Carpentieri 1

Kennedi Carpentieri

Professor Collins

ENGL 1301

3 May 2017

Semester Highlights

This Spring 2017 I took English Composition One with Professor Collins. This semester

was challenging because I was enrolled in multiple classes that were demanding and I worked

frequently. Since this was my first semester in college, I had to learn how to manage my time

properly in order to succeed in college. This semester I learned ratiocination, outlines, and peer

editing by editing my peers drafts and my own essays that helped me improve my

communication this semester.

Through the process of ratiocination I became well aware of the simple errors that I was

making frequently in my essays. Essay Three taught me most about the process of ratiocination

because I had the most errors present out of all the essays written for this course. I had numerous

mistakes that dealt with my in text citations, usage of the improper person, and comma splices.

The essay was over Persuasive Appeals and I was not aware what Pathos, Ethos, and Logos were

until this course. Not being aware of those appeals made writing this essay difficult for me. I was

focused on figuring out what the three appeals were rather than usage of the correct grammar. I

would have not realized these mistakes were present if I did not ratiocinate the essay.

The outlines for the essays that professor Collins provided me with throughout this

semester gave me a great starting point for writing. I struggle with starting to write the essays

and having these outlines prevented me from struggling as much. The MEAL plan used when
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constructing body paragraphs helped keep my thoughts organized and kept me from drawing

blanks when writing. The outlines boosted my confidence in writing and helped improve my

writing skills!

Peer editing taught me many notable techniques that made me a preferable writer. The

essay that taught me the most and I had to correct the most was my classmates Essay Two. This

essay was the most challenging for my classmates and I because the guidelines for the essay

stated that the student had to remain unbiased throughout the entire essay. I was able to edit a

peers essay and pick out mistakes and places where she was biased and was not aware she was

being biased. By editing her essay I was also making myself more aware of the issues and

learning from the mistakes in her paper. Peer editing benefits both the editor and the peer.

During my time in this course I mastered ratiocination, familiarized myself with proper

outlines for essays, and peer edited multiple papers. Those three skills I established will allow me

to improve my writing skills now and in the future. I will use Ratiocination when I complete an

essay to fix simple mistakes that I missed the first time while writing. Specific outlines will keep

my thoughts organized that will make my essay easier to read as a whole. Peer editing will

improve my awareness of common errors at the same time as assisting my peer to bring the essay

grade up. I will leave Composition One with a wider knowledge than I walked in with!