Final Reflection A: The song Brave by Sara Bareilles can represent my experience in this class.

Each assignment, whether it was something short like a blog post, or something long like a paper, gave me the opportunity to speak my mind. There is a verse in the song that says:
1

Nothings gonna hurt you the way that words do When they settle neath your skin Kept on the inside and no sunlight Sometimes a shadow wins But I wonder what would happen if you Say what you wanna say And let the words fall out Honestly I wanna see you be brave

While expressing my opinions in my writings for this course, I found myself asking myself to be Brave. My bravery started when I wrote my literacy autobiography, and I released emotions I held inside for years. Then my bravery continued to flourish as I completed new assignments. I became daring, and I challenged myself to write whatever was on my mind. This course helped be break free from structured writing to writing how I wanted to write. The less I worried about what the reader would think about me, the easier it became to write. This process of let[tting] the words fall out has helped me in my other classes as well (Bareilles and Antonoff). Ive learned to not only be brave through my writing, but also through my voice. When participating in discussions in my other classes, I dont feel afraid or judged when I speakI feel confident. B: Since this course is typically taken freshman year, I would concentrate on ideas that would help my students succeed through their next four years of college and beyond. The first thing I would teach is confidence because confidence is necessary to be heard and to grow as a person. One needs to be confident in who they are and what they are capable of. Learning how to be confident in your writing leads you to being confident at anything new you come by. With confidence one can develop their voice. Allowing others to hear your voice, whether it is through writing or speaking, gives a chance for others to stop and listen. Making yourself known will lead you to more people with similar ideas and goals. Owning your voice opens opportunities to make a difference in your community and in yourself.

Bareilles, Sara, and Jack Antonoff. "Brave." AZLyrics. MUSIXMATCH. MUSIXMATCH, n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2013.

Lastly, I would emphasize the fact that building confidence and feeling comfortable with yourself takes time. It requires learning from your failures, not being afraid to take risks, and a will to persevere. C: Initially, I thought the book What the Best College Students Do by Ken Bain would not be helpful for me since I already experienced one year of college. I thought it was going to be a book about the basics to get through college. I had no idea it would teach me concepts that I could apply to every class and to my life. It taught me how to change my perceptions of college and how to approach a course. I congratulate Bain for creating a simple, but effective guide for students utilize. He provides relatable examples in each chapter to further explain specific concepts. As I read the book, I could hear him inspiring me to think differently. He taught me what it really means to be a student and how to go beyond what I learn in college. I learned how to combine my own personal strengths with the lessons learned from college to help me advance in the world. For me this book can help everyone, not just college students. The ideas reflected in the book are concepts that should be learned early, but unfortunately not everyone is introduced to these life-changing concepts. I would recommend this book to anyone who is struggling through college, with their job, or with life in general. This book is inspiring and it makes the reader feel valued. D: Writing Successes I found a great improvement from the first paper to second paper in my writing process. I never saw the point of planning an essay before writing it. For the literacy autobiography I completed the workshops that were supposed to help me plan my essay, but I didnt make a connection. I wrote my literacy paper the same way I always wrote my essays. I ended up getting an okay grade on the paper, but I knew I could have done better if I put more effort. For the second paper, I decided to put everything that I had. I paid attention to the purposes of the workshops done in class and applied those concepts to my inquiry paper. The inquiry project represents my improvement of understanding how to plan an essay. I finally understood the importance of knowing your audience, which was the first rhetorical element that helped my essay be effective. Once I knew my audience was college students, I decided to use a logical appeal to explain the analytical part of my inquiry, and then I moved into an emotional appeal, providing relatable examples for my audience. To keep my audiences attention, I decided that I would speak back to my audience so that they could hear my voice and listen to the solution to my inquiry. I ended my essay with advice to my audience. I wanted to let college students feel comforted by my essay. I wanted them to leave my essay with inspiration and hope. What I wish I could of done better was my organization of my thought process. For some reason, Ive always had trouble with organizing my essays. It is difficult for me to interpret my thought process to others, which effects the organization of my essays. I tend to let my thoughts flow a little too freely. What I did notice is that my organization did improve from my first essay to my second, but there is still a need for more improvement. Overall, I finally learned how to plan an essay, which I consider a great success. Before this course I was quite knowledgeable of rhetorical strategies and how to utilized them in essays,

but I was missing the most important element of an essaystrategy. I knew how to play the game, but I couldnt win the match without knowing how to strategize. E: As I walk through the jungle of UNCC, I reach my destination. I find myself in a brightly lit area of the jungle away from the shadowy canopy. I am nervous, for this part of the jungle is unfamiliar, and there were new animals I had to familiarize with. The other animals, some small and some large, were all gathered in their separate groups as if they already new each other. Without much thought, I joined a group. Then the animal everyone was waiting for finally arrivedit was the Lioness. I could tell the other animals were excited and nervous like me, and that made me feel better. The Lioness started to speak, but roars did not come out of her mouth, instead a welcoming voice emanated. After looking around, I could see the other animals intrigued by what she was teaching and so was I. Each week me and my new animal friends would meet at our bright and safe location to learn more about our jungle, about the world beyond our jungle, and about ourselves. We would have discussions about what works and what doesnt, how to improve ourselves, and most importantly how to succeed. It was an environment where we could speak freely and learn from each other. The missions the Lioness would assign us would force us out of comfort zones. Sometimes we had to go to other parts of the jungle that seemed scary because we didnt know what was there, but when we found our courage to explore. We found precious treasures of knowledge. We started to share our discoveries with each other. We became a family united with the same desire to grow. As every animal grew in personality and creativity, so did the environment itself. When all we started to make sense of our surroundings, the Lioness knew it was time for us to move beyond our comfortable domain and branch out beyond the jungle. We were sad to find out our journey was coming to an end, but the Lioness reassured us that it was just the beginning. It was time for us to continue exploring and to apply what we have learned from our experiences together to our futures. F: The most important thing I have learned from writing is knowing who is your audience. The audience decides whether your argument will be successful. Knowing your audience will help define your purpose into something more direct and appealing to the audience. Once you know your audience and your purpose, figuring out what specific appeal will attract the audience is essential to the success of your argument. Sometimes focusing on one appeal best works for an argument. For me, I like to use a combination of ethos, pathos, and logos because it provides a variety of examples. Knowing how to attract your audience can be useful whenever giving presentations in other courses. Throughout college, there will be many classes that require a presentation instead of a final exam. Whether you are speaking about the controversy of stem cell research or presenting information about a specific time period in history, you have to know how to grab your audiences attention, and of your professors. Applying rhetorical strategies from your

writing is a great way to effectively convey your purpose. An example would be using repetition during a speech to remind the audience of your theme and for them to constantly think about it. Lastly, I learned that the type of genre you choose to convey your message can affect how well your purpose is relayed. Some genres might not work well for the specific audience you are trying to appeal. Choosing the appropriate genre for your audience takes time and it may require a trial and error approach to find the perfect one to choose. G: College is like the weatherit is fickle. On your first day it is a comfortable 72F, the sun is shining, there is not one cloud in the sky. Mother Nature is welcoming you to your new home. As your first couple of weeks goes by you are making new friends, you are familiarizing yourself with the campus, attending social events, and you are having the best time of your life. Then you start to experience stress from juggling schoolwork, a social life, and extracurricular activities. Sometimes the stress turns into a flood of emotions where you feel like youre drowning. Other weeks the weather may be a little bit nicer and just brush you with harsh, cold winds. Some weeks it will just rain for seven days straight and you just dont want to do anything. All you want to do is sleep and forget about all the projects you need to work on. But then the Sun decides to come out from behind clouds and you remember why you are at college. The Sun motivates you to work hard and teaches you how to live a college life of harmony. Just when you thought you got through the rough waters, the pressure builds up again at the end of the semester. Its time to tackle finals! You try to put yourself together and prepare mentally for the last week of the semester. The weather starts to taunt you. Mother Nature may start by taking away your Sun. Then if that doesnt work, then shell try making you uncomfortably cold, making it difficult to study, but you just put on a sweater. Next, she decides to pick up the speed of the wind and before you know it, you are in a hurricane. The stress from trying to study for all of your finals gets to you. As you are spinning in circles, you are scared and you dont know when the hurricane will end. Then you remember that in every hurricane there is the calm Eye. You find all your inner strength to get to the Eye. Finally you reach the Eye of the storm, and then it suddenly stops. The terrible storm is over, and you just completed your first semester of college! You fall to ground laughing as the Sun appears from the clouds and the sky looks just as beautiful as it did on your first day. You laugh because you realize that you did it, and it really wasnt that bad.