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1. My biggest challenges this semester were adapting
to new writing situations. For much of
my high school career I had mastered and perfected the academic essay always focusing
on my teacher as my audience. My purpose
was always presenting my opinion and analysis in a clear and effective
way. When we were asked in Project 2 to
conduct a rhetorical analysis that also served as an example to new freshman, I
was unsure how to effectively perform this and quickly reverted to the purpose
I was comfortable with. I deviated from
the purpose that was proposed in the prompt and therefore my draft was well
written but did not answer accomplish the task at hand. I also was afraid that the way I approached
an unfamiliar situation would be wrong, so instead of trying my best to match
the prompt, I simply wrote what I was comfortable with. I came to find that the process of trying
different techniques with new writing situations was so beneficial to learning how
to adapt.
2. I learned that I still have major tendencies to
procrastinate even when I project is broken down into many deadlines. I would often wait till Friday night or
Saturday to begin the deadlines forcing me to have to turn in assignments past
the deadline. However, I did learn that on
the weeks I did not procrastinate, the deadlines seemed more manageable and I
did not feel overwhelmed by the amount of work as much. I also
learned that my projects improved so much after evaluating someone else
piece. My peer review skills were very
critical, but it allowed me to see the small things that could really enhance a
paper’s ability to answer the prompt.
This made me look for the same small things in my own paper.
3. Genre is so much more than conventions. Although these are what truly distinguish
different genres, varying conventions can change the purpose and feel of a
project. This semester I was able to
learn not only how to figure out the conventions of genres, but also figure out
what effect they have on the piece and its audience. Understanding this focused my papers and
allowed me to maximize on the effectiveness of the genre. To really play to an audience, you have to
predict what they want and how the layout, tone, etc. will affect them.
4. Understanding how to approach new writing
situations has opened me up to knowing how to approach any new academic
situation. Whether I will be writing
papers, creating presentations, conducting reports, I know that I have the
tools to take on the assignment. Ultimately,
this has led me to become an independent student and eventually worker. This class has essentially helped me in my
skill of teaching myself. I do not need someone
to step me through each small step, but through research and maybe some peer
review I can effectively accomplish any task presented me.
5. My most effective moment this semester was
during the prewriting process of Project 3.
When blogging Post 9.13 (Audience
and Genre), I wrote that I wanted to target couples and new parents because
“They may be infuriated with the testings as they have a very deep connection
to babies and what child birth means.”
From the previous two projects, I had seen how much audience and purpose
drove my papers, and thus I wanted to make sure that I chose a strong audience and
purpose. This blog post was the start of
a process where I really began to consider the potential my paper had to affect
this group and how I could influence them.
After two more blog posts of developing this idea (10.6 My
Rhetorical Action Plan and 11.3 Analyzing
My Genre), I had a strong, clear direction of where I wanted my paper to
go. This became the foundation for my
best project.
6. My least effective moment this semester was
during the drafting process of Project 2.
The assignment asked that we show freshman in our field how to conduct a
rhetorical analysis. However, when
writing my paper, I was unsure how to incorporate this audience into my paper
and so I paid little attention to them.
When it came to writing my final draft, I tried to add my audience into
the paper at the very end, but since I hadn’t gotten any feedback on this
aspect I still didn’t know how to effectively incorporate my audience. I ended up having many missed opportunities
throughout my paper to have more of an impact on my audience. It also hindered the clarity of my paper, as
stated by my professor, “For your readers, this might seem a bit of out the
blue” (Project
2 comments).
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