James Nance

Mrs. Ashley Marcum

UWRT 1103
28 April 2016
Post-Course Reflection
Part ONE: Rhetorical Knowledge
Rhetorical Knowledge is the writers awareness of the rhetorical
situation and how to manipulate it with his/her style, mechanics, tone,
and etc. This skill is very important, due to the vast amount of ways
that it relates to everyday life. Even in verbal conversation, one must
be aware of the rhetorical situation. This rhetorical situation consists
of the purpose and audience, along with the process of portraying the
point the author or speaker is claiming. Let me give you give a realworld application of Rhetorical Knowledge. If a speaker is speaking to
a crowd, he must use variances of tone, humor, formality, and facts to
best address and engage the audience, satisfying his/her purpose to
express his/her ideas. This skill is used in basically every profession, as
it is, pretty much, the awareness of conversation. To be a successful
writer, one must be skilled in dealing with the conversation between
author and audience, and how to manipulate that conversation. After
learning this skill, I believe that all of my future writing will be wellinformed, giving me the edge in any projects or assignments that cross
my path during my career.

Part TWO: Critical Reflection

Reflection is a huge part of a persons life. When alone, a person has
that time to reflect on anything and everything. One may reflect on
past conversations, actions, writing, and etc. In the case of writing, a
writer must reflect on his/her own writing, as well as the writing of
others. This reflection allows for the correction of mistakes, while
additionally giving the writer an opportunity to further elaborate on
lacking parts of the work. Diving deep into the work allows the reader
to fully understand the thought process of the author at the time the
piece was written. Every career field requires skills in reflection to
succeed. For example, in an office scenario, one must revise and
check every assignment for credibility in order to further secure his job
and not get fired. Employees cannot turn in half-ass work and expect
to succeed. They must reflect on their work in order to complete the
toughest assignments. I know that, later in life, I will have a lot of time
to reflect on the past, whether this be experiences, writings, or
memories. I believe that this skill is critical, hence the title Critical
Reflection.
Part THREE: Knowledge of Conventions
Conventions are a tricky subject to grasp, due to the fact that they are
basically guidelines for genres in writing. By this, I mean that

conventions govern the way people write and/or create multi-modal

works. Whether we are talking about the way a paper is laid out, or
the spelling and grammar used in the work, we are talking about
conventions. People are known to break the rules of conventions from
time to time, writing with slang, or different style. This is risky, but
when done properly, it can make the work more interesting. Though,
for the most part, conventions of writing and composing are usually
followed. Most careers make sure to enforce formality and credibility in
their work. This is satisfied by following the conventions of writing,
making sure grammar and formatting are correct, and following all
citation rules when citing other work. I will use conventions numerous
times in my future life, being as important as they are. From verbal
conversation, to written work, I try to follow all conventions. That is,
unless I deliberately choose to write outside of the box.
Part FOUR: Experience Before/During This Course
Rhetorical Knowledge:
Before this course, I didnt know what rhetoric was, and the
rhetorical situation was like a foreign language to me. I did not
have many encounters with the term rhetoric, other than the
occasional mention of a rhetorical question; but I still didnt know
what it meant. After this class, I am completely aware of the
rhetorical situation and what it consists of. The assignments
dealing with discourse communities really strengthened my

understanding of rhetoric and what it meant. The idea that

rhetoric is a conversation between author and audience really
stuck to me, making sure I knew how to best engage the
audience. To do this, I learned that different styles of writing can
be more interesting to different audiences.
Critical Reading:
Before this class, I have had some past assignments that have
strengthened my sense of critical reading. Any project that
required me to analyze and cite any sources for information has
given me experience in this SLO. This includes any research
projects, book reports, and etc. These projects require the
student to read deep into the text and evaluate the ideas,
patterns, and reasoning of the author. Also the student must
form connections between sources by analyzing and recognizing
the similarities and differences. In my high school English
career, I had plenty of these type of projects; and in turn, I have
much knowledge about this SLO. For this class, the project that
really focused on this SLO was the Readers Guide. By building a
guide in which readers could fully experience my research
process, I had to find many different sources that somehow
connected with each other about a common topic. The project
was very in-depth, in turn strengthening the knowledge I already
had about this SLO.

Composing Process:
The composing process is the process in which a writer
constructs his or her text. This is a very important process in
order to create a strong, credible paper. The process includes
brainstorming, drafting, reviewing, revising, and etc. Before this
course, the assignments that required me to write any type of
paper gave me experience with this SLO. All papers require a
detailed composing process in order to maintain credibility and
logic. Before even writing a paper, one must brainstorm ideas
and plan out how those ideas will be expressed. One must
create drafts and receive feedback from others to make sure
there is no bias or incorrect information. After this feedback, one
must revise his or her work in order to further strengthen the
text, making sure to include valid sources that argue in
agreement with the paper. All these steps help the author create
a strong paper that provides credible arguments. The project
from this course that mainly focused on this SLO is the Literacy
Memoir. For this assignment, we students were guided through
the composing process in steps, in order to help us fully
understand the process. We wrote multiple drafts, which were
then reviewed by peers, and revised those drafts. Also, we were
instructed to include different sources that helped express the
argument we were writing about.

Knowledge of Conventions:
Conventions are the rules that guide the way writing shapes the
views and expectations of the reader. Spelling, grammar,
mechanics, style, and organization are all determined by these
conventions. Before this class, I did not have very many
assignments, that I can remember, that focused on conventions
of writing. An assignment in this course that focused on this SLO
was the Voice and Vitality assignment. We students read a few
articles on the topic of conventions and and how to change the
style of our writing to better express our ideas. This can be done
by adding intelligent, lively words, and maybe even messing with
the grammar or punctuation.
Critical Reflection:
Before this class, reflection was merely a term I remember from
school, that meant we had to write about something we read. I
was not a big reflector in the past, due to the fact that I did not
enjoy the process of reading or writing, let alone writing about
reading. After this course, I have learned to reflect on all of my
work to ensure its credibility and intelligence. By revising, one
can point out mistakes that were not apparent before, gaining
the chance to add more correct information or grammar. Any of
the various reflection assignments of this course could be chosen
as a tool to strengthen ones understanding of critical reflection.

With both self and peer reviews, as well as daybook reflections,

us students were given many opportunities to critically reflect on
our writing.
Part FIVE: Portfolio Page Ideas
- rhetoric
- reflection
- parlor discussions
-researching
- peer review