Post-Course Reflection

Part One: Rhetorical Knowledge

Rhetorical knowledge is extremely important when it comes to presenting information
and different texts to an audience. If a presentation is too formal, people will lose interest as well
as their focus on the topic. If a paper is too informal, people wont be able to understand exactly
what is going on the text. They also wont take the text a serious as they should and your opinion
or information wont get across to the audience. Everyone needs to know rhetorical knowledge
when presenting information to a given audience. Presentations, papers, and blueprints all
require some rhetorical knowledge to appropriately display the information. In my degree,
engineering, I know I will have to give presentations, drawings and papers to help explain or
show off a new product. I will have to know how to format and the right type of text to use to
appeal to my audience otherwise I wont convey the product appropriately. A presentation needs
to be short and easy to understand. Drawings will need all the dimensions, and labels to the part
to make sure that the designer knows exactly how to build the object. Papers explaining how a
product works will need to be detailed and formal to make sure that everything about the product
is understood as well as how to work and manage the product.
Part Two: Critical Reflection
Critical reflection deals with how the writer understands his or her own writing. It also
deals with understanding why a writer wrote or thought a certain way when creating their piece.
Critical reflection is important in understanding your own thought process when writing. Critical
reflection could be going over a piece of writing and determining how you could make the piece
better in certain places. If you dont understand why you wrote something down or you find
something that doesnt make sense in the writing, then it probably doesnt belong there. Critical
reflection is good for making a piece of writing make more sense to readers. Most people need
these skills as critical reflection is a good practice before just sending out an email or a text or
whatever media. If you reflect over the text before you send it to check if it can be conveyed in a
way that you didnt intend, it will make communication much easier and smoother. Some future
instances where I would use critical reflection could be after I finish a part or a product. I could
find other ways that would make the process more efficient or other ways that could reduce the
time and cost of a product. I could then make changes to the product for future products.
Part Three: Knowledge of Conventions
Knowledge of Conventions is knowing the formal and informal rules that define genres
which can shape the readers and writers expectations in a work of literature. This could be
mechanics and spelling, which influence the content and style of the document being written.
Knowledge of conventions is extremely important when people are trying to appeal to a certain
audience. For example, you wouldnt send an email to the CEO of a company with the same
voice as sending an email to a friend. That would be unprofessional and the CEO wouldnt even
think twice to not respond to that email. Everyone needs to be able to determine when spelling,
mechanics, organization and style should be used for a certain audience. If you want to
appropriately convey an idea to someone you should know your audience. Otherwise, you may
never come across the audience the way you intend and they could often just opt out of what you
have to say. All different types of careers will use this practice in some form. If you are a lawyer,
you should be formal and not walk into the court like, Wassup Judy my Judge. You will never

get the respect you want that way. Some instances where I might use my knowledge of
conventions is when I am writing a formal document or presentation to the higher ups in a
company or when I am presenting a product that I would like to sell. I need to know those
conventions so they audience takes me seriously and would consider my product.
Part Four: Reflection on the 5 SLOs
Rhetorical Knowledge: Before this class I honestly didnt even know about rhetorical
knowledge. Hell, I hadnt even heard the word rhetor before this class. I still dont know exactly
what it is, so I guess thats some insight on my experiences with rhetoric knowledge before this
class. I never really had to think about how my range of texts and writing could impact my
writing. Before this class, I only really had to think about my audience. I havent ever been asked
to analyze other types of media with literature, for example, a video. I also didnt really look at
how a writers conventions or organization changed the way the genre was. All I know is that if
someone had an accent that wasnt clean English then the literature seemed less formal to me.
Some of the assignments that have helped me learn about rhetorical knowledge would be looking
at some of the personal narratives of writers. That assignment showed me how someones
conventions and organization while writing can change the way the entire passage sounds. It can
also change how the tone and the voice are in the text and convey different opinions. Another
assignment that could have helped with rhetorical knowledge is the research blogs. With
feedback from the professor I could see how the formalities that are in a usual paper arent
needed in the blog. It is more informal and seems more like having a conversation with someone
about the subject.
Critical Reading: In almost all of my English classes from Middle School to High School,
I have been asked to read a book and analyze or annotate the text. I thought that this was one of
the most tedious and annoying things to do when reading a book. It ruined the flow of my
reading to go back and write down how I felt after anything semi-important happened in in the
book. I think the best experience for critical reading before this class was in my 12th grade
English class when we had to analyze Shakespeares Macbeth. This was a very large play and
with all of Shakespeares symbolism it seemed that he never meant what he really wrote down.
Everything seemed to have another meaning to it and this activity opened my mind to new ways
of looking at text. In this UWRT class there has been lots of critical reading activities. From
reading other students papers, to reading some excerpts from our Writing about Writing books, I
have had to analyze and respond to several texts. Although the process is tedious as usual, I find
that it really makes me take the time to think about how I can relate to the text or how this text
can influence my writing and literature in the future.
Composing Processes: Ever since I first started writing, there has been some kind of
composing process. I have always used brainstorming and even before this class I have used
mapping. Mapping was more of an Elementary into Middle School way of organizing my
thoughts. After getting into Middle and High School I started to organize things in a more
professional manor by just making lists. I would have the main points at the top and below all of
the main points would be a couple of points that would back up the main points. This is usually
how all of my large papers went. I would also do some additional research behind the main
points to see if there was anything else that I could add into my paper to better support my main
points. Coming into this UWRT class I didnt think Id be going back to those Elementary
School ways of organization. However, the first time we made a bubble map for the literacy
narrative, it really helped to visualize where my ideas where going. I could then expand on some

of those other ideas by just writing down whatever popped into my head. I think that was the best
way and the most productive way to generate new ideas for my papers.
Knowledge of Conventions: Knowledge of Conventions is something that I have
always struggled. I never really knew when to use commas or when to separate clauses with a
semicolon. It just didnt seem that important to me. I was constantly given grammar sheets to
help me with my conventions, but I couldnt really wrap my head around when to use them. I
always thought that my papers were well organized, which I was told by past teachers they were,
I just wasnt good with transitions and I never seemed to relate topics to others and really solidify
my arguments. Thats why I probably scored average on my SAT essay. After coming into this
UWRT class I honestly still dont know if I have a good grasp on knowledge of conventions. I
have been given lots of feedback on how I could better organize my papers and how I could
relate some topics to others, but I dont think Ive been given the feedback regarding my
grammar. However, some of the assignments that I think have helped me with my knowledge of
conventions are my major papers. Since grammar is actually part of the grade for those papers I
went in to the writing center to help me with my grammar. I cant say that I will remember all of
the things that they told me in the writing center, however, they have helped me learn when to
properly use commas (even though Im sure I messed one up in this section).
Critical Reflection: Before this class I had done some peer reviewing. I do not
think that the peer reviewing done before this class was even close to the way I have peer
reviewed in this class. Peer reviewing before was just making sure that the authors sentences
made sense and that the author included everything that was required in the writing. Most of the
time I would just end up writing a couple of this part is confusing, and then saying that the
essay was good. I had to also do peer reviews for engineering before this class and that was a lot
more in depth. Peer reviewing those formal papers, I had to make sure that there was nothing
spelled incorrectly and that the writer used proper punctuation as well as keeping the entire
document in the passive voice. Peer reviews for that class were super tedious but gave great
feedback that would also help with your writing. In this UWRT class peer review was a great
way to tell someone that they could make the decision to change something or not. The thing is,
the writer didnt have to change anything if they felt it was good. I also received lots of
constructive criticism from the peer reviews from my professor on how I can improve my papers
for later as well as getting good response from parts that were found amusing or exciting.
Part Five: Portfolio Page Building
I think Critical Reflection is one of the most important things that I have learned from
this class. These are the major artifacts that demonstrate this concept:
Invention Draft
Literacy Review
EIP
Readers Guide
All of these works are papers or a collection of texts. I think that essays and papers (all of these
artifacts) show all of the SLOs. They all start with some sort of composing process. There is an
idea that started all of these artifacts and they all required some planning. Then I use rhetorical
knowledge and knowledge of conventions to actually write the drafts and put all of my thoughts
together. After that there is some critical reflection from either myself or peers that help me make
my papers the best they can be. Finally, some critical reading of others works helps me with my

papers. I could then do peer reviews for other students and help them with their process and their
papers. In all these four artifacts are the most important to learning all of the concepts in this
class in my opinion.