Reflection Essay
In the twelve weeks since the beginning of the semester, we’ve been taught about rhetoric, how to analyze writing, use sources and databases and cite them, and address the audience, and how to appreciate every version of the English language. This class has reinforced the ideas presented in the syllabus and Course Learning Expectations and made us practice them consistently and effectively. As a result, my writing and reading practices have improved. Even if I haven’t exceeded the expectations of the Course Learning Expectations, I’ve acknowledged and learned from each of them. Overall, this course has made me expand my horizons as a writer and improve my skills.
Each Course Learning Expectation focuses on a specific aspect of this semester’s curriculum. The first expectation is “1. Examine how attitudes towards linguistic standards empower and oppress language users”. My response for the Phase 2 assignment illustrates my understanding of this expectation. In my essay “Rhetoric of Black English”, I explain how Jun Jordan presents the struggles and importance of Black English and emphasize how it’s looked down upon by the people included in her essay “Nobody Mean More to Me Than You And the Future Life of Willie Jordan”. I acknowledged how people who speak Black English are unfairly discriminated against while those who speak “proper” English are praised.
The second expectation is “2. Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a varitey of genres and rhetorical situations”. Three of our first assignments were created to have us analyze the rhetorical situations of different pieces of writing that we read at the beginning of the semester. We analyzed Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue”, June Jordan’s “Nobody Mean More to Me Than You And the Future Life of Willie Jordan”, and Safwat Saleem’s “Why I Keep Speaking Up. Even When People Mock My Accent”. Each piece has a different premise and purpose and Saleem’s “Why I Keep Speaking Up. Even When People Mock My Accent” differs from the other two in that it’s a transcript of a speech and not an essay. This series of assignments made me look at different rhetorical situations and types of work and then analyze them and the way I write about them.
The third expectation is “3. Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing”. The peer-editing workshops and multiple drafts of our assignments forced me to actually edit and look at my work, as well as analyze my classmate’s writing to offer positive criticism, both of which I had always tried my best to avoid doing in the past. These exercises made me practice these skills and become a better reader and writer as I had to understand mine and my classmate’s writing to make edits and offer advice.
Expectation four is “4. Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations”. In my second submission for the Rhetorical Analysis Assignment, I wrote a poem that was meant to talk about the way language has devolved from a means of communication and connection into a tactic that is used to belittle and discriminate against others. In the follow-up analysis section, I explained my word choice and why I made those
choices, as well as what rhetorical appeals I focused on, “Empathy and emotions seemed the most important aspects for the point I was trying to make. I wrote words like loneliness, animosity, and weak in order to appeal to the emotions of the reader, to make them think of things more emotionally than the way they tended to, to think about why they feel the way they do”. My explanation and analysis demonstrate my understanding of using rhetorical terms and strategies.
Expectation five is “5. Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences”. I don’t believe I practiced this one, but the assignments in the course did demonstrate this for me. Seeing the variety of works used to demonstrate the strategies and rhetorical situations and analyzing them showed me how different audiences are reached when using different mediums. Safwat Saleem’s “Why I Keep Speaking Up. Even When People Mock My Accent” and Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” would reach very different audiences due to the way they were published. “Mother Tongue” would reach a narrower and most-likely more old-fashioned audience due to it being printed in a magazine marketed towards a specific group of people, while “Why I Keep Speaking Up. Even When People Mock My Accent” would reach a more modern and diverse audience as a TEDTalk is more accessible to those who use technology often and it would get more publicity. These differences illustrate the way in which different technologies reach different audiences.
In our assigned research essay, I practiced expectations six through eight. The sixth expectation is “6. Locate research sources (including academic journal articles, magazine, and newspaper articles) in the library’s databases or archives and on the Internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias”. In my research essay “Mental Health and Language Brokering” I utilized multiple sources, both found on the internet and using the databases found on the library’s website. I was able to practice my research skills and evaluate these sources using the Rhetorical Precis assignment and using them in my essay. For example, in the Rhetorical Precis assignment, I say, “Authors Jennifer A. Kam and Vanja Lazarevic in their article “The Stressful (and Not So Stressful) Nature of Language Brokering: Identifying When Brokering Functions as a Cultural Stressor for Latino Immigrant Children in Early Adolescence” assert that language brokering can be positive or negative for Latino adolescents. They support their assertion by providing context for the need of language brokering and then presenting data from multiple studies and giving the context for that, including where the studies fell short in their data-gathering procedures” demonstrating my knowledge of the paper and evaluating it for use in my essay. Expectation seven is “7. Compose texts that integrate a stance with appropriate sources, using strategies such as summary, analysis, synthesis, and argumentation”. This is also illustrated in my research essay, as I make a claim that is then supported by evidence from sources I found and then stringing those sources together. I also practiced synthesis and summary in the Synthesis assignment we were given prior to the research essay, “These two quotes make the argument that, since their parents do not understand English in a way that will keep their family afloat, these children take on the role of a language broker in order to make sure their families are able to sustain themselves. They feel a sense of responsibility in helping their parents and making sure their lives are stable.” This quote shows my understanding and practice of synthesis in writing. The eighth and final expectation is, “8. Practice systematic application of citation conventions”. I tried to do this throughout the semester in any assignment that required the use of sources and citations, but this was done mostly in the research essay. We had to find multiple sources, use them, and cite them. This made me practice and review the rules of citation in an MLA paper.
I feel as though I met most of the Course Learning Expectations and learned a lot throughout this course. The assignments we were given were relevant to these expectations and helped me improve as a writer and reader. I’ve acknowledged the expectations given and now feel more confident in the way I write.
