Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Class Reflection
Focus on one part of this class (an aspect of one paper, one exercise, or one lesson) where you feel you received the most benefit. Discuss in 200 or so words. This can be something you struggled with or succeeded at. This is practice for your final on Monday, so be certain you give this some thought. Look at the goals on your assignment sheet, if you need inspiration. Just the initial post is worth the full 10 blog points. The blog needs to be fully posted by Friday at midnight. Responses to classmates will be ungraded, but feel free to discuss and comment as you wish.
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What really helped me out in this class is learning about the Logos, Pathos, and Ethos. I have never heard of these words before or maybe I have but I never understood what they meant. I could tell how an author uses emotion or statistics. But I didn't know what the proper terms were, but now I know. Anyways, what I struggled with most was the rhetorical essay. I could say that I kind of know how to write a rhetorical essay, but that wouldn't right. But I could say that I THINK I know how to write a rhetorical. What I liked most about the class; (especially after visiting the writing center) was the peer reviews. I know I wasn't helpful to anybody, but everybody's feedback and all the other comments really helped me out and I think I might switch my major to writing… or not. I really enjoyed this class, not just the papers and stuff, but all those video game chat and such. I started this class with the thought of “I suck at writing,” but I believe that this class as helped me out in many ways, like I believe my grammar is way better and I know that my writing is better than what is was few months ago.
ReplyDeleteAs I reflect back on this course, the area that I struggled in, but learned the most from, was with writing the Rhetorical Essay. I had never written one before and after many late nights and re-writes, I still did not feel confident that I had it down correctly. Understanding the necessity and reasoning for the format is a critical aspect of this style of paper and one I struggled with.
ReplyDeleteProf. Taylor gave many examples of how to properly format and write a Rhetorical Essay; however, I still struggled with the understanding. I failed miserably throughout the rough draft period to write the paper in the correct way, but was determined to get it right. Still, after turning in the final draft, I was not confident and my grade reflected that. We were given the opportunity to re-write the paper. At the end of the next class session, I spoke with Prof. Taylor to find out where I went wrong so I could write it again correctly. It boiled down to a weak thesis. At that point it seemed the light bulb came on in my head and after a minute, a new thesis was born. This ultimately made writing the paper easier.
The second attempt at writing the paper was a success. I received a more acceptable grade and felt I had a much better understanding of how to properly write a Rhetorical Essay. Writing has never been a struggle for me, so I was getting frustrated and irritated that I was not grasping this form of writing. I appreciate all the patience that Prof. Taylor showed me. Her understanding of my struggles made it easier to step back, take a deep breath, and re-focus.
I feel the most benefit gained was from the first paper. This built the basis of my understanding of MLA, and as a result, gave me the information I needed to move forward. Otherwise, no individual aspect seemed to forward me in any way, based on my grades repeatedly lowering, sometimes drastically, as the class went on.
ReplyDeleteThe paper that I found most helpful is the research paper. I learned how to put together many of the skills I had learned throughout the semester. After the rhetorical analysis paper, my confidence was low. Going thru the step by step process on the research paper restored my confidence. I think I really needed the step by step process to get me back on track. Professor Taylor has been very patient and I appreciate the fact that she is willing to occasionally back up and go over a concept from a different direction when she sees that some of us are struggling.
ReplyDeleteTaking this class has already helped me in my other classes. I have been out of the learning environment for quite a while. This is my first semester back. I've written two additional papers for another class and done quite well. I would have really struggled had we not already reviewed the basics and written a couple of small papers.
The assignment I most enjoyed was the research paper. I felt I learned a lot about the subject I wrote about by investigating information, looking into others views about my subject, etc. I go a lot of information from what I read that I did not know about before. It was beneficial to have not only for completing the assignment, but for myself. I felt the peer reviews were a good interaction with everyone to keep the class interesting as in seeing different writing styles. This also helped to have everyone one this same page about the assignments. Also because of the class environment I felt comfortable with sharing what I was working on, and receive feedback to help improve my papers. Before I kept my papers supper top secret and maybe that’s why they were bad, but I was able to learn from my class mates. Thanks guys! I know I cannot say just yet say I am a top writer but I and working on it, and I know that I have improved as this class progressed.
ReplyDeleteOver all this class was pretty helpfull, in the sense that every paper we wrote helped me in different areas with my writing. The research paper was the most helpful to me because it is a type of writing that I have to use in some of my other classes. By Prof. Taylor having us write a research paper and taking the time and patience to break it into steps it helped me a great deal in learning how to gather information and convey what I found into a good paper. Although I did not like the peer reviews much at first, it ended up turning into a good experience and something I benifited from. I liked receiving feed back from different peers and listening to their point of view on certain aspects of my essays. By receiving feed back it helped me make some changes to better my papers.
ReplyDeleteI think the one assignment that helped me the most was the Rhetorical analysis paper. Before writing this paper I had a really hard time writing about how someone convinced me in their writing rather than just saying “Oh yea, this is written well”....or some other lame attempt. It even took me two times before I got that paper right but it made me really think about how someone writes as opposed to just reading what they say. Now I more look at the way the writer presents the information, and what type of methods they use. I can also recognize where Ethos, Pathos, or Logos is being used throughout an article or paper. I couldn't do any of these things before I started this course, let alone knew that different writing tactics could be used throughout a paper.
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