Alfredo Quiroga

April 26, 2015

Self-Assessment
Throughout this year in my comp 2 class, we have gone through many readings and done
a lot of writing with the goal to master one to all of the following concepts: (1) to demonstrate
awareness of the dynamic relationship between rhetorical situation, discourse community, genre,
and inquiry, (2) to engage in meaningful, dynamic, and inquiry-based research process, (3) to
read, analyze, and synthesize complex texts and incorporate multiple kinds of evidence
purposefully in order to generate and support writing, (4) to produce complex, analytic,
persuasive arguments that matter in academic contexts, and (5) to develop flexible strategies for
revising, editing, and proof-reading writing. I started the year just having ended composition one
and having learned much about my writing process. I began this class once again like last
semester believing that my writing was actually good due to the improvement during
composition 1 and learning about my writing process. As the year progressed though I
discovered I still had much to learn because even though I had improved my writing process I
still had room to improve my writing through the research process. I successfully mastered four
of the above five learning outcomes in composition two. To start off, I advanced in the ability to
demonstrate awareness of the dynamic relationship between rhetorical situation, discourse
community, genre, and inquiry. When I started this class I never thought I would find a
connection between rhetorical situation, genre, etc. As I started the class though I began to
understand all these concepts more. After reading What is Rhetoric? by William Covino and
David Joliffe I had a better understanding of what rhetorical situation was. Rhetorical situation is
a text that consists of an issue, audience, constraints, etc. SO the question now is how does this

connect to everything else. Well dependent on what the discourse community is lets say medical,
then the audience is affected because its mostly going to be individuals following the medic
field. Then the genre is probably not going to be comical but rather informative. Seeing this, its
seen that all these concepts connect together and one affects the other which is needed in order
for a paper to make sense and be well all around. The second learning outcome to engage in
meaningful, dynamic, and inquiry-based research process is another outcome I have mastered
through this course. I had only done one research paper before this course and it had not been
done so well. When I started doing research for my research paper this semester I was confused
looking everywhere for reliable sources but after that one class in which we met in the library
with the librarian. She showed us how to use the library resources very well and thoroughly. I
was able to go from 60,000 matches in my topic to a few 100 resources that were exactly perfect
for my topic. I was able to search key words to find documents that matched perfectly my
research therefore making my documents more meaningful for my paper. The third learning
outcome I mastered in this course was to read, analyze, and synthesize complex texts and
incorporate multiple kinds of evidence purposefully in order to generate and support writing.
When we had to do the digital paper trail assignment I thought to myself whats the use of
putting down fifty works that I could use for my assignment. I thought to myself this is more
than enough works because the final research paper itself only has to use six to nine works cited.
After this assignment though we had to do the rhetorical analysis and this when I learned that
analyzing text is an important skill you need not only for writing papers but everything in life.
Yea of the fifty works I had all of them had to do with success but after actually analyzing many
of the sources, I couldnt really connect and relate them to by paper. Therefore, I learned to
analyze papers to see if they support the audience Im trying to communicate, if they answer the

issue Im arguing, and if its within my constraints. One of my resources was about success in
Germany, which was useful, but most of my research is off business success in America so using
this as a source wouldnt have been within the constraints. Therefore, being able to analyze text
that will support your argument is very important learning skill you need to learn for life. Theres
always going to be research that supports what youre doing but in order to relate your argument
in a powerful manner to your audience you need to analyze the research that will benefit you in
the best way possible in every aspect of your argument and not one. The last learning outcome I
was able to master in this course is to produce complex, analytic, persuasive arguments that
matter in academic contexts. Though I was not able to produce a complex, analytic, persuasive
argument at first, after going through the three rough drafts I was able to improve this by a large
amount. What helped me the most to master this learning outcome was the peer review draft I
had with Dr. Guenzel and my group. This allowed us to focus more deeply on our argument and
he explained thoroughly how to argue using the Rogerian model in which you talk about all three
perspectives and then in the end get the best out of each argument and combine them to come
with the best solution. After understanding this clearly, I was able to write a complex, analytical,
and persuasive paper that argues my perspective effectively using proper research. The only
concept I didnt master in this course is to develop flexible strategies for revising, editing, and
proof-reading writing. I didnt really master this outcome because I mastered this outcome last
semester in composition one. I had many peer reviews during that class and therefore learned
most of what I needed to know to review an individuals paper and provide them with proper
feedback to enhance their paper. In the end, this course has developed my skills when it comes to
writing research arguments. Combining what Ive learned about the writing process and now the
research process, I can write a well-written paper that has a strong foundation and can convince

the audience that my argument is correct. All these strong skills Ive learned cant only be used
in my English class but many of my other subjects as well. These are skills I will be using
throughout my college course and my life that will help me research a topic and argue it properly
through many use of different texts.