Over the course of a semester in English 120 I have learned many things all of

which I believe can be related to the learning outcomes for the class and my three major
projects. The first project was an essay discussing Platos views on education that related
to the learning outcomes A, B, and C. My second project was an argument composition
defending the opinion that all girls deserve an education and related to the learning
outcomes D,E,F, and G. My third project was a manifesto on education and related to
learning outcomes H, I, and J.
The first project I focused around answering the first three learning outcomes.
Outcome A asks us to analyze rhetorical situations which are important to consider as
we become authors in this class in realizing we must be knowledgeable in our subject
matter, aware of where our compositions will be applied, and the audiences they will be
applied to. For this first essay the subject matter was addressing what I believed Plato's
allegory inferred about the importance of education. The essay format for Part A was
formal, analytical, and meant to be expository in nature. The audience was our instructor
and peers. When writing this essay I thus kept in mind that the entire class had read
the allegory and I need didn't spend time summarizing the text. This audience awareness
saved me space in my essay to use on the more important message of what I wanted to
convey out of the text and analyze about the text. Outcome B asked us compose
arguments in a variety of genres using rhetorical strategies, claims, and evidence
that are appropriate to the rhetorical situation This means thinking about the unique
components of each project in relation to different types of compositions we will be given
and having a good background on each subject we are discussing. I choose to use
illustrations and clay for my medium in Part B because for me the context was relevant,

"I also think illustrations and ceramics (clay) are universal mediums and can apply to a
wide audience from children to adults, so I choose these mediums. The more senses we
employ to educate I believe are more effective for learning and are valuable in creating a
well rounded education" (Part B Reflection Paragraph). By addressing my medium in
terms of context I was able to create work that I believed suited the rhetorical situation of
this project. For outcome C we were asked, use research and writing as a means of
discovery, to examine your personal beliefs in the context of multiple perspectives,
and to explore focused research questions My personal reaction to the Plato paper
was that I wanted to explain why I believe education is important and critical to people . I
used the internet as my main resource looking at books and articles. This allowed me to
look at for multiple perspectives on the cave allegory and develop a well rounded idea of
what I wanted to talk about in my essay and what I wanted to create for Part B. Overall I
think in my first project I thoroughly examined outcomes A, B, and C.
For project two I focused on outcomes D, E, F, and G. Outcome D asked,
describe the social nature of writing, particularly the role of discourse communities
at the local, national, and international level. In the case of project two I concentrated
on Clinton's BIG idea of educating all girls. This is a global social concern and it applies
to an international, local, and national audience. I stated in my project two piece, "Clinton
is right this obviously is a global problem that needs addressing; we need to get girls the
resources they deserve for a solid education. " Outcome E asked us to, integrate others
positions and perspectives into your writing ethically, appropriately, and
effectively. To me this means taking into account other peoples perspectives and being
respectful of their opinions and beliefs. In project two we were asked to reference outside

sources to defend our arguments, properly citing these sources, and

smoothly incorporating them into our compositions is a reflection upon outcome E.
I referenced The Girl Effect Video, a book titled The Education of Women, and Clinton's
online video clip speech on BIG ideas. By using these sources and correctly citing them I
used them ethically and I believe effectively in outlining my argument that women
deserve education. Outcome F asked us, use multiple approaches for planning,
researching, prewriting, composing, assessing, revising, editing,
proofreading, collaborating, and incorporating feedback in order to make your
writing stronger. I relied on feedback from the peer review boards for my project two
as well as the TA feedback provided and feedback from my family members who read the
piece. By having three different sources of editing my paper I could have more objective
view of how to improve the composition. This can be said overall for editing the paper.
By going back in and adding links and embedding sources I did not rely on one avenue of
planning, researching, and assessing my composition. I had 3 sources for me research and
4 embedded links. I believe this approach to writing and reworking project two over and
over again always allowed room for improvement and strengthening the
project. Outcome G asked us, evaluate how the things youve learned about writing
in this course can be applied in other contexts and can advance your goals and the
goals of your communities. In project two I think the main idea of the project for me
that I argued in my paper that women deserve an education stretches beyond the
composition because this is something I definitely believe in and will fight for outside of
the classroom. This idea should be applied in other contexts outside of this course
because it is a real world issue that needs addressing and thoughtful consideration.

For project three I focused on the last learning outcomes for the course H, I, and
J. Outcome I stated, characterize your improvement in the dialect of Standardized
Written American English at the level of the sentence, paragraph, and document.I
think that over the course of this semester I have become better at analyzing my own
work. I start with my main idea and build a composition around that idea. By doing this I
am better able to organize my work into a concise document with specific paragraphs. In
project three I had to think a lot about answering each question I was asked in the prompt
on education, rather than just colliding all these ideas into one giant jumbled paragraph I
broke down these questions and answered them separately in different paragraphs . I
think this makes my writing much clearer and easier to follow for readers. Outcome I
asked us, recognize and describe the value of different languages, dialects and
registers in your own and others texts. I am not sure in this class that we have
emphasized different languages as a key feature in our curriculum but I do think we have
talked about very universal ideas, like education and giving education to every girl in the
world (my project 2 defense). Therefore the ideas we discuss in this class would be
relevant to people who speak other languages and live in different countries. I think we
have discussed varying dialects especially in our sourcing and research. In my project
three composition I sourced outside our given material in class to include a youtube video
TED talk I felt was very relevant and a different dialect than traditional essay writing. I
have enjoyed seeing my peers work over the course of the semester, watching the videos
they link, and the hearing the universal ideas that believe in and support or are against.
Outcome J stated, develop an understanding of how writing and other modes of
communication (such as visual and audio elements) work together for rhetorical

purposes in order to compose multimodal projects in electronic mediums for various

audiences and purposes. I think this SLO has perhaps been the SLO I have learned the
most through in this class. My other english classes have all been very traditional essay
only format classes. I don't even think that before this class I ever would have considered
using a blog, website, illustration, video clip, and other multimedia to communicate my
ideas. This has been a wonderful thing because has allowed me to be creative and I think
of myself as a naturally creative person. I think using multi-media has also been very
effective. multi-media is attention grabbing and it holds an audiences attention much
better than just a text based format. In my project three I incorporated youtube videos and
embedded a link to a TED talk that disused the subject I was writing on "No Child Left
Behind".
Over the course of English 120 I have been able to go back in and rework my
projects. For project two I added more pictures to the text to make it more engaging for
the audience, For project 3 I received no peer reviews but I did do a number of self edits
and added images and a YouTube video to make the project have a strong multi-media
aspect. I think I have grown over the course of this semester and learned how to have
distinctive goals for my writing and strong editing abilities so my final compositions are
clear, strong, and unique.