Course Reflection

Jared Miller

ENC 1102

Course Reflection

            After reviewing the five outcomes associated with this course, I believe that I have been on par each outcome’s requirements if not exceeding certain outcome requirements entirely.   I honestly was unaware that I had been working to achieve each of these outcomes, but upon review I can see how my work presents evidence that I have met the criteria listed by each individual outcome.  I suppose I have that to attribute to the way the class was conducted, because on my own I simply do not see how I could have actually managed to do that.  Needless to say, I am impressed.

            There are three main outcomes that I believe I hold my highest achievement in, the first being outcome three.  As I sit here writing this review, I can honestly say that I hold a greater understanding of and appreciation for intertextuality than I ever have.  I believe this can be seen best through my work on my “Intertextual Map” that I created to help me write my literature review.  A specific excerpt of the document that shows intertextual understanding is,

            “The articles by Casey and Goldstein suggest that by acting within the classroom, students become more engaged and productive.  This same theory can also be applied to the work place.  Branching off from Casey and Goldstein’s texts is Debbie Lewis’s work “Putting Words into Action: Using Role Play in Skills Training.”, within the British Journal of Nursing.  Lewis’s speaks on role playing in a process of experimental learning.  She talks about role playing and its ability to increase a subject’s confidence in high stress situations, passiveness when patience is required, and communication skills in a workplace environment such as a hospital.”

This relatively simple paragraph was used to create links to support my goals as a writer.  I demonstrate intertextuality by referring to previously mentioned authors’ work and relating it to a newly mentioned study create a conversation containing multiple dimensions that support my claims.  Voila!  Intertextuality in it’s prime.

The next outcome that I believe I hold my highest level of achievement in is outcome five.  Before taking this course, I always considered my papers to be “One Draft Wonders”.  That is, I would edit them for grammar and spelling mistakes, but I never really wrote multiple drafts.  However, this course not only encouraged creating multiple drafts, it also made it very easy.  For instance, the ending paragraph of the “Discussion” section of my literature review was originally,

“In conclusion, the results presented by each participant can be separated into three specific niches.  Although each participant may fall into separate niches, the benefits presented within the niches can be categorized as: communication skills, social versatility, and self-expression.  If I had more time, I would conduct a follow-up interview with each participant to shed light on how the skills associated with each acting style play off one another to affect the participant, as well as the magnitude of those effects in the participants who have been acting for longer periods of time.”

But after bringing it to the professor to review, I realized that child could have written it.  I was told that it was simply a summary of five paragraphs that really did not need to be summarized.  After this receiving feedback from my professor, I axed the entire paragraph and created a new one that contributed to the conversation I was making in an intellectual way.  I also seriously took, first time, my peers’ insights into account when developing my paper.  Through splicing the feedback I received from my professor as well as my peers, my ending paragraph was finished as,

“I find that the niches presented within this study have the potential to be exploited to aid within the field of psychotherapy.  By utilizing the methods of acting associated with each niche, psychotherapists may be able to further remedy patients in need of developing specific social skills and possibly other skill sets closely related to them.  Although I have not yet been able to test this theory, I believe that my research presents ample evidence to support that appropriate methods of acting can be used within a controlled setting to clinically aid those who may suffer from social disabilities.”

            The final outcome that I believe my achievements most greatly align with is outcome one.  This outcome requires that a student be aware of the relationship between rhetorical situations, discourse community, and inquiry.  After reviewing my work I can see multiple instances where I analyzed multiple aspects of this outcome.  My favorite example being the following excerpt from my annotated bibliography,

            “My intended audience is the general public.  My goal is to not only select the articles that contained the most relevant and useful information on their subject, but could also be adapted to capture the interest of a more general audience.  Although I used only scholarly sources, with the majority having been written to appeal mainly to those who have experience in the field of the article, I believe that I can use the information I received to interest and educate someone with little to no prior knowledge on the subject at hand.”

I chose this example because it demonstrates my understanding regarding the importance of tailoring information and questions I present after assessing my own inquiry choices and the likely inquiry choices of others.  This paragraph also presents my abilities to analyze my audience and strategically pitch my ideas and information to that audience.  I am pretty proud of this little paragraph.

To bring this whole review together, I think I can say that I did a pretty bang-up job this semester.  Although I feel I should give a majority of the credit towards the course’s structure itself, I believe I nailed down the outcomes presented adequately.  I find my achievements within outcomes three, five, and one to be the most noteworthy.  Through dynamic rhetorical understanding, skills in analyzing and synthesizing texts, as well as flexible strategies for revising and editing, I believe that I have held myself to a high standard of achievement in this class.