Mariquitta Sanders

English 120
April 30, 2015
SLO Reflective Essay
Throughout this course I have learned about new writing styles and techniques in order to
better my writing skills as well as expand my knowledge as a writer and look into what I am
capable of. Through using various Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) as a part of each low
stakes and Major Writing Assignment (MWA), I took information from this course and not only
applied it to work I did in this class but used it to improve my writing on many other occasions.
The following SLOs I feel have made the largest impact on my skills as a writer whether it had to
do with introducing something new or just making my not-so-great writing from the past, better.
SLO A- Rhetorical Situation and Genre:
SLO A is one of my biggest improvements in writing so far. This SLO refers to the kind of
audience such as the number of people, culture, or age it is directed towards and the kind of
composition that is being written. Rhetorical Situation, specifically, is the kind of audience that
will be seeing your writing and the purpose or what the writing is for. For example, while writing
my proposal (MWA 3), the rhetorical situation was the head of the department that was being
addressed: UNM Parking and Transportation Services. When writing it, it had to be directed
towards this individual professional rather than what could be a large group of people, meaning
that I could be more specific in both tone and content rather than having to keep a broad
audience in mind and make it understandable for each person. Throughout the semester, I learned
how to balance general, specific, and more personal information in the assignments I wrote based
on who I was writing it for. Similarly, genre determined the kind of writing that had to be done

whether it was a rhetorical analysis, position paper, or a proposal. We often think of genre as a
theme for a movie or music but when it comes to writing, its not a theme but rather a format or
type of writing like a PowerPoint, book, or essay. My understanding of this has become much
better throughout the course of this semester as we have written in many different genres
including a rhetorical analysis, verbal presentation, position paper, memo, and a proposal. The
rhetorical analysis for example, was written much like an essay with certain points that had to be
mentioned while the proposal was much longer, had headings and titles, a cover page, and tables
to meet the main point requirements. I have never had to write in some of these ways before but
after doing essay after essay in high school, this was a refreshing and educational change to what
I had always been used to. I still have a lot to learn when it comes to writing but what I have
learned has definitely helped me improve and Im sure that a lot of it can and will help me in my
future.
SLO F- Reflection:
SLO F addresses the idea of taking work or a piece of writing that you have already done and
going into depth to see how it could be changed or improved for the future and on future
assignments. Throughout this course, we have done many reflections after peer reviewing that
allow us to both defend the choices we made for various assignments as well as look more in
depth at the work weve done to see how we can make it better. After doing my position paper on
technology for example, I wrote a reflection that gave an explanation as to why I chose to write
in a slightly less formal way than usual which was to make sure that it appealed to anyone
interested in the topic. After this, I also thought more about the opinions and main points that I
used and defended the fact that they were my own and not from a lot of research. Learning how
to do this and by doing it frequently throughout the course has most definitely helped me learn

how to write better reflections and analyze work that I have already done in order to make it
better.
SLO C- Writing as a Process:
I see this SLO as a way of taking small steps to creating a well written composition.
Throughout this course, I have learned better ways to use pieces of what I have learned and put
them together step-by-step in order to produce a well written paper. One of the major writing
assignments that I found that this SLO really helped me with was my position paper on
technology. I had to start by coming up with two or three topics that I am passionate about and
then narrowing it down to one that I could later find reliable research on. From there, I had to
come up with main ideas, both supporting and opposing, that I could expand on through a basic
outline. I then put it all together with the research I found to produce the final paper. Although I
had a basic understanding of the process of writing beforehand, this gave me a better
understanding and additional practice that I will most definitely be using in the future and
throughout my college career.
SLOs G and H- Research:
The final SLOs that I feel were a big focus throughout this semester are the ones included as
part of Research. Research is the process of gathering information from various resources and
putting it all together in order to inform people about a specific subject. I have never been the
best at doing research and by this I mean that I would always emphasize either too much or not
enough information. I feel, however, that I have slightly improved especially through seeing how
other people do research when it came to our position papers and seeing how other people chose
what to include in their presentations (LSA 2) as well as the peer reviewing we always did.
Through the process of writing my position paper, research had to be done by choosing a topic

and reading peoples stances on technology, looking into and learning the specifics of my topic,
and bringing all of this information together under one main point or argument. I read what other
people had to say and argue, presented my main points in class, and received feedback to know if
I was heading in the right direction. While seeing the kinds of research that others did in their
presentations, I was also able to get ideas for additional things to research that were altered for
my own topic. Because not many people share the same opinion on social media and technology
as me, I quickly found it difficult to find supporting research but I was still able to take opposing
points and turn them into something I could use.
I have never been the best writer nor will I ever be but I have no doubt that this class
definitely helped. I still have so much to learn but through these SLOs, I know my writing has
improved even if just slightly. I will continue to take what I have learned in this class and apply it
to the writing I will have to do in the future as a teacher. A lot of what I have written in this class
are things that I will have to know as I begin my career and thanks to this class I feel a lot more
prepared for that.