Jacob Hill

English 220
Refective Essay
1. Analyze Rhetorical Situations: Students will analyze the subject, purpose,
audience, and constraints that influence and determine what kind of document
(genre) they will write.
During this semester I have grown as a writer in many different ways. For
the first outcome to me it is meaning students need to think of different media and
different audiences outside the regular old essay. This class taught me how to
write a blog discussion and the use of multimedia. Project two is a great example
of thinking outside the box to analyze audience and purpose for a piece of writing.
2. Find and Evaluate Information: Students will develop research strategies for
their rhetorical situation, and then gather information from primary and secondary
sources; they will evaluate the sources for quality, validity, and appropriateness
for the rhetorical situation.
Research is such a vital part of writing for education and not for fun.
Arguments and opinion can only be taken seriously if there is fact to back it up. This
is true for Project 3. This was an opinion piece that asked us to write about how we
saw education in this country. Each one of us has our own views and this was evident
when we discussed it in the class blog. Many different viewpoints, but the ones that at
least I could get behind were the ones with strong fact backing them up.
3. Compose Documents: Students will develop strategies for generating content,
organizing it into a logical structure, and otherwise shaping it to address the needs
of their audience within particular disciplines.
In this class we wrote controlled essays that any one who knows and
educational essay could recognize with the exception of project two. The fun part of
generating content was the multimedia pieces that we got to create. The multimedia
allowed us to reach a much bigger audience for our work rather than just a scholarly
piece. In project one and three I created a podcast that greatly increased my messages
power because it allowed for more people to receive it.
4. Present Documents: Students will edit and revise their writing to provide clear
meaning and coherent structure; they will use effective document and paragraph
structure, documentation and genre conventions, and document design to create a
rhetorically complete presentation.
I cant say enough about how wonderful Sarah was to have for this class. I
really enjoyed having her feedback and I believe it has helped me grow as a writer. I
began to see patterns in my writing that were incorrect and she has helped me correct

those. For example I was incorrectly citing information and she helped point that out
and now I feel more confident that I am citing information correctly.
5. Reflection: In reflecting on major writing assignments, students will be able to
explain course outcomes and how they have achieved them.
I believe that reflection on all parts of life is very necessary. This class we
covered a lot of material and many different topics. We wrote a fair bit of information
and as we grow it is important to revisit work to update it because as they say we
learn something every day. Reflection is important because it allows us to bring
ourselves back in to what we have thought and create a better self. This is also true in
writing. Going back to see our work inspires us for the next piece. It reminds us of
good ideas and bad ones to adapt and grow on.
Questions
1. How have you worked towards understanding and fulfilling the Course
Outcomes?
I have worked towards understanding the course outcomes by completing work
that has been laid out for me and by always reflecting on the outcomes to guide my
work. Doing the assignments as they were assigned meant that the instructions were
always meant not to create a piece of writing but to teach us the meaning of our
outcomes.
2. How will the knowledge and/or skills you have gained from working towards
these Course Outcomes assist you in the future?
No matter how the world changes the written word will always be king. Even
though this will be my last English class I will continue to write all my life. This class
has taught me different ways to approach a subject. In business opinion is the greatest
thing we have, and this class has shown me a way to correctly approach shearing my
opinion.
3. What changes did you make to your work during the revision process?
From project one we were allowed to redo our introductory paragraph with help
for Sarah and Mrs. A. This revision has taught us to be better writers. Again I cant
say how helpful Sarah was to the revision process. She gave a perspective that helped
us grow as writers. I was having a hard time with citations and she explained it and
helped me improve myself as a writer.
4. Why did you make those changes to your projects?

The changes I made to my projects were so that they made more logical sense and
showed better skills as a writer. Also with suggestions from both Sarah and the
professor my multimedia pieces needed to be narrowed a little bit so that the right
audience was reached.