Jeffery "Jedi" Ludwig

Rhet 1312
James Wilson
5/7/14
Final Reflective Essay
In order to properly refine oneself into a stronger, better person one must take time to reflect
on what has been accomplished and where those tasks have led to and where they will be leading. This
semester I took the composition II class headed by my instructor, James Wilson, and now, at the end of
the term, the time has come for reflection to be sure that I have not only understood what this growth
means for me as a writer but also to be sure that I have fulfilled the course requirements and
frameworks that were established before the class. In this class I have been required to demonstrate a
more refined knowledge and usage of many frameworks that can be dividing into the five categories,
rhetorical knowledge, processes, knowledge of conventions, composing in electronic environments, and
critical thinking, reading and writing. It is for this purpose that I have compiled and electronic portfolio
of my works and will be using it to document for the purpose argumentation to prove that I have
completed an appropriate number of these frameworks, but have done so in a manner that shows my
mastery of the concept.
In the task of demonstrating my mastery over rhetorical knowledge, I wish to address the
frameworks of being able to respond appropriately to different kinds of rhetorical situations, and the
ability to write in several genres as the two instructional goals that I will use to prove my proficiency in
this field. I demonstrated my ability to respond appropriately to different kinds of rhetorical situations,
which is made evident by how the work that I did was varied in purpose. For this example I shall use
project two as my evidence, where I responded to two different rhetorical situations. In the essay
section of the assignment, I wrote an evalulation essay which compared a figure through three different
incarnations. Then in the peer letter I wrote a letter to a peer which reviewed his work and made
analysis on where improvement was needed in an effort assist him in improving his work. Each
rhetorical situation is different in how they are addressed. For example in the essay I am addressing my
professor and my imaginary audience of those who would be interested in knowing about batman
portrayals across different media, but in the peer review I am communicating with a fellow classmate in
an effort to make suggestions that will lead to improvement. The goals, purposes, and even formats of
each of the situations is greatly different and by addressing each appropriately I demonstrate my ability
to respond to different kinds of rhetorical situations. For evidence in my ability to write in several
different genres, I call project 3 and my in-class writings to be my evidence. In project three we broke
into groups to create a persuasive kickstarter page with the purpose to persuade an audience to fund
our project, but in my in class writings I was called to inform my audience of my response to the topic of
the day. Specific elements that best demonstrate this is that the video script for project three was
created with the purpose of persuading the audience that our company was a good choice for
investment and that our plans, product, and research would succeed. Standing in contrast, I was
required to free write during my in-class writing number six and decided to inform the audience of my
stream-of-consciousness style analysis of the song that was playing at the time. Each task was
accomplished appropriately and through their completion I demonstrated my ability to write in several
different genres, and showed that I have mastered the tasks related with rhetorical knowledge.
In this semester I have shown that I also managed to obtain the required affinity in the fields of
critical thinking, reading, and writing. My first framework which I shall prove my proficiency in shall be
to show that I was able to integrate my own Ideas with those of others, for which I shall again use
project three as my example. In project three, I oversaw organization, provided the script, created the
video pitch, created the division of labor, and I worked with my group members on development of the
idea and how we would be able to make this concept appropriate for a kickstarter proposal. We all
contributed on the idea together and how we would work out all aspects of the project, such as the
reward systems, thus showing that I was able to integrate my ideas with those of others. For my second
framework, I shall show that I am became proficient in using writing and reading for inquiry, learning,
thinking, and communicating. In project one, I was using my writing to inquire about the ability of the
advertisers to use the appeals in a visual argument that had a goal to persuade an audience. By reading
my textbook and learning how the visual medium utilized the appeals I was able to think about how
effective the advertisement was, and then communicate my ideas through writing to document my
thoughts on the matter. It is through these two examples that I demonstrated comprehension of the
materials present in class related to critical thinking, reading, and writing.
My virtuosity in the processes of writings can be demonstrated in how I fulfilled the framework's
requirements of being aware that it usually takes multiple drafts to create and complete a successful
text, and by showing that I have the ability to use a variety of technologies to address a range of
audiences. In project one I showed that I was conscious that, before my final submission, my essay
would go through multiple drafts. After my rough draft was completed, created a revised draft that
went through the discerning eye of my evaluator, James Wilson, but even then It would still require
revisions before the final draft was created. I reviewed every comment made and made an effort to
correct each oversight that I had while drafting the previous versions until I felt it was ready to be
submitted as the final version. Proof my usage of a variety of technologies to address a range of
audiences was evident in project three's video proposal. In the project we were seeking to persuade all
manner of audiences to donate to the campaign and thus it became necessary to create captions for the
video so that the hearing impaired and deaf would be able to receive the information that was available
to other audiences. Creating these captions served as an example of how I understood that technology
was able to be used to address a range of audiences, and shows that I have an adequate understanding
in the frameworks related to the processes of writing.
In my pursuit of documentation that I received a proper education about knowledge of
convention related to writing for this course, I will focus on the frameworks that each student should
develop knowledge of genre conventions ranging from structure and paragraphing to tone and
mechanics, and that each student should practice appropriate means of documenting their work. In
project three, my group looked at different kickstarters to find out the appropriate genre conventions
for making a proposal in this fashion. The group google document from the project shows how we all
looked and research the format and our final proposal demonstrates that we all utilized the knowledge
when formatting our ideas into the appropriate form for the website. I demonstrated my capability to
practice appropriate means of documenting my work in project one's final draft where I include a
properly formatted citations page instead of simply attaching the image with the document, and again
in the in-class writing number five where I demonstrated that I could find the proper citation style for
my career of choice and cite information in that format. It is through these examples that it can be
established beyond a shadow of a doubt that my knowledge of conventions in writing can be established
as adept in this course.
To demonstrate my ability to compose in electronic environments, I will demonstrate my
adroitness over the course's goals for each student to be able to understand and exploit the differences
in the rhetorical strategies and in the affordances available for both print and electronic composing
processes and texts, and for each student to be able to use electronic environments for drafting,
reviewing, revising, editing, and sharing texts. In project two, I utilized the electron medium for drafting
my rough draft, reviewing the text I needed to peer review, revising my essay, editing my revisions even
further to create my final draft, and sharing texts via email to have it reach my professor. To
demonstrate my understanding between print and electronic composing processes and text, I again
shall utilize my project three google document. In that document we had the benefits of being able to
simultaneously compose our analysis on a shared page, and thus the group was able to easily examine
what others doing the same task were working on and gain a greater understanding of what was
required for the task to be completed properly. Furthermore from this we were able to look at a group
members original idea for a couture suit and gown proposal and compare it to the successful proposals
we analyzed in order to show that the idea would not be able to be pitched and being work instead on a
proposal which would be able to be completed in the kickstarter's format successfully without having
someone waste time and energy on a preliminary proposal only for it to be unusable. It is with these
two proof that I show that I have gained a command over composing in electronic environments and
have fulfilled the course's frameworks.
In conclusion, it is with these ten frameworks that I show that I have fulfilled the course's goals
for me as a student and complete this reflection of my growth in writing over the semester.