Chris Archuleta

English 2010
Course reflection

Generally, when writing, the two things I tend to focus on most (as far as the

threshold concepts go) are rhetoric and deliberation. I enjoy writing in a more

argumentative style, and admittedly, I enjoy employing strong rhetoric (though, I think I

do a good job of backing it up with facts). One thing Ive come to realize this semester

is how closely deliberation and rhetoric, and pretty much every other threshold concept

for that matter are tied. Rhetoric, is essentially ones command over the language they

use, employing figures of speech, and otherwise simply presenting the words in such a

way that they clearly, and powerfully, deliver your intended meaning. This can be very

straightforward at times, but more often than not, a fair amount of deliberation does go

into the decision on how to best apply your rhetorical voice to a paper or argument. If

its made too emotional, or relies too heavily on inflammatory statements, its easily

seen as unreasonable or biased.

One of the most challenging points of this semester for me was the deliberation

process over establishing my argument in the persuasive essay, but also attempting to

avoid what could easily be seen as condescension. This put simply, is due to my own

beliefs on the topic that I chose which was that of theism. My personal position falls

under the label atheist, though that itself can cause confusion. My position is Im not

convinced, basically, its not that I believe there are no gods, but that I am not

convinced there are any. Its a position that Ive held for a long time, and many of my

stances, on many arguments, both for and against belief in god, are well established.
Aware of that, I tried to focus most on making sure that I was properly analyzing the

issues I was discussing, and to ensure that I wasnt sounding like I was on the attack.

For example. In the second paper we wrote (the report) I focused on lesser known parts

of the Bible, that talk about things that are deplorable, things like advocating slavery. I

wont get into the nitty gritty here, but basically, its something that I have strong

emotions about, especially because its a book that so many people truly believe is

wholly good, and yet has so much evil.

The Peer review process is something that I think generally does have great

value; Outside input is extremely valuable anytime youre writing. Personally however,

in a classroom setting, I think there are definitely some things that I felt a bit less than

helpful. Though this had to do more with the input (or lack thereof) than the actual

process itself. I found that most of the comments werent really helpful. Things like oh

you could have used a fallacy in this argument, it wouldve improved or simply just

good job nothing constructive. And I even noticed that one person, who always

happened to be sitting by me on those days, literally wrote nothing. Not a single

comment, over any of the peer review, just stared at the paper and didnt even think to

write something. I appreciate the process, and I think in professional settings (or at

least ones where you can ensure engagement) it is a very useful tool, but simply for the

fact that its our only source of feedback without having to go out of our way to receive

it, it felt a little unfair to leave that up to other students, who you can never really know

whether theyre really going to care enough to actually put forth real effort to help their

fellow students.