Cover Letter 11/22/13 Ms. Richard Throughout our semester we have learned and covered a lot of material.

We learned how to entertain, inform, and to persuade. It hasnt been easy or difficult, mainly a challenge. It been in the middle or a challenge because some of the things I didnt quite understand, until my teacher went over them in class that made it less difficult. In my cover letter I will discuss rhetorical knowledge, critical thinking, process, knowledge of conventions, and composing in electronic environments.

Rhetorical Knowledge
In class we focused on memoir, a way to inform and to persuade. In my memoir, I wrote about my mom, I described her and said why she was an impact on my life. I also gave stories and told what things she did to make me feel that way. To inform, my rhetorical analysis, I wrote to my boss, and we had to write about the audience, the credibility, and the purpose of the letter. For a way to persuade, I wrote about getting high schools to invest in a drivers education program. By doing so, I had to get reasons why they needed the program also the cost of it, etc. In my assignments, I have responded to the different audiences such as, in my memoir the audience was my teacher Ms. Richards , and for my rhetorical analysis it was my boss, for my proposal it was to the superintendent of the little rock school district. In order for me to get

the message across, I had to write in a professional manner, so I could persuade them with my points. Throughout my papers, I responded to different kinds of Rhetorical situations, I discussed the purpose, audience and the writer, I also explained why they were. For example say that I was writing a letter to my boss, so we could get a new stock of a new and upcoming product. The audience would be my boss, the purpose is to persuade him to get the new product, and the writer is me. Throughout the semester I used different formats and structures that was appropriate. In the rhetorical analysis assignment I followed the format I was giving and wrote about the key things, ethos, logos, and pathos. Yes, I did adopt the appropriate voice, tone, and level of formality, by using different words and facts and examples to get my point across. Different genres helped shape my reading and writing, it gave me more of an understanding of what I was reading and what I was writing. For example, you should do this in a persuading paper and so forth. I wrote in several genres using definitions to let my audience get a better understanding of what I was talking about. For an example, if I was writing about hydrocodone I would give a definition of the term, because somebody might not know what it means, and if you have a meaning of it the audience would read on about it more, since they have an understanding of it. I used exemplifications by using examples of different experiences or events. I also used description, to describe people or the places I was in to get the audience picturing my story.

Critical thinking, reading, and writing

In my reading and writing I use learning, thinking, and communicating. I used learning by putting information in the memoir that I learned from my mom. I use thinking by thinking of all

the things that made my mom an inspiration to me. I also had to use thinking in my proposal, I thought of ways to persuade the audience. I used communicating by asking my mom some things that we did when I was younger that I couldnt remember. My assignment that I had to use analyzing and evaluation was my rhetorical analysis, because I had to analyze the letter that was given and evaluated to get facts and specifics to put in my paper. I had to use secondary sources in my proposal so I could have a source and get facts and examples to put in the proposal to make it more persuading. In my different assignments I had to integrate my own ideas with others, for instance in my rhetorical analysis I had to take what somebody else wrote and stated my opinions. In my proposal I used the use of knowledge and power. For example in a proposal you are trying to persuade someone to do something, so you would have to have the knowledge to get facts of cost and why you need some and sound censure to get it or sound like you know what you are talking about. In my proposal I drew facts from different sources to let them know that this was well thought out, she really wants this.

Process
It takes multiple drafts to have a successful text, because it helps point out specifics that you didnt discover. In class some things that made me have a successful paper is peer reviews and getting feedback from the teacher. I developed flexible strategies for revising and editing by revising my papers and making sure I didnt make that same spelling error or grammar mistake again. By editing my papers, I had to read through my papers multiple times and check

for errors so I wouldnt get counted off for them. My composition 1 teacher, Ms. Richards gave us a chance to rethink, and revise our paper, before we turn them in. Then after she grades, we can revise it. I do understand the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes because Ms. Richards wanted us to do great on our papers. Getting into groups to talk about our papers or doing peer reviews can really help to write a successful paper. I know it helped me. I learned to critique my own paper and others papers by doing a check list and doing peer reviews for critiquing others papers. We did an activity in class where each of us had to bring a paragraph of a section and we had to put it all together. When I clearly didnt understand an assignment I would email my teacher with a question or look up examples online.

Knowledge of conventions
I had to learn different formats for my types of text. I had to learn different fonts that something have to have such as, twelve size fonts for paragraphs and sixteen size fonts for headings. Ms. Richards taught us that it should be four sizes up from the paragraph font. We learned to always put our formal papers in Times New Roman. We developed knowledge of genre by including them in our papers we use them to set a certain tone in our papers, to get the audience engaged and wanting to read more or to make them understand more. We practiced appropriate means of documenting our work by keeping our papers and putting them on a flash drive, or putting them in our email. We did that so just in case we forget them at home we had them saved on our flash drive or email and get to print them off at the library. We made sure we saved it to our computer because we have to do a portfolio and

have all our papers in there. We had control of our surface features of grammar, punctuation, and spelling. We made sure and went through our papers many times to make sure our spelling, grammar, and punctuation were perfect. We did self-check list to make sure as well. Another thing we did was a grammar and punctuation work sheet to make sure we knew what to look for when checking over our work.

Composing in electronic environment

Use electronic environment for drafting, reviewing, revising, editing, and sharing text: We have did blogs online on blackboard. I did my drafting, reviewing, revising on the computer to help me come up with ideas, because when I try to write them on paper I am easily distracted, but on the computer I can stay on for hours without getting distracted. Also by doing it on the computer its easy for me to pick out the different errors. Locate, evaluate, organize, and use research material collected from electronic sources including scholarly library databases; other official database; and informal electronic networks and internet sources: We have gone to the library to use the database to do our reference MLA style on the computer. We had to put in a word such as bulling and it will research the web and give all kinds of articles to read and it had all the information we need the date, page number, and the author and when it was found. It made it easy to put our source in MLA style. Understand and exploit the differences in the rhetorical strategies and in the affordances available for both print and electronic composing processes and texts:

It was affordable to print and do electronic composing because for printing it was free and we didnt have that much to print off but 15 pages this whole seme ster and for doing electronic composing was affordable because I didnt have to waste or write on my own paper, I could just put it on the computer and print it off when its time to turn it in. In closing I have discussed rhetorical knowledge, critical thinking, process, knowledge of conventions. And composing in electronic environment topics, because we learned how to do all the points in class about the topic. I hope that this was clear and useful, of the things, I learned in class. I really learned a lot and enjoyed being in composition one.