Haley Duren

ENGL 120-006
Matthew Irwin
Reflective Essay
So this semester targeted certain objectives that the students were expected
to learn throughout the course. Weve written on several mediums, such as
argumentative essays, blog posts, brochures, and even websites. This course
stressed a lot about finding credible sources to back up your claim, looking at both
sides of the argument and reflecting on your process and final outcome once
everything is done. I believe each assignment had at least a few if not all of the
learning objectives in mind.
SLO A
This learning outcome in my opinion encompasses the entire course this
semester. Its goal is for us to have an argument, analyze what stand point we are
coming from, then compose our argument to make it as stable aa possible. With
each final assignment we used different mediums for our essay to go on, like
brochures and websites. After each final assignment we did a reflection to speak
about our learning process, what worked and what didnt so we can make
adjustments for the next assignment and to track our growth as a writer. I believe
this learning outcome focuses on reading the prompt thoroughly to identify the

rhetorical situation in order to decide what steps need to be taken next. Learning
how to identify the rhetorical situation is very key in any writing situation and I
think this will certainly help me progress as a writer throughout my academic
career for years to come.
SLO C
This learning outcome speaks about the steps behind producing a final
product. Within this objective, its speaks about planning, research and revising to
come out with the final essay. For each sequence in this course weve done several
steps to create a final draft, it would typically start with an annotated bibliography
to cite the sources and explain why we believe that source will help us get to our
final product. Next we had to make an outline of our essay, this would help us
layout and brainstorm the topics that we needed to cover in our essay. Outlines
were stressed to us heavily this semester because if we worked harder during the
process of the essay then writing our final would be that much easier. Lastly we
would compose a few drafts of our final essay until we had a product that we were
proud of.
Throughout the entire writing process, we did peer reviews to get feedback
on our current status of where we were at our essay. In sequence 2 we had to write
an argument on a specific topic and our partner had to write the opposing view
point for that argument. My topic was police brutality and I was arguing against it,

when we had written our rough drafts, my partner said though my partners
viewpoint is easily inferred, I feel that it not properly advocated for. With this
comment, I had to look at how I was recognizing the opposite viewpoint. I changed
the way that I was acknowledging to the point that I wasnt discrediting my own
argument. I think that peer review was essential for the writing process because we
couldnt always get commentary on our rough draft from our instructor, so getting
peer review was certainly the next best thing. Taking steps along the writing
process is going to help me grow as a writer so I can track my progress and to
acknowledge which areas I am still lacking in. This is going to follow me
throughout my academic career and will always bring me down to square one
allowing me to take a breather and look at the bigger picture of each writing
assignment.
SLO F
This learning objective targets growth as a writer throughout the semester
and how using different mediums and genres can contribute to growth. With each
assignment we were instructed to use different mediums such as blogs, brochures
and podcasts. I believe the use of each one of these mediums allows us to learn a
different writing style to fit the certain medium. For example, when I had to create
a brochure I had to learn how to use bold headings to keep the reader captivated
and to allow for easy navigation. I had to break up my ideas into separate topics so

my audience wouldnt get lost. This is something I had to adapt to so I could fit the
medium I was assigned to use. This was a strategy and organization skill I had to
learn, but I know it was something that has certainly helped me grow as a writer.
SLO G
This learning objective focuses on using research to not only support your
own argument, but to explore other points of view. This skill was something I had
trouble with during the sequences. I began to not only research my point of view,
but to look at the other perspective of each topic. I had to learn the hard way how
to acknowledge the other side without discrediting my own argument. In the
second MWA we had to create an argumentative essay on some pretty
controversial topics and I had chosen police brutality. This was interesting for me
to choose a side because on one hand I am a black girl in America and currently
police brutality is racially driven and my race is a target. But on the other hand, I
come from a police family so in that case I could speak from the complete opposite
perspective. In either case my original argument was against police brutality
coming from a civilians point of view.
I originally tried to speak mostly on police brutality and just try to
acknowledge the police officers side, but I ended not making my argument clear
enough. In my peer review I was told The addressing of alternative viewpoints
seems to drown out her opinion making it less valuable and not-so important. I

then had to learn how to explore the opposing opinion during my research so I
could build a more stable argument for myself, so make an educated opinion but
not make it sound like Im doubting myself. I believe this learning objective is still
a work in progress like many things, but this course certainly helped my growth.