Running head: WRA 110 COURSE RETROSPECTIVE PROJECT

WRA 110 Course Retrospective Project

Benjamin J. Beckas
Michigan State University

WRA 110 COURSE RETROSPECTIVE PROJECT

Executive Summary
The objective of this report is to revisit papers written throughout the semester and reflect on my
experiences with them. The experiences are shared with the purpose of helping incoming
students in their first year writing courses. The experiences are on how class material and
activities helped with the assignments and the significant points of each assignment. The
objective of the learning memoir is to write about a personal experience and share what was
learned from it. A class activity helped be more descriptive about the personal experience which
improved the effectiveness of showing what was learned. The cultural analysis proposal is too
depict a social issue in a cultural artifact and propose a solution with implications if applied. Two
class activities improved my depiction of my social issue in my cultural artifact which improved
the effectiveness of the proposal. The purpose of the formal research project is to inform an
audience about an academic discipline. An activity in class improved my research skills on the
Michigan State University data base and allowed for better research and therefore a better
research paper. The objective of the multimodal remix project is to strengthen one of the
previous papers through a short documentary in a video. A commercial from a company and
working in groups generated ideas and allowed for a more effective project.

WRA 110 COURSE RETROSPECTIVE PROJECT

WRA 110 Course Retrospective Project

Introduction
The objective of this report is to revisit papers written throughout the semester and reflect
on my experiences with them. The experiences shared are shared with the purpose of helping
incoming students be more successful in their first year writing courses. The experiences shared
will be about how class material and activities affected each course assignment. The strong
points of significance within each assignment will also be discussed.

Learning Memoir
The objective of the learning memoir assignment is to share a personal experience where
learning occurred and how this learning experience will help in early years at Michigan State
University. During class an activity was done to help students share their personal experience
and better identify what was learned from it. The activity consisted of students watching a music
video on a personal experience of an artist, Eminem, and discussing with a group of students the
personal experience and what was learned from it. The sharing of ideas from different students
gives more perspectives and interpretations that a student by themselves may not have thought of
or considered and helps the story and message of a student become more thought out and
descriptive. This is important in the learning memoir because it allows the audience to know
more about the shared experience. Knowing the shared experience in more detail will allow the
audience to more clearly see the message or learning experience of the story shared, which is the
purpose of the assignment. To conclude the learning memoir is most effective at showing

WRA 110 COURSE RETROSPECTIVE PROJECT

learning from the story when the story is most descriptive, which a student can achieve if
multiple perspectives and ideas are given on a learning story.

Cultural Analysis Proposal

The objective of the cultural analysis proposal is to examine a social issue and its impact
of society. The proposal contains an analysis of how a cultural artifact depicts the social issue,
background information on the issue, and then a proposed solution to the social issue with
implications of the solution if the solution was applied. To help with the analysis of the cultural
artifact multiple class activities were used. Both of the activities consisted of showing a cultural
artifact and the students job was to give an analysis of how the social issue was portrayed in the
cultural artifact. The first cultural artifact was an episode of South Park, which depicted people
who spend a significant amount of their lives playing video games. The episode showed these
people to be overweight and lazy which is what I explained in detail in my analysis. The second
cultural artifact was the movie The Social Network. The activity required students to give an
analysis of how women are portrayed and depicted in the movie. I analyzed that the movie
depicts women to be ignorant and not useful in the professional environment. This is shown
multiple times throughout the film. These two class activities helped the analysis of the cultural
artifact I choose for my paper and made it easier to depict since I had multiples examples of
experience with it. An analysis of how the cultural artifact depicts the social issue that is
effective at showing the audience the portrayal is one of the purposes of the assignment. The
other purpose is to discuss possible solutions of the social issue to the audience with implications
of the solution if implemented. To conclude the two class activities helped the effectiveness of

WRA 110 COURSE RETROSPECTIVE PROJECT

the depiction of my social issue to the audience which is one of the purposes along with a
proposed solution to the social issue with implications if applied.

Formal Research Report

The objective of this report was to inform about an academic discipline of a students
choice. Topics to inform the audience about were listed in the requirements and guidelines for
the project. Topics included education, methods of research, presenting of information, and
economy and quality of life in that academic discipline. The analysis of a trade publication and
scholarly article from that academic discipline is also required. A class activity was done to help
understand the style of a formal report as well as to gain knowledge about the different parts of
an academic discipline. The activity required students to read a paper by Janet Emig titled
Inquiry Paradigms and Writing. The paper discussed different parts of academic disciplines
according to Janet Emig. The activity required students to write about their academic discipline
in the terms of the paper. There were five topics of an academic discipline that Janet Emig
discussed, governing gaze, acknowledged set of assumptions, coherent theories, allegiance to
intellectual traditions, and adequate methodology. The paper is written is the same style required
for the formal research project and therefore reading it gave knowledge of how to write in the
style. Another class activity helped with the process of research. The activity required students to
find different sources from the academic discipline chosen in the Michigan State University data
base. Different search methods were required for the activity and therefore different kinds of
results were found based on the search method. This helped find sources and increased
knowledge of how to find sources for the report. Research was very important for the content of

WRA 110 COURSE RETROSPECTIVE PROJECT

this report therefore sources that gave important information on the academic information that is
useful to inform the reader was very important for the report.

Multimodal Remix Project

The objective of the project is to strengthen one of the previous papers so the purpose of
the paper is strengthen and turn it into a short documentary. To strengthen the purpose means to
make the subject appeal to a wider audience get across the original purpose of the paper is a way
that is more effective to the audience. Teams of about 4 people are formed for the project. Teams
are very important to the project, because more people can provide more perspectives, ideas, and
interpretations for making the documentary more effective at achieving its purpose. A class
activity was done to show how to make an idea more effective at getting across its message across
to an audience in a video. The activity consisted of watching a commercial from Chrysler and
describing was the purpose was and give an analysis of why the commercial was or was not
effective at achieving its purpose. This activity helped generate ideas for how to more effectively
get idea or purpose across to an audience via video. To conclude the purpose of the project was
more effectively show an idea of one of the previous assignments through a short documentary
and an activity that showed a company attempt to do that was very helpful for generating ideas for
the project.

Conclusion
To conclude the analysis of the assignments shows the experiences and the
significant points within the assignments of the class. The learning memoir is most effective
when the story is descriptive. The activities in class helped depict the cultural artifact for the

WRA 110 COURSE RETROSPECTIVE PROJECT

cultural analysis proposal. Research activities in class helped to gather information for the formal
research report. The example of a companys commercial attempting to get its purpose across
gave good ideas for the multimodal remix project.