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Pedro Garay
Professor Anna Deadrick
English 102
May 8, 2016
Reflection
The 2016 spring semester felt extremely long and has been significantly more stressful
than my first semester in the fall of 2015. Although the semester was very stressful I enjoyed all
my classes, some classes more than others. I met more people at Montgomery College this
semester, people I can see myself having long friendships with. I did not have a lot of
expectations, all I expected was school to become more difficult, stressful, and have more work
coming into the spring semester because I was taking five classes instead of three. I expected the
semester to be extremely stressed and I was correct. I also expected A substantial increase in the
amount of school work I would be given and I was correct again. However, I did not expect to
meet so many new people or to be as tired as I am feeling this semester. I had three times more
work in the spring semester than I did in the fall semester because of more classes. The fall
semester felt slower and more relaxed compared to the stressful spring semester that flew by. On
the Goal Setting paper the class was assigned in the beginning of the class. I wrote my goal
down for my english 102 class, What I would like to get from this class is I want to improve in
my writing and all around vocabulary (Garay). I do believe that I met my goal to a certain
extent because I understand most of the course outcomes but there are some topics that I did not
fully understand. As the end of the 2016 spring semester approaches rapidly, I ask myself did I
learn enough and have a good time while learning. I thought about the question and came up
with the conclusion that I indeed did. By the end of the semester, I have met the majority of

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course outcomes from the 3 objectives.
The first objective of the course outcomes is written and oral communication-effective
writing. The objective focuses on writing multiple page essays that meet college level standards,
writing effective arguments using rhetorical techniques, identifying and responding effectively to
a range of audiences, etc. I improved in formulating a thesis to anchor development of an
argument appropriate to audience and purpose. A thesis statement is a Concise statement of your
interpretation about a particular text, issue, or event (Alfano, OBrien). A claim is also
another word for a thesis, its the the central argument. The claim is a statement that you ask
your audience to accept as true (Alfano, OBrien). The thesis I formulated from the rhetorical
analysis paper that was assigned in the beginning of the class was a clear concise statement of
my interpretation of Roger Eberts review of The Raid Redemption. My thesis was The main
purpose of this review is to tell the audience of his review that this movie is poorly made also
how it is all about violence and only violence (Garay). In my argumentative research paper my
claim was a very clear central argument, Parents of minor children (under 18) who want a
divorce should have to go through mandatory pre divorce counseling where they will be
educated about the effects of divorce on children and guided towards possible reconciliation
(Garay). The two examples from my previously written papers are formulated to anchor
development of an argument appropriate to audience and purpose.
Information literacy is the second objective in the course outcomes from the syllabus.
The objective consists of Identifying valid issues for research, integrating outside information
into essays, recognizing and avoiding plagiarism, etc. Information literacy is defined As a set of
abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to
locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information (ACRL). The course outcome in

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which I made the most improvement in the information literacy objective is using research skills
to locate and evaluate types of sources appropriate to research and writing. I wrote a lengthy and
detailed annotated biography for my argumentative research paper that received a good grade.
Identifying valid issues for research was my strong suit already but it improved throughout the
course. I easily identified the issue that was going to be used for my exploratory and
argumentative research papers. I picked the topic of divorce, more specifically The negative
effects of divorce on families. Formulating research questions that aid me in my research were
extremely easy to come up with, for example one was what are the negative effects of divorce
on families?. The information literacy objective was my best objective and easiest to learn in
english 102.
The third and final objective of the outcomes is critical analysis and reasoning, critical
analysis is subjective writing that shows the authors opinion of a text. Reasoning can be defined
as thinking about something in a sensible way. The objective has outcomes involving analyzing
readings for direct meanings, developing and analyzing arguments, and synthesizing a variety of
viewpoints. Identifying the direct meanings, tone, audience, and purpose as well as analyzing
arguments for logic and other appeals became easier for me as the semester progressed. The
three rhetoric appeals are logos, ethos, and pathos, logos appeals to the readers logic while ethos
appeals to credibility. The last appeal is pathos which appeals to the readers emotions. In this
passage from my rhetorical analysis paper I address the appeal and tone that Ebert has and uses,
The pathos in this argument is based around Eberts tone and attitude throughout the review. It
feels as though Ebert is mocking the audience directly by calling them cats and dogs. His tone
throughout the whole review sounds disgusted (Garay). I also acknowledge Eberts ethos in the
article, The ethos in this article is based on Roger Eberts reputation. The authors credibility is

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assumed by the reader because the author of the review is already quite popular (Garay). The
critical analysis and reasoning was a bit hard to understand at first but became easier as the class
progressed.
I have improved in all three objectives in the class but I still have not mastered all three
of them. Some outcomes I do not understand more than others, I need to work a lot on the
written and oral communication objective the most. I need to specifically work on my grammar
in my writing, although my essays meet the standards for content, organization, format, and
mechanics they do not meet the standards in grammar, in fact its border line passing. Analyzing
arguments using logic and other appeals has become easy for me but developing arguments using
appeals needs to improve. I have learned most of the outcomes but some I still do not understand
them fully, for those I do understand there is always more room for improvement.
As I look back upon the semester I had, it was a good semester overall however my only
regret is I wish I could have received a 4.0. Although I did not reach it, I was close and I will
continue to work hard to reach it. I am pleased that I learned a lot in this english 102 class even
though It was significantly harder than english 101 I still plan to take English 103. I learned the
three objectives that were being taught in the class, and enjoyed the class. Knowing that I still
need to improve in some areas of the outcomes, I will take that with me into the next semester
and continue to keep on improving.

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Works Cited
Alfano, Christine L., and Alyssa J. O'Brien. Envision: Writing and Researching Arguments.
Boston: Longman, 2011. Print.
"Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education."American Library
Association. Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), 18 Jan. 2000. Web. 08 May
2016.
Garay, Pedro. Argumentative Research Paper
Garay, Pedro. Goal Setting Paper
Garay, Pedro. Rhetorical Analysis Paper