Class Reflection
At first I thought an advance composition course was going to entail a ton of writing. There was some writing and reading in this course but nothing to hard or unachievable. Some of the skills and tasks I have learned in this class that will be of service to me in the future; are writing to a direct audience, designing and synthesizes a research paper in different genres, using both print and digital modes of writing, and lastly knowing the rhetorical nature of writing and communication. Writing is a form a language and learning; before taking this course I just thought writing was a form of communication. However, writing is so much more, and I have learned that thought the many projects and assignments done is class.
This course helped me develop my researching skills. I have never conducted my own primary research before taking this course. At first the task sounded difficult, but I reached out to educators in my community and received the help I needed for my project. This primary research is a task I now know how to conduct and utilize for the future in my college career and will it be helpful if I continue to do research in my field of study in the future. The research project also helped in strengthening my secondary research skills. I put more thought into what peer reviewed articles were going to help in my point of view for my project. Also, this course taught me how to read a peer reviewed article properly. In many of the articles it is easy to get overwhelmed by all the jargon being used by the author. However, this course taught me it is okay if you do not know all the ins and outs of the jargon being used because I am not an “insider” of the field yet.
The research paper done in is course was done differently than any other English course I have taken before. We were not just to write a ten page paper and turning it in for a grade. All the research done on our specific issues was then turned into a different kind of media. This choice of media was completely up to the student, which I thought was very interesting. The type of media could have been in print or it could have be a digital presentation. Many of my fellow classmates did something digital which I found very interesting, because the first thing I thought of was doing something creative and handmade. Turning a long paper into a snapshot for our classmates to learn what we were working on was a fun experience. I might try something like this in the future when I am teaching. It was fun to turn a paper into a different kind of media like a graphic organizer.
Another, skill that was grown upon through this course was writing to a specific audience in the context of a discourse community. What this means is that the audiences could be a professional in a specific field or the audience could be untrained. The main goal is to compose a paper with the main audiences in mind, so the writer knows if the use of jargon is okay. If the jargon is to much for an untrained audience to understand, the writer needs to know this so they change the wording in a way that is most effective for the audience they are trying to reach. This course has made me more aware of the choices I make as a writer and the effect it has on my audience. Writing is a mode of learning that is the number one take away I got form this English course.
In the beginning of this course we discussed at length the rhetorical nature of writing and communication. To me the biggest take away from those discusses were that writing and communication is always evolving. When writing was first invented many people were afraid of using it, for example the reading of Plato’s Phaedus. This reading was very interesting because it was people debating over the use of writing instead to speaking. This debate is very much like the one happening in present day with the use to digital versions of writing instead in print. Will there ever be an end to the debate or will it keep changing for decades to come. I can conclude from the objectives learned in this course that the debate will keep changing as the mode of language and communication change, there will never be an end to this debate.
The skills I have learned in this course will help me in my ability to reach a specific audience thought my writing. Also, what have learned in this English 327 W course that will help me when I become a teacher because I can relay to my future student how writing is a form of leaning. Many people view writing as a task that is unavoidable, something that has to be done. However, writing is so much more and I have learned all the different ways it can affect someone thought this course. Writing is a task that everyone can keep learning about you can never have to much knowledge of this subject because it is always changing and evolving with time.