Reflective Argument

In English 120, I have learned a lot throughout the semester including about myself and
about the writing process. I have acquired new skills and knowledge that will be useful to me in
the future. I have increased my writing skills through the many assignments and discussions that
occurred during the course of the class. I will discuss the SLOs that I have improved on during
the duration of the semester and some that I am still making progress toward. I will make my
detailed case about each SLO individually.
The first SLO (SLO A) is defined as being able to analyze, compose, and reflect on
arguments in a variety of genres, considering the strategies, claims, evidence, and various
mediums and technologies that are appropriate to the rhetorical situation. My own definition of
this is being able to read any type of document, including arguments, and comprehend what the
information is telling you, so you can compose your own argument and summarize what you
learned from the information. Through this, you can learn about how to shape an argument using
these strategies to help you write about your rhetorical situation more effectively. I have made
the most significant progress towards this SLO. In class, we went over logical fallacies in
arguments that you want to avoid using in order to create a fair position on an issue. As a class,
we analyzed In Defense of Torture and broke down the argument by examining what worked
effectively and what elements did not work effectively. We analyzed the emotion, reasoning, and
evidence of the piece and found out that the writer used too much emotion and not enough
evidence because he used innocence to his advantage. Learning from this activity, I was able to
compose my argument and create my rhetorical situation for how the WIPP site is beneficial to
New Mexico using these strategies in my paper. I used ethos (authority) as my main element in
my paper and some pathos (emotion) also. An example of using pathos in my paper is when I

said Envision innocent people, especially children, who inadvertently discover these toxic
materials that are deadly in these areas unknown to them. I wrote this to bring the fear of loss
into my paper by arguing that innocent people, especially children could be hurt. People do not
want their children to become injured, so the message becomes more powerful to the reader.
Through reading and looking at websites about argument strategies, I was able to piece together
my argument by analyzing the information for myself and shaping a logical essay.
The second SLO (SLO F) is defined as being able to evaluate your development as a
writer over the course of the semester and describe how composing in multiple genres and
mediums using various technologies can be applied in other contexts to advance your goals. My
own definition of this is to look at yourself through your own writing experiences that occurred
over the period of the semester and examine how you could use this gained knowledge to your
advantage in the future. Throughout the semester, I have learned how to improve my writing
skills through genres such as argumentative essays, rhetorical analysis of a trailer, and the literary
analysis of an urban legend by means of a documentary. With all of this being said, I had to
revise my first two MWAs, learn from my mistakes, and take my writing and improve it. With
filming the documentary for our MWA 3, I learned how to work in a group environment and
cooperate with others on time in a limited amount of time. I know this will definitely help me in
the future because I have more experience with working with a group and understanding what
role I can play to make sure our group is successful. Working as a team is a great character
builder, especially for me. Also with the filming aspect, I learned how to operate a camera and
edit content more efficiently. This is all fundamental in college, especially from a growth
standpoint as a person. I can take what I learned from this class to help me in all of the rest of my
future classes in college.

The third SLO (SLO I) is defined as being able to compose a research-based academic
argument in one of various mediums and technologies by identifying, analyzing, evaluating, and
synthesizing sources, which must include secondary sources. My own definition of this is to be
able to research using many resources, especially secondary sources, and gather evidence along
with your own thoughts from the information you have looked through in order to create a valid
and cited research paper. This SLO was clearly evident in the first MWA, which was a position
paper. Since our papers had to be on a topic based in New Mexico, the sources I utilized were
newspaper articles and scholarly articles. I was able to search the databases on the UNM library
website, evaluate which sources of information I was going to need, and use the evidence from
them in my paper. A newspaper source that I used from the UNM data base was the Albuquerque
Journal. It was very helpful, especially because it had enormous amounts of newspaper sections
focused on my topic about the WIPP site tremendously. I was able to take all of this information
to make a solid argument that the WIPP site was beneficial, and create a paper in which I used all
of my resources effectively. In our MWA 3 assignment, I also had to research my groups urban
legend using resources such as the UNM website and other websites. I conducted research on
Humans Can Lick, Too using information from websites such as snopes.com. All of this has
allowed me to advance my skills in finding peer-reviewed and academic sources that are
necessary in order to create a concise argument that is cited.
The fourth SLO (SLO C) is defined as being able to use multiple approaches for
planning, researching, prewriting, composing, assessing, revising, editing, proofreading,
collaborating, and incorporating feedback in order to make your compositions stronger in various
mediums and using multiple technologies. My own definition of this is to be able to take all the
feedback you received from the overall writing process, which includes group work, peer

reviews, etc. and use all of this to improve your essay through any genre it is. I feel that I have
made progress towards this SLO the most. Through this SLO, I was able to take my work and
improve it immensely. Through the LSAs that were assigned, I was able to plan my final paper
the way I wanted it to. This helped me outline what I wanted to cover, especially in the first
MWA. Researching both sides of the argument in our position papers helped me to see both sides
of the argument fairly. This allowed me to choose which side of the argument I wanted to take in
my topic. The in-class peer reviews and the group work over Google Docs really helped me to
communicate with my classmates. I was able to read through other peoples work and analyze
different types of styles that I could incorporate into my own writing style. This was effective in
getting the most important feedback from my classmates who knew what should be improved
and what worked. The peer reviews also helped me in my revisions for my portfolio. I was able
to take their feedback on my second MWA about my movie trailer (Insidious Chapter 3) and
change the genre of my essay into the brochure that incorporated all of their suggested
improvements. This made all of my essays stronger and more concise because I was able to
collaborate with all of them while taking in all viewpoints on my topic.
The fifth SLO (SLO B) is defined as being able to describe the social nature of
composing, particularly the role of discourse communities at the local, national, and international
level. My own definition of this is to be able to define the collective aspect of working with a
certain group on a specific topic, especially through a set of people who share the same basic
values and understanding on a topic at different levels in the world. I feel that this is the SLO I
have made the least progress toward. Although the assignment for the MWA 2 addressed how the
role of the discourse communities could fit in with my film, I cannot firmly grasp the concept of

it. It is a concept that I feel that we should have went over more in class. It is confusing for me
and I would need to see examples of it.
Overall, English 120 has improved my skills as a writer and I know that it will help me in
my future. I feel confident in my ability to write on a topic more effectively and efficiently. This
class has taught me a lot.