Thomas Stephenson

Mrs. Thomas
UWRT 1104
30 April 2017

Final Reflection

1. Rhetorical Knowledge Rhetoric knowledge is ones knowledge of the rhetorical

situation. It is used to possibly change the way that you are writing depending on the situation.
One example of rhetorical knowledge was in almost all of the writing into the days.

Writing Into the Day Week 3:

I only ever switch the way I talk in between a more formal tone that I use at work or at school
and a less formal tone where I talk to my family and friends in a way that seems more natural to
me than keeping everything formal.

For example, in this writing into the day, I used the fact that I was writing to myself to
communicate my ideas in a less formal way. This allowed for more creativity to flow into my
writing and it allowed for me to answer the question in the most direct way. Also, for other
questions in writing into the day, I would often answer with just a single word because I felt like I
did not need to write the whole answer out with perfect grammar if nobody but me was ever
going to read it.
Studio 3:

Another example of using rhetorical knowledge was in studio 3 where I knew that the objective
was to determine the ethos pathos and logos of each commercial. I also knew that this would be
seen by others so I made sure to use a more professional tone than in my writing into the days;
using rhetorical knowledge, I decided it was best to dissect each commercial and talk about the
different aspects of it and how they were implemented specifically into the given commercial.

2. Critical Reading Critical reading is ones ability to understand and criticize what they
are reading. One example of critical reading was in my first annotated bib.

Annotated Bib #1:

In my first annotated bib, I was able to read The New Yorker article written by Elizabeth Kolbert
and create a good piece of writing talking about the main points of her article. I dissected each
one of her paragraphs and put together all of her main points into this piece of writing. I was
able to do this by using critical reading to determine the underlying ideas and complexities of the
article and translate them into my writing. In this case, the underlying idea of the article is that
many jobs are at risk of automation, however, with the destruction of jobs comes the creation of
jobs.

Another example that demonstrates my use of critical reading was my fourth annotated bib.

Annotated bib #4:

In my fourth annotated bib, I not only used my critical reading skills to determine the main points
of the article written by Marguerite McNeal of Wired, but I also used my critical reading skills to
be able to spot different holes in the authors arguments, point them out, and respond to them. I
was also able to use my critical reading skills to determine that the author had a slightly left-
leaning bias in terms of the politics involved in her proposed solution and I pointed that out in my
writing. Specifically, in this article, the hole in McNeals argument is that she does not bring up
how the guaranteed income will be paid for. The use of critical reading not only allowed me to
understand the article, but it also allowed me to criticize it in my writing.

3. Knowledge of Conventions Knowledge of conventions is ones ability to know the

situation and manipulate their literature to fit their situation. An example of this in my writing
would be from my thesis.
Inquiry Thesis:

In my inquiry thesis, I used my knowledge of conventions to speak the language of MLA to cite
my sources within my own piece of writing. I used this convention to effectively cite the articles I
used in my inquiry thesis in MLA format. I did this not only because that is the format that the
thesis was supposed to be in, but also because it is just a good, efficient way to cite your
sources.

Another example of knowledge of conventions in my writing was in my literacy narrative.

Literacy Narrative:

In my literacy narrative, I used knowledge of conventions to recognize my rhetorical situation

and realize that I needed to tell my story and use words like I and me to convey my own point
of view and tell my own story.

One final example of knowledge of conventions in my writing was in my inquiry proposal.

Inquiry Proposal:

I used knowledge of conventions in my inquiry proposal to recognize my rhetorical situation of

me asking questions about a topic and how it related to society. Used this knowledge to ask
questions in my writing and think about how it would impact different groups of people.

4. Composing Processes Composing processes are the ways in which one organizes
their drafts and feedback. My first example of the composing process is from my Literacy
Narrative.

Literacy Narrative draft:

Literacy Narrative draft 2:

In my Literacy Narrative, I used my composing process of creating drafts and gathering

responses from peers and the professor to improve upon my pieces of writing. In this specific
instance, I took into account my professors comments and expanded upon them by taking my
paper in the direction that was recommended. I also answered her questions in my later draft of
the literacy narrative.

One more example of the composing process was my thesis paper in which I had several drafts.

Thesis draft:
Thesis draft 2:

In my original thesis draft, I took in my peers feedback to talk about the social and political
aspect of the future of robotics. I had never even thought about this aspect of my topic and the
only reason I was able to add this to my thesis was because of peer feedback. This was a great
way to improve and add depth to my thesis by allowing me to broaden what I was writing about
while adding more insight into other aspect of the topic.

One final example of the composing process was my inquiry proposal.

Inquiry Proposal draft:

Inquiry Proposal draft 2:

The first draft of the inquiry proposal took on many criticisms from peers and the professor. The
positive feedback gave me encouragement in my direction and the negative feedback instructed
me on how to improve my writings.

5. Critical Reflection Critical reflection if the process of looking back at your work and
gaining insight or knowledge based on this reflection. One example of critical reflection was
from my Literacy Narrative.

Literacy Narrative:

In my literacy narrative, I reflected upon my writings and talked about how the past impacted
me, how I would write letters to Santa Claus, talk about my Christmas list, and write letters to
my grandmother about school and her dog. I also reflected about how feedback helped your
writing process develop and it would help give a direction to the writing piece. During reflection, I
realized how writing at a young age impacted the way I felt about reading and writing. I also
reflected upon the feedback I received and how it impacted the direction of my literacy narrative.

One final example is the reflection from my Inquiry Thesis.

Inquiry Thesis:
The reflection in my inquiry thesis mainly talked about how useful the feedback I had received
was to be giving me a clear direction as to where my writing would go on from after my draft. In
my reflection, I talked about how some of the peer suggestions were no-brainer decisions that
were easy to make. I also talked about how I disagreed with some of the criticisms of my writing
but I could see where the criticism was coming from. One specific criticism that I did not agree
with was that I should change the order of my paragraphs to make them flow better. I disagreed
with this but I understood that I needed to make my writing flow better. Overall, reflection is a
great way of looking back on all that you have learned and how it has impacted you and your
writing.