Dear Reader,

Before starting this course, I had no idea what I was going into. I had idea what rhetoric even was, as my education before college only had generic English classes up until my last year of high school, where I had AP Literature. I feel like that doesn’t make too much sense as I honestly don’t remember most of what I learned in the generic English classes. I figured that, as my first college English course, this class wouldn’t be much different but, thankfully, I was proven wrong.

One thing I improved upon in later projects was how to make proper citations for a project. When I say this, I mean the punctuation needed to make an in-text citation work. Some quotes have unneeded information or text that makes sense in the source you’re pulling it from but is nonsense when shown by yourself. Learning how to omit that excess info from a quote will help me make sure I don’t make my projects too long.

To me, this course would have been helpful during my first semester at New Paltz, as I had been taking an honor’s seminar, and had to write many essays in it. This course served as a sort of introduction to how one should work in a college education, gearing me for the future ahead. Writing and Rhetoric helped me understand how to structure many different types of projects I will no doubt encounter later in my college education. I am using it even now, as I make my Final Paper for my Introduction to Asia course.

One thing that might help me in my future career is how to do proper research with scholarly sources, not just the general internet. Before college, I never had to put much effort in my research for projects, but that changed when I came here. I learned that extensive research is necessary for making sure that the reader knows I’m serious about my topic. With a major in chemistry, I will most likely enter a career that will require writing a research paper of some kind, so being able to find truly credible source will be invaluable. I also learned from Small Assignment 2 that making a project takes time, and that you need to make sure that you leave enough time to finish it properly. On the day of peer review for the mini tutorial, many of my peers barely started on the project, and the only reason I had a draft of the project was that I rushed the day before.

Regarding the class itself, I learned from Major Assignment 1 that getting your research question for a paper can take a long time. I made several attempts at a research question and my professor helped me develop a proper one from those. This knowledge helped steer how I wrote my other assignments after that. I also learned that the feedback of your peers can really help you make your project come together. I often get lost in the plans I have for a project, so having someone to keep me on track for what the project is supposed to be is a lifesaver.

Regarding myself, I feel like one of my writing strengths is I know what I want to write as I am writing. When I was researching for Major Assignment 1, I had a good idea of the outline I wanted to use for my essay. That outline barely changed throughout the entirety of the project.  One area I need to work on is not trying to pad my papers. I sometimes try to add a sort of fluffer to my paper to reach to word count, and it sometimes stands out.

After completing this course, I feel prepared for my future college education, as it helped drive home the fact that people expect professionalism in the real world, and that is shown in the project we must make. Thanks to Writing and Rhetoric, I have learned that writing is much more professional than it seems. Considering that I’ve only had generic English classes up until now, I thought that writing was a hassle. This course has helped me realize writing is a guide that helps you convey your thoughts to others, no matter how strange they might be.

Sincerely,

Christian O’Reilly.