Dear Professor Turgeon,

During the spring semester of my freshman year I got the chance to really develop my

writing skills along with other key goals that would be shared later. I was able to take UWRT

1101 and in this class we learned how to complete these key goals through unique ways I have

never been exposed to in previous writing courses. Because I took this class I will not only be a

better writer but also a better student who knows how to rhetorically analyze concepts, read

critically, how to properly and correctly compose projects, knows the guidelines and rules for

writing, and how to put my thoughts into words.

In this class I learned how to rhetorically analyze concepts by developing the flexibility

that enables writers to shift voice, tone, formality, design, medium, and layout intentionally to

accommodate varying situations and contexts. I did this by after creating an argumentative

research essay I was able to shift this formal paper into a commercial like video that properly

displayed my argument. This is just one way I was able to apply my rhetorical knowledge.

Secondly I was able in class whether it be a required reading, music video, or commercial I was

able to identify the audience, context, and purpose of the text or video. For example during class

we watched a video called If I Die Young by The Band Perry this video was based off a reading

called Lady of Shallot and was catering to fans of The Band Perry and people who may have read

Lady of Shallot. The context of this video was loosely based on the story. This is just one of

many ways I applied my rhetorical knowledge.

Our second key goal is to be able to critically read and to be able to critically read you

have to comprehend what youre reading and understand the reason for the writing and how it

was written. If you are able to critically read you can then be more successful as a student and
person to understand how to one communicate back with others and be two understand

situations. During the semester when developing our argumentative research papers we required

to really find some reliable nonbiased sources on our topics and be able to pull out valuable

information that supported our essay and even negated out argument. Due to the research that

was required to do this essay we were able to have a solidified argument backed by nonbiased

facts and support all because we learned how to critically read.

To be able to create a well written essay or product of great quality one must go through a

few composing processes to get there. Greatness is never created overnight unless you worked a

16 hour night on a project then maybe you did create greatness. Nonetheless to develop a product

of great quality theres various different processes you can go through to do this. For our

Personal Analysis and Reflection we were able to play a video game and reflect on our choices

as a character on the game and how that showed who we are or at least who we believe we are.

During this composing process we first had to collect notes written while playing this game and

even interview another gamer to compare and contrast with. After doing both of these things we

then were able to create a rough draft that was reviewed by the teacher to really maximize our

quality of our final product. Due to all these processes we were able to create a final Personal

Analysis which was of higher quality than we began with. This is just one of many ways we can

produce great quality work.

When writing essays or doing any assignment for the ease of the audience its preferred

to follow some guidelines and/or rules that help easily get the point or purpose across. Therefore

in this class we gained the knowledge of conventions therefore our essays were understandable

and of higher value. There is only a few styles of writing that do not follow the basic guidelines

of writing but usually these styles are purposely not following guidelines for an effect. In our
class when writing essays and drafting these essays we were constantly critiqued both by student

and teacher therefore our essays and writing fell into the guidelines. The main reason for being

critiqued is because the student or teach could not properly comprehend the point being made

therefore if your reader cant understand or comprehend your writing it serves no value.

Finally the last main goal of UWRT 1101 was to be able to truly and properly articulate

what we are thinking and being able to put that into words. When drafting any essay in this class,

although they were guidelines, we had to gather in our heads what we wanted to do and but that

on paper which can be referred to critical reflection. Things such as this reflective cover letter are

ways in which actively show how we take things from our head and put them on paper. This

helps us be able to communicate and learn throughout our daily lives therefore its very

important that we learned how to critically reflect.