. I was also able to synthesize ideas from different sources and use them to help my
discourse relating to one specific perspective. This is a great way to not only show my
understanding of the outcome at hand but provide meaning additions to the conversation
begun by many before me.
I achieved being able to develop flexible strategies for revising, editing, and
proof-reading, another outcome. This is a topic that has been introduced to students for
years in education, but never have a gained such comprehension on the topic. I never
realized how to do it effectively with constructive criticism, and using the revisions and
ideas to benefit your own writing. Not only on the heavier weighted assignment like the
dossier, analysis, and paper, but on small works like reading responses. It did not come on
the same level of peer review, but since the beginning we have been asked to comment on
someones work, no matter how small. On the final research paper we were asked to
incorporate peer review 3 different times and even got peer review time with Professor
Guenzel. Peer review create well written pieces and makes them works of art.
The last outcome in which I have displayed my understanding is, to engage in
meaningful, dynamic, and inquiry based research process. This is perhaps the most
stressed outcome discussed in ENC 1102. Our entire semester was built around an
abundance of research that was completed of the span of approximately 4 months all for

our final research paper and ultimately leading to our Ted Talk. To begin our research
plan we had to create a research proposal, just to get some ideas on a paper and get our
brains on the topic at hand. Then we moved on to our Research Map, where we
documented all of the steps necessary for our specific research. I discussed, when, where
and who I would be conducting my research and place them in order according to dates.
Peer review was an essential piece of my research, my classmates and fellow peers
reviewed what topics I may need to include in my research and what research may have
been obsolete to my research paper. I was able to establish an ever better way to manage
meaning research. Up next we were assigned a research dossier. I had never seen or heard
of that word in my life, I had no idea what was in store for me to come. Come to find out
that this was the most beneficial part of my research in my eyes. We were asked to outline
the issue and research gap involved with our topic and connect it to how our sources will
after our paper. It was a huge wake up call for me, I began realizing that it takes a lot to
conduct true meaning research. This report argues for providing career development
opportunities at the secondary level. It describes the concept of career development, its
rationale, and current status in high school. The intent is to provide US school districts
with a rationale to begin thinking of how career development opportunities can be
integrated into the high school curriculum(Jones). This one of my analyses of a source,
where I show clear development and understanding of this outcome, proving my
understanding of the research process. Lastly, we creating rhetorical analyze of one of the
articles I chose to research. I have never known so much information about a single
source in my life. I was able to use the source to support of my perspectives in my paper

also, and finally felt like the information from an article belonged there instead of forcing
the use of scholarly sources.
Learning all of these outcomes did not come with ease, but with a lot of sweat and
hard work I was able to accomplish every outcome. Each assignment steered me toward a
successful path in my own writing career, not just in this course, but also throughout
college. I couldnt have been more happy with the way the semester turned out.