Dear reader,  

Before beginning this course, I was not too confident in my writing abilities. In high school, I always dreaded writing essays, because I felt like I never understood a topic enough to author a whole paper about it, or I just never put enough effort in. Additionally, I was not as productive, and did not enjoy school as much as I do now. My attitude towards writing and language in general has 100% changed since coming to college, and especially since beginning this class. I enjoy writing assignments now, when I really get ‘in the zone’ I can complete an assignment quickly, and it can be fun at times. For example, it is easier to start these kinds of assignments now, while in high school I would have waited until the night it was due. 

The way I approach my writing process has gotten substantially clearer, compared to my last few years of high school. I will sit down, generate a variety of topics, then choose one. Once I make sure I absolutely want to use this topic, only then will I begin my research. For each article, I’ll print it out, annotate, and take notes on a separate sheet of paper. Also, I learned that completing an outline of a writing assignment will help me in the long run every time. I will write examples of what will go in each body paragraph, and it helps my brain be a little more concise and organized. After I have completed the entire paper, I will write out a thesis to make sure it covers every base that I want it to. Although this trick of mine not work might not work for everyone, what matters is that it is effective for me. 

As for the assignments in my portfolio, one strategy that I found worked extremely well when working on them is pretending your audience knows little-to-no information about your topic. This produces more substance to your paper and forces you to explain topics in depth, which you may not have had before. For example, in my political cartoon research paper, I had to explain the historical context behind Trump recommending the use of Ivermectin. There were many layers I had to touch on, yet it helped my paper overall make more sense, to both the reader and me. It is always a pleasant feeling when I find a useful writing tactic. 

One class session that I remember very clearly helped my research paper in specifics was the library session with Anne. I had no idea that there were so many resources for finding academic journals or articles through our library. I would have never known about all the different databases if she had not shown us. Practicing citing our sources helped me as well, because I honestly did not realize how much plagiarism can affect our academic career. For instance, I did not know that even if you are paraphrasing something, you still must cite your source if there is a specific number involved. If someone plagiarizes once, in a way that it is not possible that it could be a mistake, that one slip could go on their record forever. It is immensely easy to avoid plagiarism if one knows how to cite their sources properly, which I am thankful I learned earlier than later. 

All the work I completed in this class was for the research project and mapping Suny NP project. My overall assessment of the work I have done so far is impressive. I thought I would struggle quite a bit in this course, but I have grown to appreciate the challenge. The clarity of my work has gotten better, as well as my organization. If I did not learn a way to arrange and categorize my topics better earlier in the course, most of my assignments would have been all over the place. Not to flatter myself, but I believe I do a super job at connecting my ideas together. On the other hand, I used to not be able to explain my examples that well in detail. The development of my paper’s claims has gotten better throughout the semester. Lastly, I used to not know the difference between all the formats, such as MLA or APA, I did not even know there were different editions or versions of them! Now, I can use APA formatting in another one of my classes correctly.  

I identified three skills and three goals of mine at the beginning of this semester. My skills, creativity, longevity, introductions, are still relevant to now. I take pride in my creativity; I seem to think outside the box quite a bit, especially when writing or speaking about something I am interested in. I like finding the similarities in contrasting topics or ideas. As for my ‘longevity’ skill, which I believe was about my ability to write in abundance, it could still use improvement. For example, I found it quite difficult to meet the word count for the political cartoon research paper. My final skill was strong introductions, which I would like to think still stands true today. My list of goals states: manage time better, use stronger words, do not repeat self as much. So far this semester, I have already noticed a significant difference in my ability to manage my time better. I do not procrastinate nearly as much as I used to, and I even do most of my assignments a few days in advance. My use of stronger words, and more ‘academically pleasing words’ has also increased this semester. Lastly, I am still working on decreasing my repetition. This is something that will take time to change.  

I would like to believe that I have met the learning outcomes of Writing and Rhetoric. I have grown as both a writer and reader of the English language and have learned lots on Edited Academic English especially. In my future work as a student and speech-language pathologist, I am going to have to research several types of disordered communication, and I genuinely think this class has well prepared me for that. Writing and Rhetoric has been one of the most useful and entertaining English classes I have taken.