Braulio Martinez-Hernandez

12/2/15
Reflective Memo
Summary:
Throughout my Eng. 219 course I have been creating and collaborating to
create different types of professional documents all of which have their unique way
of reaching a specific audience and communicating with that person or group both
effectively and professionally. The first major assignment we wrote was a proposal
for an everyday item that we believed could be improved, next we teamed up to
write up an instruction set, lastly we researched a local problem in our community
in order to brief the appropriate audience with our findings. Now we are completing
a professional portfolio by creating our own personal website that will contain a
short summary and biography about both the website and ourselves. It will also
contain and application letter to our desired employer along with our best resumes.
Furthermore, we will also put up a revised MWA on the site, along with this reflection
memo. As you can see, throughout our English class we have indeed completed
several types of documents for many purposes, and though they were structured
uniquely, they all required the same basic rhetorical canons. These canons
consisted of the following five staples: Invention, Arrangement, Style, Memory, and
Delivery. Throughout the rest of the paper I will discuss how I used these canons as
guidelines for all my assignments, especially for this final Professional Portfolio.
Invention:
Invention is the act of coming up with the topic for your paper. Modernly now
know better as brainstorming, invention is the beginning of the writing process
where you are free to explore the ideas you come up with. The type of paper you
have been given to write and its prompt automatically influences where your
invention will come from and focus on. Listed below are my major writing
assignments and how they required invention.
1. My proposals invention came from analyzing what item I use on the daily and
how I believed it could be made better, and thats why after some
consideration I chose a backpack.
2. When I worked with my group we were already given a couple topics we
could choose from for our instruction set. We only required invention when
we were allowed to make our own twist on the topic
3. For my briefing I was required to find a local issue to right a briefing on.
Through invention I picked an issue that had affected me in the past, which
allowed me to write to a good paper because it was an issues I was interested
in.
When it came to my professional portfolio, I needed to determine what company I
wanted to apply for a job opening or internship in. I first needed to decide whether
or not I wanted to apply for a internship or actual job. After choosing an Internship I
then needed to pick three companies I would like to intern at. After the final
consideration I chose to focus on Sandia National Laboratories. Thanks to this
rhetorical canon I will use this portfolio for a real world internship application.
Arrangement:

The importance of arranging ones content in an effective way is crucial for

the audience to understand the point that is being conveyed across. A properly
outlined paper may be one of the most important steps in the writing process.
1. For my groups instruction set assignment, a methodically thought out outline
was required because the target audience was thought to be in a panicked or
ignorant state of mind. Therefore, an organized instructions list had to be
arranged properly for easy communication and information.
2. When presenting my briefing on the issue I chose, I need to arrange my
research, facts, and other information, not only effectively, but also in an
unbiased fashion.
Arrangement may come to be the most important cannon when I after completing
this professional portfolio. Not only does my website itself have to be well
organized, but every single document inside the website must be outlined correctly.
More specifically, my resume and application letter are both very technical and
professional documents that could mean the difference between receiving and not
receiving an internship. Practicing the arrangement canon will definitely help me
arrange my documents later in life.
Style:
The Style canon covers any kind of graphics, font, paragraph structure, or pictures
you have on your paper. Every paper, no matter who the audience, requires a
specific style that accommodates or helps the audience better understand the
paper.
1. When it came to my proposal, I spoke about making modifications to a
product. In order to visualize what I was trying to convey, I inserted some
graphics and pictures into my proposal.
2. For my Report Briefing I created a power point, which had its own tables and
figures that helped my audience understand my report better. Furthermore,
my diction and writing style on this paper had to be unbiased.
The style that my professional portfolio required was obviously very professional. In
our in class discussion we saw how documents can be made unprofessional by their
choice of words. So even though Im trying to sell myself a little I need to remain
professional in my wording.
Memory:
The canon of Memory does not only imply that memorizing your paper is a
requirement , but that truly knowing the background information of your research
topic gives you credibility and helps you back your argument or topic up. Memory
also includes digging up past knowledge that will help strengthen your paper.
1. I mostly applied this canon during my Report Briefing sequence because of
the presentation aspect. Not only did I write a report but I had to present it to
my class. This required me to know my topic a bit more extensively so that I
could speak without referring to notes and to answer any possible questions.

Braulio Martinez-Hernandez
12/2/15
For my professional portfolio I mostly used memory to rethink of important
accomplishments that I could include into my application letter. However, I will
without a doubt be using this memory canon constantly in the real world.
Delivery:
This canon focuses on how the author gets his point across to the reader.
Ethos, Logos, and Pathos must be taken into consideration here and how they can
best serves the reader or speakers purpose.
1. Because it is dominantly used in oral presentations, I remember using it most
on my report briefing. In the case of the briefing, I had to ignore logos and
pathos, which is another important aspect of delivery. I had to do this
because it was an unbiased report and I had to present information
objectively.
Delivery played another major role in my professional portfolio because of how I
chose to present my portfolio. In this case I chose the internet as my medium for
delivery. Practicing this form of delivery is more important than ever now that
everything is being done online.
It is clear why all of these Rhetorical Canons are essential to understand and
thankfully this English course helped ingrain them into my memory. They
absolutely help in the real world as shown by my Professional Portfolio, which I
will be using when it is time to apply for my internship.