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Hodges Markwalter

Doctor McLaughlin
WR 13300
4/28/15
Reflection on the Spring Semester
To all visitors and viewers of my blog, welcome! The portfolio you
are about to read shows my development as a writer and
understanding writing as a process throughout the second semester of
my freshman year. Through these four main assignments The Audio
Narrative, Rhetorical Analysis, Research Paper, and TED Talk I have
gained an understanding of rhetoric and argumentation, and hope to
share this understanding with you.
This portfolio challenged me to think and express myself in many
different forms of communication. Unlike a traditional English class that
narrowly requires written assignments, this multi-media based course
offered a variety of assignments using different forms of
communication. The first assignment was the Audio Narrative. This
assignment was so drastically different, because rather than offering a
rhetorical response to readers, I was challenged to offer this rhetorical
response to listeners. After our first submission, I continued to rehearse
and edit this Audio Narrative because it took a while for me to make
this transition and be affective through speech. However, this
continued effort helped me to realize that persuasion and rhetorical

analysis can affectively be understood in further means than just


writing.
Each of the four assignments that I completed has a unique
purpose. There is a noticeable development from assignment to
assignment that reflects my progression as a writer and communicator.
I will walk through all of the individual assignments to show this
progression.
The first assignment, the Audio Narrative, introduced me to this
idea of incorporating multi-media sources in order to enhance my
rhetoric in communication. Vocally expressing my essay enriched my
message and enhanced my ability to get my point across.
Next, the Rhetorical Analysis assignment required me to respond
to the movie, Selma, and to express my personal take on a theme of
rhetorical importance. Using evidence from the film and incorporating
related documents helped me to depict the arguments of the
filmmaker and see the film in a different light. The use of research is
what allowed for me to back my evidence and prove my points. This is
where I began to have a good hold on the interpretation of rhetoric and
media-based arguments.
The research paper was an ultimate test to what we had
learned previously in the term while adding personal research and
analysis. This challenging task involved critical research in order to
come to a convincing conclusion. One skill that I acquired through

writing this paper compared to research papers in the past is that I


learned not to let my research dominate my paper, but rather, be
useful resources to my thoughts and my ultimate conclusion. In
research papers in the past, I get so caught up in the research that I
am unable to keep a structured, streamline thought process. The time
that was allocated to this assignment along with the continual help of
Doctor McLaughlin allowed me to improve as a writer and to turn in a
convincing paper.
Our final assignment, the TED Talk, was the most difficult of all in
my opinion. I had to combine multi-media sources (power point,
pictures, special affects) with the evidence that I came up with in the
research paper in order to vocally present my thoughts and offer a
rhetorical response from the audience. It is one thing to sit behind a
screen and punch out letters to communicate a message to an
audience. Standing in front of a crowd and trying to make sense of a
topic without notes requires a deeper understanding of the topic. You
must be confident in what you are trying to sell your audience and
must know all information, top to bottom. This project made me step
out of my comfort zone and argue a point that I now will remember
forever. For this reason, I am most proud of giving the TED Talk.
I hope that you enjoy witnessing my maturation and progression
as a writer and communicator by viewing this portfolio. Each

assignment is unique and tells a story about myself. After successfully


completing this term, I am proud to call myself a writer and a thinker.

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