Jaquelin Miramontes

December 9, 2014
English 120-001

Reflective Argument
Outcome A Rhetorical Situation and Genre:
Definition: Analyze, compose, and think about the reasoning in different genres that are
appropriate to the rhetorical situation. Also, consider different ways, claims, evidence,
and different mediums and technology that are appropriate to the rhetorical situation.
Most of the assignments that I worked with I analyzed, composed, and thought about the
reasoning in different genres.

In LSA 1 I analyzed different ALS ice bucket challenge videos in order to choose
one for my MWA 1. While working on LSA 1 I reflected on why each participant
on the ice bucket challenge video did there video the way that they did it. I did not
see anyone elses opinions on the videos so I did not really reflect on what others
thought about the videos.
For my MWA 1 I had to write a memo. In the memo I had to compose an
argument on why the video that I chose from all the ALS ice bucket challenge
videos was the best strategy to bring press to a company.
Peer reviews were also helpful to fulfill part of Outcome A. Peer reviews
composed arguments of what can be better for the genre and rhetorical situations.
I reflected on the ideas that my peers provided and decided whether or not I
agreed with them and revised my assignments.
For LSA 3 I analyzed the urban legend that I chose so that I could begin outlining
the video we had to make for MWA 2.
When working on my MWA 2 I did not really compose an argument on the urban
legend. It was informative; our video only gave information about our urban
legend instead of choosing a side whether it was real or not.
The presentation that we had to do for MWA 3 I composed the argument of how
UNM should have more education about rape and rape culture and presented it
through a PowerPoint presentation in class. When working on LSA 5 I reflected
on both sides of arguments about the topic of my presentation. From there I chose
a side and created my presentation.

On many of the assignments we did in class I had to consider different strategies and
claims appropriate to the rhetorical situation.

For all of my assignments (MEMO, Documentary, Proposal) I had to consider

appropriate ways to put my ideas and information that I found together in order
for the audience of each rhetorical situation to understand.
I considered whether or not to use strategies or claims from peer reviews. I also
gave ideas to others of different strategies that they could use that are appropriate
to their rhetorical situation.

Jaquelin Miramontes
December 9, 2014
English 120-001
In any type of genre evidence and a medium is usually needed to show a rhetorical
situation. In all of the assignments for this class I used evidence and mediums and
technology.

When working on my documentary in order to find good evidence I used the

library. Most of my evidence that I found however was by researching many other
websites on the Internet because the urban legend that I chose was new and
actually created on the Internet.
For my proposal I also used the library to find evidence. However I found really
good evidence on newspaper articles by researching on websites on the Internet
rather than the library.
Technology played a big role on finding evidence. I did not look for any evidence
anywhere else other than the Internet.
I used three different kinds of mediums: a memorandum, a documentary video,
and a PowerPoint presentation. My instructor Ms. Larsen chose the memorandum
and documentary and I chose to do a PowerPoint presentation. I think she chose
these mediums because they were different and could be presented to different
audience. The memorandum was just for a single person as the audience. It had to
be done professionally because it was for a supervisor. The documentary was
different than a memorandum. The documentary had to be in a video and posted
on YouTube. For this medium anyone who uses YouTube all over the world was
the audience. I chose to do a PowerPoint presentation for my proposal because I
thought it would be the easiest way to show my argument. The audience for my
PowerPoint presentation was only the people who went to class the day of my
presentation.

I learned that analyzing, composing, and thinking about the reasoning in different genres
that are appropriate to the rhetorical situation is a great way to do an assignment for an
English class. Also, considering different ways, claims, evidence, and different mediums
and technology that are appropriate to the rhetorical situation is often used for everything
including courses other than English. I have used this outcome for other classes such as
Biology.
Outcome C Writing as a Process:
Definition: use different methods for planning, researching, prewriting, composing,
assessing, revising, editing, proofreading, collaborating, and incorporating feedback in
order to make your work stronger in different mediums and using many technologies.
Many different assignments usually require planning and sometimes prewriting to get
ideas put together as a whole. All of the assignments in this class required planning and
composing.

I created outlines for all of the assigned projects in the class even if I was not told
to do so. Outlines help me put my ideas together and it makes it easier for me to

Jaquelin Miramontes
December 9, 2014
English 120-001
come up with a final piece. For my MWA 2 I did a lot of planning by discussing
with my partner. We both planned what we would each get done and meeting
times. I did not do any prewriting other than outlines. I think outlines help me
enough to get started with the main assignment. I also did not do any research to
help me with planning because that idea never came to me.
I wrote at least only one rough draft for each writing assignment. I would have
tried to do more drafts but there was not enough time for that. My rough drafts
were always similar to the final drafts. I usually would not change many things. I
would only check for grammar and sentence structure.

I did a lot of researching for most of the assignments in this class.

I used mostly secondary sources for all of the assignments. The only assignment
that I used primary sources was for my MWA 2 documentary video. My partner
and I interviewed different people about the urban legend that we chose. The
knowledge of the people that we interviewed was a primary source. For the rest of
the assignments I used only secondary sources.
I evaluated most sources that I would find for each of the assignments. Sometimes
I would not evaluate some sources because they were self-explanatory. I also
always cited my resources through MLA format in order to avoid plagiarism.

In order to have a well written or a well-done project, assessing, revising, editing, and
proofreading is required.

I would always try to read my rough drafts aloud because that was the only way
that I would catch my mistakes. Whenever I would read my rough drafts in my
mind I would almost always miss a mistake. I would also try to do the same when
it came to revising my peers work.

Outcome D Grammar and Usage:

Definition: Be able to improve Standardized Written American English through
sentences, paragraphs, and documents.
In class we worked a lot with grammar and the important parts of sentences. Learning the
parts of sentences can be very helpful to write paragraph and from paragraphs to write
larger documents.

We had a lot of practice with sentence diagramming. The quizzes that we had
after each lesson were helpful. I feel like I learned a lot of basic information about
sentences that I did not know before this class. Sentence diagramming was a fun
way to learn the different parts of the sentences which made it easier to
understand and practice. The instructors feedback also helped a lot when it came
to sentence structure in my written assignments.
I did not learn new vocabulary in the class or different tones. I wish that I had

Jaquelin Miramontes
December 9, 2014
English 120-001
learned more vocabulary and different tones because I feel like it would be very
helpful in the future.
Outcome F Reflection:
Definition: Explain how you have improved as a writer this semester and describe how
composing in multiple genres and mediums using various technologies can help in other
situations to spread your goals.
I have improved as a writer throughout the course.

My MWA 1 was not very good at first, I did not analyze it well and there were
grammatical errors. Now that I have revised it for this portfolio I feel a lot better
about it. The sentence diagramming helped me improve my writing more than the
other major assignments.

I think that the different genres and mediums are going to really help me in the future.

Almost every course requires essays to be written. I think knowing the parts of a
sentence from sentence diagramming will help me write clear and understandable
essays. I am taking a world literature class next semester and I have a feeling they
will ask for essays and now I feel ready for it.
Personally, learning how to construct interview questions for MWA 2 might help
me when looking for a job and getting an interview on how to answer the
questions.
My major is Biochemistry so I am still not entirely sure how what I learned will
help me on my carrier since it is mostly math and science. Maybe it will help me
write a research article with good grammar.

Outcome I Research:
Definition: Identifying, analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing sources in order to
compose a research-based academic argument in one of various mediums and
technologies.
The research that I did for each assignment was different for each.

For the memorandum I only did research on Rick Rubin because he was the guy
who did the ice bucket challenge in the video that I chose and other videos so that
I could use them to compare and contrast from the video that I chose. I did not do
further research.
For the documentary the research that I found was mostly informative which is
why the video we created was informative rather than persuasive. None of what
we found had a side of whether the urban legend was real or not.

Jaquelin Miramontes
December 9, 2014
English 120-001
Most of the research that I found for my proposal was about the problem locally.
Other research on it was for explaining definitions and statistics.

The only source that was primary was the interviews for the documentary video that we
created. Most of the other research for the other assignments was secondary because it
was all found on the Internet.