During the semester of English, the mission is to become writers that can write for different audiences and purposes. With the help of the writing process of invention, drafting, revising, and understanding the rhetorical elements we have been able to improve as writers. Throughout this semester, Professor Lisa Rogal, has assigned us a variety of assignments in order to accomplish the course objectives, something I believe I did. Demonstrating my improvement with the assignments of essays, journals, and reading multiple genres I was able to develop and improve as a writer and reader and check off the list of course objectives.   

“Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations” and “Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations”, are two of the course objectives that we practiced from the beginning of the semester towards the end, by reading the varieties of different genre readings. Reading the variety of genres like “Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples, “Consider th8e Lobster” By David Foster Wallace”, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, “Women These Days” by Amy Butcher and other readings, I was able to practice recognizing the rhetorical terms. For example, when I wrote my first journal it was based on “Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples. In writing this journal (figure 1) I had in mind Staple’s purpose, audience, and stance, which were important in this reading to convey Staples’s message overall. 

Figure 1: 

I remember when we read “Consider the Lobster” By David Foster Wallace”, the media was an important rhetorical element we discussed. Knowing that this essay was first published in a gourmet magazine, it helped me figure who his audience was in the beginning and what he was trying to express the value of lobsters. Or the reading “Women These Days” by Amy Butcher the design of her essay was important to get a compelling response from her audience. Having the first three paragraphs all about research and then a few sentences of a personal anecdote, it empowered her essay because readers are reading about horrible cases of women being mistreated and seeing no punishment, and then you read those last few sentences, about what her significant other has to say about women. It causes the audience to have a strong reaction to what she has written because you get her personal experience that helps the readers see her perceptive. I practiced using this rhetorical element in my first essay, the personal narrative. At first, I didn’t realize that I was including the elements in my writing, but after we wrote the reflection on our notebooks about pointing out our rhetorical elements in my essay, I realized that I had used some of the rhetorical terms, such as purpose, audience, stance, and genre to write my essay. For example, I wrote “By telling my story, I was hoping to accomplish some awareness of how important DACA has been for young adults and life-changing”, this was me trying to express my purpose.   

Writing the exploratory and critical analysis essay I was able to achieve the “Developed strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing” course objectives. Before knowing about learning strategies for generating my ideas and text, I would just start writing, then, edit and have my final paper. I noticed that it helped me get the paper done but I wasn’t improving as a writer. Once I put to practice strategies like, listing, freewriting, and mapping, I came to learn that it helped me transform one general topic into a thesis. For example, in figure 2 you could see that I used mapping to narrow down my topic. When I wrote my critical analysis essay, I used the listing strategy.   

       Figure 2: 

Within the process of writing this essay I also accomplished another course objective, “Engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.” Being part of the writing workshops was very helpful in my writing process. Having someone else read your writing gives you a chance for you to know if your audience would understand what you are trying to say. For example, one of my peers gave me the comment of rephrasing. I took into consideration what he wrote, and I made the change, the final result was Professor Rogal commenting on this too, (figure 4).   

Figure 4: 

“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” is another English course objective. When we started to write for our Critical Analysis Essay, we had a class dedicated on how to evaluate a source to see if it’s creditable. When we went to the library and were taught how to use the CCNY Library, I was able to successfully do this course objective. In figure 5, you could see the process I took learning to locate a research source. I first listed ideas to brainstorm, to help me create my search combinations. Even adding filters like peer-reviewed journals was helpful to see if it was credible. 

Figure 5: 

For both, exploratory and critical analysis essays we had to learn how to convert our sources into citations. Following the MLA format, we first practiced by doing citations for “Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples and “Consider the Lobster” By David Foster Wallace (figure 6). I would reference back when I made my citations for my source on both of my essays, I found it very helpful. Towards the end, I was more comfortable writing my citations. This is how I fulfilled the course objective of “Practice systematic application of citation conventions.” 

Figure 6:       

From all the course objectives I found this one to be the most challenging because it was not easy doing an analysis. Even though it was hard for me, I was able to fulfill the course objective, “Compose texts that integrate your stance with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation” successfully. I believe I demonstrated this course objective by writing my critical analysis essay. This essay is where you had to show what was your stance on the topic of your choice. In figure 7, it shows my stance towards the problem of the gender pay gap. In this essay we used strategies like critical analysis and summary to compose a text that would explain the evidence that supported our thesis. 

 Figure 7:  

By doing this portfolio and writing my self-assessment, and posting it in the CUNY’s Academic Commons, I’m accomplishing this course objective, the “Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences.” Posting it on the website, I’m using digital technology to reach my audience. However, throughout the semester, giving in my essays and journals through digital technology, my main audience was professor Rogal. Due to attending online classes, the only print technology I used was when printing copies of my exploratory essay for the workshop. Also, prior to the outline class, I would print out my readings, because I would annotate them.                                                                                                                 

English 110. with Professor Rogal, to help me improve as a writer and reader through the practice of writing assignments and readings, I was able to learn a variety of strategies and skills to improve as a reader and writer. Comprehending the rhetorical elements, I was not only able to point them out but also be capable of using them to write. Going on forward, I know that I will continue using what I learned in this course in my future.