Abbie Gumpright

Professor James Phillips

English 170-22

24 November 2020

 

To Whom It May Concern:

     This semester in writing and rhetoric I gained a plethora of new knowledge and was able to apply this to my writing. Throughout the semester I noticed that my writing skills had improved and writing lengthy essays did not seem as challenging. In this class we completed many writing assignments including annotated bibliographies, research notes, an argumentative research-based essay, rhetorical analysis essay, and a survey summary and response. All of these assignments helped strengthen my writing ability which will be helpful in future classes.  

     In high school I had experience with writing rhetorical analysis essays, so I was already familiar with this going into class. One of my strengths in writing is being able to write proper thesis statements. I know that when writing a thesis you need to state your opinion and your three reasons. Having a well-written thesis statement makes written assignments much easier because the thesis acts as your outline and gives you something to refer back to in your essay. Although I already knew how to properly write a thesis statement, I was especially proud of my thesis in the argumentative research based essay. My thesis statement was clear and concise which made it understandable to the reader. I also continuously referenced my thesis statement to make my argument clear to the audience. 

     In the past, I have struggled with researching papers because finding reliable sources that relate to your topic presents many challenges. However, this year I learned how to navigate and use the library resource catalog, which allowed me to find multiple scholarly articles to use in my writing. Before this class I had never used a library resource catalog and had always just found articles on the internet. I enjoyed using the library resource catalog because it narrowed down sources and provided me with trustworthy sources that supported my arguments. 

     In the future, I hope to continue learning about citations. Citations are something I had never paid close attention to and did not think were particularly important. However, this semester I have learned the importance of citing sources properly to give the author credit and avoid plagiarism. More specifically, I hope to learn more about in-text citations and how to cite given different situations. I can learn this by referring to the Purdue owl. This is a tool that was referenced numerous times in class and that usually provided the information that was necessary. By referring to the Purdue owl I will be able to correct any citation errors I have and answer any questions I may still have. 

 

Sincerely,

Abigail Gumpright