In the beginning of this course, I closely examined each goal of the course and was enamored with the expectations and results of the class.  I feel it only fair to look back at a few of those goals, and determined if they were achieved.

The first goal I felt closely resonated with was Use a variety of media to compose in multiple rhetorical situations.  I did not expect that we would have the chance to use multiple literary forms such as blog posts, advertising, academic writing, etc.  For each form, I do feel that I accomplished the grasps of the techniques used to persuade audiences.  For example, in the advertising project, I used appeal to emotions, ad hominem, and false dilemma.  learned about dozens of fallacies available to manipulate the audience.  On the other hand, in academic writing, I was able to practice different methods such as the Toulmin method, as well as perfect my paragraphs.  To do so, I made Fully developed paragraphs with Unity, Coherence, and a Topic sentence.  Even in podcasts, after listening to Radiolab’s show about words, I was able to determine which devices successfully improved their message.  In all, I’ve been proud of my ability to transcend genre and form and even take a first hand approach to reaching my goals.

The second goal I chose was Compose as a Process.  As the Professor stated, “The first draft is for the writer, the next one is for the reader.”  For me, this was a difficult goal to overcome because the sight of messy drafts made me sick to my stomach.  I often felt the need to try to complete everything in one draft rather than separating the work.  However, after seeing this goal and hearing about the objective in class, I made a tremendous effort to accomplish this task.  I met with the Writing Center to go over my first draft on academic writing, and using those notes, modified/deleted/replaced paragraphs to form a coherent message.  Peer review also had a significant help because I was able to step away from my work, and let a new reader provide useful tips I would of never came up with myself.  As a result, I felt my writing improved because I didn’t lock it up and tattoo it in permanent ink as before.

Signing off,

Delectable Danielle