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Delaila Woldai
Professor Deadrick
ENGL 102
5 May 2016
English 102 Reflection
English 102 has been a great class and experience for me. I have learned how to
effectively write argument papers such as the Rhetorical Analysis, and Visual argument paper. I
have also learned how to analyze the rhetorical appeals in photos, commercials, or
advertisements that are trying to argue and persuade the audience. I have met my personal goals
from the goal setting assignment from the beginning of the semester. My personal goal for this
class was to improve in my writing skills and be a real critical thinker (Woldai). I know I have
met this goal by the end of this semester because I used the feedback that the professor wrote in
my previous papers and addressed them in my following papers to address the writing skills
part. I have become a critical thinker by being able to figure out what visuals such as
advertisements or posters are trying to argue or persuade to the audience. I am a credible student
because I came to every class and turned in all my papers on time. I also spent a lot of time
outside of class working on assignments and seeing tutors at the writing center. I have met most
of English 102 objectives because I have written a minimum of 25 pages of formal, polished
writing, practiced critical analysis and reasoning, and I am able to identify valid issues for
research.
The minimum of 25 pages of formal, polished writing includes: Rhetorical analysis
paper, visual argument, exploratory paper, research paper, annotated bibliography, and this
reflection paper. When writing my annotated bibliography, I was really able to figure out the

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credibility of the sources I was using, which all turned out to be very credible. When writing my
rhetorical analysis paper, I had an issue of plagiarizing some information about the author so I
had to re submit that paper which turned out to be my best paper. After the plagiarism issue in
my Rhetorical analysis paper, I was very careful with my other papers and made sure I put
information that I copied word for word in quotes and cited them as well. Another writing issue
that I had was writing in 2nd person which has improved by my final paper, the research paper. I
have learned that writing in 2nd person is informal. For my business class, I had to write a
Company analysis paper and I avoided writing in second person which really made my paper
sound formal and professional. I have learned how to replace the word you with words such as,
individual, or one. Another issue that I had was always using the shorter version of words
instead of writing them out. For example writing, shouldn't instead of should not. When I
write the word out it sounds more formal and makes the paper more presentable.
English 102 really allowed me to critically analyze and reason. One of the group
assignments that we did in class on finding logical errors was a good exercise because it allowed
me to catch biased reasoning. In my rhetorical analysis paper I was able to critically analyze
Lorelei Bennett. In order to critically analyze, one has to know who the audience of the text is
and what the purpose is. For this assignment, I was able to claim that Bennetts argumentation
in Hollywoods War on Gender is not effective because her evidence is not convincing, her
strategies are not effective, and she uses many logical errors (Woldai). Some logical fallacies
that I found in Bennett's argument were Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc and Red Herring. When
authors use logical fallacies or errors, it takes away from their credibility. Learning how to
critically analyze has helped me and will continue to help me in the outside world because before

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I start to criticize something, I have learned that I should first consider who the audience is and
what the purpose is so I can effectively criticize without being biased.
For my exploratory and research paper, it was kind of hard thinking of a good topic to
research, but using these guidelines, I was able to find a pretty interesting and valid topic to
explore for my exploratory paper. These guidelines include: if the topic is relevant to a large
group, if it is timely, if it is debatable, and if multiple viewpoints exist. The topic I explored was,
how a divorce can really impact an individual's life (Woldai). This topic is relevant to a large
group, it is timely, it is debatable, and multiple viewpoints exist. Since this topic was very
interesting and there was a lot of information on it, I decide to stay on the same subject for my
research paper. For my research paper I did my research on how After a divorce, the previously
married couple should put their personal issues aside and focus on being present in their
children's life, proper co-parenting, and trying to minimize conflict (Woldai). I was able to find
a lot of great information from this research assignment.
Through the semester, my professor has given me feedback to avoid plagiarism and avoid
writing in 2nd person. I have addressed the issue of plagiarism by learning how to correctly cite
quotes and information that is paraphrased. I have addressed the issue of writing in 2nd person
by finding replacement words to sound more formal.
English 102 was a bit challenging but I have learned and applied new things to my
everyday life from this class. After taking English 102 with Professor Deadrick, I have improved
in my writing skills and achieved my personal goals for this class. I would definitely recommend
this class with this professor to anyone who is looking for a challenging but qualitative English
course. After writing multiple essays including a 8-10 page research paper, I can say that I have

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really improved with my grammar and tone throughout these papers. I have met my personal
goals for this class and I have also met most of English 102 objectives.

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Works Cited
Woldai, Delaila. Goal Setting. Unpublished paper. Rockville, Md. 2016
Woldai, Delaila. Rhetorical Analysis. Unpublished paper. Rockville, Md. 2016
Woldai, Delaila. Exploratory Paper. Unpublished paper. Rockville, Md. 2016
Woldai, Delaila. Research Paper. Unpublished paper. Rockville, Md. 2016