semester reflection

Brady Terry

Professor Debra Reece

English 2010

December 6, 2014

Semester Reflection

            During the course of the semester I have learned quite a few things that will help me in the future with classes I will have to take.  First of all my writing process has changed a little over the semester.   I have learned how to incorporate many things such as rhetoric, ethos, pathos, and logos into my writing to make better and more persuasive arguments.  I have also been able to use rhetoric to help me determine the validity of an article and the effectiveness of the author in their writing.  Another thing that I have learned was on revising versus editing.  I learned that there is great value in revising over just simply editing and looking for grammatical errors. I am sure that using these aids when writing papers from now on will allow me to be more successful in my writing.  I will definitely be using the aid of my peers in revising my papers because I have learned that there is great value in getting the help and viewpoints of others in helping me revise and refine my drafts.

            Before this semester I didn’t know anything really about rhetoric.  The thing that I learned most about rhetoric is that it can be used to formulate your writing by addressing specifics, thus making it more effective.  By using audience specific language, depth of explanation and having a specific issue those who are reading will know exactly what you are talking about and will likely be more inclined to see you as a valid author and source on the topic you are writing about.  I also learned that using scholarly articles can be helpful in finding credible sources for research.

            One of the things that were difficult for me throughout the semester was the proposals.  I think they were difficult because I have never done them before and they take some getting used to.  I have always just made a brainstorm draft on paper by hand before I start writing a draft and used that as my “proposal” so it was definitely a transition I had to make for the class.  Something that I felt came pretty naturally for me was synthesizing.  I just enjoyed looking into the subject of the different articles and seeing their similarities and differences.

             I feel like some skill that I learned that will help me in the future when I write will be using the help of my peers who see things maybe a little differently than I do and having them revise my papers.  I feel like by doing this I will be able to have a better view of both sides of the arguments and I will also be able to have fewer gaps between points in my paper along with a more convincing argument.