As this semester comes to an end, I have reflected on the development of my skills as a writer.

By engaging in weekly discussion posts and essays, one of the main course learning outcomes I was able to achieve was to “recognize and practice key rhetorical terms…” in especially “…a variety of genres and rhetorical situations.” This achievement is evident in many of my writing assignments, but especially in the Source Based Essay. When analyzing the rhetorical elements of a scholarly article, I paid close attention to the diction, tone, and other important information to draw conclusions about the other rhetorical devices. A sentence from my SBE essay that illustrates this skill development is “this audience was targeted at researchers, scholars, and students of this field as signified by the formal tone, the multiple citations, the longer length of the article, and the complex vocabulary.” When analyzing a different genre, such as a U.S government website, I also achieved the same learning objective of identifying the rhetorical terms. This is illustrated in my sentence, “Household Poverty and Nonfatal Violence Victimization, 2008-2012″ states that the data is retrieved from “National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)…” which, once again, establishes that the writers aim to inform and target people who would use this data for their research, school, or their own purposes.” I am now able to analyze different genres and identify the rhetorical terms such as the rhetorical situation, purpose, audience, genre, stance, and media. I think I am better at identifying certain terms better than others, but in general, I was able to successfully use it to make my writing stronger.

Additionally, another learning outcome that I successfully developed was engaging “in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.” In my peer review of the Composition in Two Genres, I was able to engage with other students’ work. I also found that my comments and edits came to me with ease, and I gave detailed feedback that, hopefully, enhanced the students’ work for the better. For instance, on Nathaniel’s post, I asked thought provoking questions and advice such as “…you should directly state which social media platform you would post this to and how your followers on that platform would react to this post. Or maybe explain how the targeted audience impacts the social media app you choose?” Then Nathaniel gave me feedback on my draft. He also let me know that he found my comments to be helpful. Therefore, I was able to collaborate, socialize, and work with other students within the writing process. While doing so, I also observed the differences in our artistic, linguistic, and writing skills. For instance, I found that some of us respond to discussion posts with a casual tone, while others utilized a scholarly tone. I was able to develop a rhetoric appreciation as I saw how my classmates interpreted the Composition in Two Genres to their own imagination. I showed this rhetoric sensibility as I commented on Leslie’s painting that, “I can see that you put in a lot of thought to the details like making the book worn out to represent the POC education system.” All in all, I believe that all these skills, shown in my writings, also illustrate the bigger ability to “develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing.”

While there have been many improvements in my writing skills, there were also areas that did not improve to its full potential. Personally, I think I could have incorporated the skill of “locating research sources…in the library’s databases…evaluate them for creditability, accuracy, timeliness, and bias,” into discussion posts, more often. Instead, most of my sources were out of the library’s databases or my own opinions. However, I plan on incorporating and achieving this learning objective as I write my last essay, the Critical Analysis paper. Additionally, I could have spent more time developing strategies such as “…critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation.” For my composition essay, my synthesis was rather short and not analyzed enough. While I was not that successful in “…using print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences,” I was able to implement citations in an organized and consistent manner throughout all my writings. An example of this was in my “Moving Beyond Pain” discussion post, where I claim that “Hooks expresses that the visuals did a good job, by including ‘diverse representations (black female bodies…in all sizes, shapes, and textures…)’ (Hooks, 2).” This sentence shows the strength of my skill of “…systematic application of citation conventions.” Progress is not always linear, and I know I can improve on the skills that I missed as I continue throughout college and in the future. Overall, this course has strengthened my skills, as a writer, editor, analyzer, and much more.