Mahmoud

Karim Mahmoud
English 1102
Professor Griffin
Midterm Reflection
March 10, 2014
Midterm Reflection
Prior to writing about our main paper for this course, we spent some time reading some
articles from our text. These include Rhetorical Reading strategies by Hass and Flower,
Argument as Conversation by Green, and Literacy, Discourse and Linguistics by Gee. I think our
professor selected these topics in order to convey key ideas that she and the English department
believe would allow us to become more proficient writers in our future fields. These articles
fleshed out new ideas and granted discussion in our lecture to provide some additional thoughts
prior to researching our main topic.
Prior to writing about this topic, health care insurance, I had believed that the current
healthcare system was unsuccessful and that universal healthcare was the answer. However, I
had little evidence to back my position or to confirm my suspicions. I had to research a large
amount of information that greatly solidified my perspective on the topic. I learned overall how
important it is not just to do a great deal of research to understand the topic, but to brainstorm
ideas that takes into consideration the rhetorical situation so that my paper is effective in
communicating to the audience the information that I want. This leads to the ultimate goal of
having them understand it and hopefully change their opinion. I feel that I accomplished a great
deal so far. I have become better informed at a topic that I am personally passionate about and I
Mahmoud
now have the background knowledge to defend my perspective and disseminate that perspective
to other people.