Through my time in English 219, I feel like Ive extremely improved in the

Student Learning Outcomes as far as my writing is concerned. While I had never

heard of the Student Learning Outcomes before taking this class, they were just a
normal part of writing a paper; but never a focus. Now, I have always been
considering and having these outcomes in my mind when writing the papers and
projects Ive completed in this class.
To begin with the first Student Learning Outcome, Analyzing Rhetorical
Strategies, it discusses ways a writer addresses their audience or subject in their
work. Through both projects, this was a huge focus of mine; but the first one was
more of a struggle for me. In the beginning of that paper, my audience was all over
the place, and seemed more focus on addressing the grader of my project and not
who the real audience of the paper should be; AMAFCA. This was a real problem I
caught onto fairly early in my paper, at least.
In my powerpoint, the outline I was using for my paper at the time, I tried to
address the class and therefore spoke and discussed the information in a different
way. I discussed the formation of AMAFCA, in detailed descriptions of the types of
outfall channels they use, what AMAFCA stood for, and in-depth descriptions of their
mission and work. However, most of this wouldnt be pertinent when the audience is
AMAFCA themselves, as it was supposed to be with my paper. Therefore, I had to
edit out most of this work and only kept pertinent and relating details to my
argument in the final draft of my paper.
I did experience with another problem with audience, relating to SLO 1, and
that was how to speak and communicate to my target audience. As I mentioned in
the last paragraph, when first writing the paper, I wasnt really too focused or

understanding what I needed to do to reach my audience. I had the mindset that I

had with papers in the past in classes which was write a report for the teacher, so
this was still a very new thing to me. So, when I was talking about AMAFCA in my
paper, I kept on talking about AMAFCA as they and them when using pronouns.
This wouldnt fit in a paper that is being directed towards AMAFCA themselves; so I
had to change it. I felt uncomfortable though addressing them with direct pronouns,
saying things like you caused this mishap in the environment. It seemed
accusatory and fairly informal although that might just be a preference of mine. So
instead I used language like even though the organization has its names on signs
everywhere (Project 1 Paper, Page 6). Using a phrase like the organization
sounds like a more professional way to directly speak to someone through a paper
to me.
Lastly, for SLO 1, I also had to analyze the type of subject and content Id
need to use to get my point across in my work this semester. This can be easily
viewed through the screen-capture video I created as a method for presenting my
proposal. Initially I was planning on doing a video but setbacks changed that plan,
and probably for the better. Having to think on my toes, I went for a type of
multimodal presentation I hadnt used before but decided on it because it would
work better for a proposal. By having to change the method of which I was going to
use to communicate my project, I became more mentally inclined to think about
what would work best for the subject matter at hand.
These were all big turning points for me, I feel like, in my growth into
becoming a better professional writer. They will also be influential to me in the
future. In writing the paper, I really had to learn to take my mind off of how I used to
write papers and more about what I needed to do to write this paper. I also learned

about the type of grammar and voice I need to use when writing or presenting a
paper, and it can vary. Variations are good and the practice with it this year has
shaped me to realize how and when to use what type of language or direction when
presenting an idea to an audience. Lastly, I learned a tough lesson in presentation.
While I really wanted to do a video, because I am comfortable with the genre, I
really had to focus my mindset and reconsider after setbacks the type of
presentation would be best for my proposal. Again variety is good and I understand
it can change from proposal to proposal, but having to make the screen-cast got me
familiar with that type of genre used and I feel like I can use it to its full potential in
future presentations of mine; I even used it in my Top Five Biggest Grammar
Mistakes Video and that came out, I feel, as an improved product and screencast
compared to the one I created for Project 2.
The second Student Learning Outcome deals with Finding and Evaluating
Information, a struggle for me with both projects. Both times I feel like I really
specified my topic down to particular niches that it was hard to find information
pertaining or relating to the topic; but I was still able to find a good amount of
supporting research in the end.
For my first project I was able to find a few good sources of information, such
as the work Pima County Flood Control does protecting an endangered plant in
Arizona or the comparison of AMAFCA to the Middle Rio Grande Flood Control
Association, but I kept on scrounging for evidence. I found a personal account of
someone going to an AMAFCA dam and a short and vague article mentioning
Albuquerque suing the EPA about their work on water habits and just threw it into
my paper to have at least more than two peer-reviewed articles in my paper.
However, the SLO 2 is also about understanding the kind of information one needs

to get and how to evaluate to add it to their paper. These last two documents do
little to nothing to support my argument. So in working my final draft of my project I
erased these two research article evaluations from my paper and instead expanded
more on the main two that actually give some comparison and argument I could use
in my paper such as how Pima County used flood plains to protect a plant species,
called the Huachuca Water Plant, from becoming more endangered; an effort I
havent witnessed here in Albuquerque (Project One Paper, Page 7).
Remembering the lesson I learned detailed in the paragraph above, I
approached the proposal in a similar way. Again, after looking around the online
UNM library and only finding one article that could possibly pertain to my proposal
and give a solid argument in my defense, I realized that it would be worthless and
almost hurtful to add anything more. Instead I turned to multiple first-hand accounts
I found through primary research and used more professional articles and statistics
as my main primary and secondary sources in defense of my proposal.
Therefore, SLO 2 taught me a lot about how to find and evaluate information
for projects this semester and in the future. It helped me learn how to find peerreviewed articles, a great kind of source to back up a paper. But it also taught me
when enough information is enough. I came to realize how important it was to also
be careful in the type of information to choose and use in a paper. When I stripped
out all the unneeded information and evidence, I was able to elongate and evaluate
more on the information more vital to my argument and have a wider array of data
to use, especially from respected articles and primary research done by me. This
idea, I feel like, will drastically alter the way I write papers and improve the way I
find and analyze research in the future.

Moving onto SLO 3, Composing Documents, I move onto my work on

structuring and writing the document on the whole. I feel like an important place to
begin discussing this Student Learning Outcome is in the outlining of the papers. In
one weekly assignment, we had to outline the proposal that we were about to write,
and using that really helped me focus my thoughts on what was to come. The other
big benefit that outline I did for the weekly assignment was focusing my writing on
my audience and how to address them. It helped me find my voice and, in writing
the outline, find the way I was going to speak in the proposal. In such sentences like
My goal is to institute a structured and beneficial after school program for
impoverished (Proposal Outline, page 4), I was able to realize the correct way to
professionally and assertively bring my case through in my proposal in the best way
possible.
I also had to find a logical structure in writing my documents. One big
structure help I learned pertaining to this SLO was the IMRaD method. Using this in
my paper, I was able to focus my thoughts on each area of my research and
discussion into different and relating sections to get the paper I wanted to write to
reach its potential. We had similar strategies when writing the proposal like starting
with an intro, moving on to the current situation, make a plan, and reviewing costs,
benefits, and qualifications. These outlines or structures helped me focus my writing
in the best way possible.
I was able to learn a lot from these outlines and methods to composing
documents. I learned how to find my voice through outlines and was able to learn
how to apply it through the methods we learned in class relating to SLO 3. Methods
like IMRaD are ones I will most definitely apply in the future. As writers I think we
always consider outlines like these but to learn them and have them laid out is so

much easier when trying to focus an argument and making it as strong as one can. I
will continue using these and learning from these and hopefully applying my own
strategies and tweaking these when needed to get the best argument I can out of a
technical writing assignment I need to complete.
Continuing to Student Learning Outcome 4, Presenting Documents, I was able
to learn how to create a document that looked appealing, was readable, and used
visual elements and an understandable structure to emphasize my argument. One
of the first things I had to do relating to this outcome was make a visual argument
for my project one paper. It was mostly two text boxes, the first saying Is it really
better for the flood control, and especially the environment, to turn this:
accompanied by a picture of the North Division Outfall Channel full of water with
plants and green. The second text box continued from the first one said Into this:
and showed a picture of the North Division Outfall Channel with all the wildlife
bulldozed and completely devoid of water. From this weekly assignment, I began
learning more about SLO 4 and how to present my argument through a visual
means.
I expanded on learning SLO 4 in my proposal, an entire new way to present a
document for me. Beginning the video one big consideration would be how would I
do this screen-capture if I had to present it professionally. I tried to use a
professional voice, use an in-depth powerpoint as my capture, and implement
visuals in my powerpoint that would contribute to the arguments I was trying to
make. I used a few stock photos of kids in school and using the kinds of programs I
was hoping to implement in the proposal to add visual appeal for the viewer of my
proposal. I also used photos of some of the schools I was hoping to pilot the idea at

to try to connect the person I was proposing this to the schools and kids this would
actually impact.
Overall, SLO 4 really helped me understand the correct way to synthesize my
text and visuals to present my argument in the best way. Using the SLO 4 in project
1 helped me understand the ways to present a visual argument in a paper, even
making a visual argument completely on my own with my own captions, was a great
experience for me. However, the analytical report was still just a paper, a medium
Im very familiar with. I was really pushed in project 2 to think about new ways to
present my document. It was a great learning experience using a screencast, how to
use visuals in it, how to speak in it, and what information to provide in text and
what to provide orally.
The final Student Learning Outcome, number 5, deals with Composing in
Various Modes. I feel like most of my discussion of the past student learning
outcomes about my project 2 proposal relates a lot to this topic about how to
communicate in the modern well beyond learning writing in a text base form only.
Using a screencast was extremely influential to me, I feel, about how to expand my
knowledge on this topic but I have written about it already. So to begin talking about
SLO 5, Im going to look at the lessons I learned more with my Top 5 Grammar
Mistakes Video. After making it through project 2, and learning about the
screencapture process, I decided to use this medium for this assignment.
This time, from learning more about SLO 5 from the last video, I was able to
balance text to voice better. Compared to the first video, where I was struggling to
keep text info to a descriptive minimum but sometimes ran too high in places, I
found a good medium in this second video. I overall feel like I wrote more per slide

compared to the first video but realized when text information would be pertinent
and what amount, and never fell over that limit. It helped me flow and synthesize
my text-based information in with my vocal information more than I did in my
proposal video.
But thats not the only thing I was able to learn from SLO 5 as I was also able
to learn about how to vocally address my audience better. I made a strong point in
my proposal to emphasize who I was, what organization I was representing, and
who I need to pitch my argument to. In the opening of my video, I specifically made
sure one of the first things I said was Im here representing the Albuquerque Public
School System asking you, the New Mexico State Council, to invest your this
program and kids future here in the state as well. This SLO helped me understand I
needed to make present who I was, I was representing APS, who I needed to
address, New Mexico State Council, what I was proposing, this after school program,
and why, because who doesnt want to invest in kids future; and I was able to begin
accomplishing this in the first few seconds of my proposal. I also made a note
throughout the video to repeat these things again as a way to vocally communicate
in this mode of presentation my argument and addressing my audience.
I lastly was able to learn about what types of mediums to choose from when
giving information to body of people in a technical writing setting. The first one was
required to be a paper; but that made sense. We were professionally addressing a
body to directly confront them about a problem and trying to convince them that it
should be examined and changed. A formal written paper, full of textual and visual
information, would be the best way to communicate this information to the reader
and audience. But when it comes to giving a proposal to a reader, I think making a
screencast makes a lot of sense. You can convey the pathos, ethos, and logos in a

quick and timely matter through a text and vocal manner to quickly get across to
ones audience the purpose and reason to invest in this idea. It reminded me of
something APS would send to the government asking them to invest in their project
if they couldnt have a representative to present it for them, and the fact the final
project to me seemed very professional in that manner for me, made me proud the
work I did and the information I learned from this SLO as well as all the other
student learning outcomes.
Overall, I learned a lot from the Student Learning Outcomes this year. I was
able to consider and apply the outcomes in a standard paper and become familiar
with them in project 1, drastically change and improve them in project two, and now
Im prepared to apply them to papers in the future. I have a better, fuller
understanding of the ways to gather information and compose in different genres
and understand how to address an audience. These are all important things to have
learned in this class; and one that could be very important for me in the future.