Alexandra Silva

English 120-040
J. Larsen
Reflective Argument

Student Learning Outcome A.

Student Learning Outcome A. states that students will, analyze, compose, and reflect on
arguments in a variety of genres, considering the strategies, claims, evidence, and various
mediums and technologies that are appropriate to the rhetorical situation. This outcome
addresses how to essentially pull apart a piece of writing to fully understand its context. Students
must be able to analyze not only the writing itself, but the process that got the writer there and
what they made the decisions they did. These decisions are made based off of the rhetorical
situation of the writing, along with the tone, audience, and overall purpose.
Throughout this course we have made progress towards this learning outcome in several
ways and activities. One activity we did that contributed to the progression of this outcome was
our rhetorical analysis of an urban legend. Our rhetorical situation for this particular assignment
was creating a documentary of an urban legend. In the process of creating a documentary, we had
to analyze the urban legend, compose our own retelling of the story, and support our claims with
evidence through interviews. Recording these interviews and recreations of our urban legends
was appropriate technology in conducting a documentary because it gave us an opportunity to
show the audience what we needed in order to get our points across.

Student Learning Outcome F.

Student Learning Outcome F. states that students will, evaluate your development as a
writer over the course of the semester and describe how composing in multiple genres and
mediums using various technologies can be applied in other contexts to advance your goals.
This outcome describes how we have developed as a writer throughout this semester and how we
can use that in accomplishing our own goals outside of this course. One specific activity we have
done that has helped us become better at evaluating our own development is the cover letters for
each Low Stakes Assignment and each Major Writing Assignment.
Writing these cover letters requires us to reflect on our writing process as whole. We have
to think about what went well and bad throughout the writing process. We must also be able to
acknowledge our writings purpose, tone, and targeted audience. By reflecting upon our writing
and the process behind it, we can learn the best ways to improve ourselves as writers, composers,
and readers. Personally, I can use the way I reflect on my work after it is complete the way I
would in these cover letters in my everyday life. Once I have completed a task or goal in my life,
I can reflect on the process I took to get there and decide on what I could change for next time to
make the overall product better and what I could keep the same. This is tremendously helpful
when trying to advance in goals I have personally set in my life.
Student Learning Outcome J.
Student Learning Outcome J. states that students will, analyze and describe the writing
and research conventions of an academic field in order to understand the different ways of
creating and communicating knowledge. This outcome is describing the way we take in
academically writing and research and convey it to other people in our own words. In order to
say this writing and research in our own words, we must first analyze and fully understand what

the writer is trying to say or communicate with us. This can sometimes be difficult, so it may
need more than one resource or person to be able to explain another persons writing. When
describing that writing or research to other people or even to ourselves, we can use other genres
to do so. Whether we keep the analysis and description in the same genre or in a different genre
we must always cite our sources and give credit where credit is due.
Throughout this semester we have progressed towards this student learning outcome with
many activities. Our class discussed how to not plagiarize by learning more about correctly
citing our sources. For Major Writing Assignment 2, we conducted a rhetorical analysis on a
movie trailer. This is a great example of an activity that contributed to the progression of this
student learning outcome because we had to analyze what main points the trailer was trying to
make to its audience and then express that to our own audience through the rhetorical analysis.
With this writing process of Major Writing Assignment 2, we still gave credit to the trailer while
analyzing the effects it had on its audience.
Student Learning Outcome C.
Student Learning Outcome C. states that students will, use multiple approaches for
planning, researching, prewriting, composing, assessing, revising, editing, proofreading,
collaborating, and incorporating feedback in order to make your compositions stronger in various
mediums and using multiple technologies. This outcome addresses the writing process from the
prewriting, to the writing, and then to the reflections of the final product. The prewriting section
of the writing process includes; brainstorming, collecting research and data, and beginning the
first draft. The most known part of the writing process includes; composing various drafts,
proofreading, editing, and integrating other peoples feedback and suggestions into the writing.
Finally, what many people forget about or simply do not pay as much attention to as they should

is the post writing. The post writing of the writing process includes reflecting over the process
and determining what you can do better next time that would improve the process or the writing.
One of the most helpful activities we did in class during this semester to progress in this
learning outcome was peer review. With peer review we were able to get feedback on drafts of
our writing from our classmates. This feedback allowed us to receive new perspectives on our
writing and ways we could enhance our writing. It was helpful to see where our audience had
trouble with our writing and where they were easily following with our writing. We were able to
broaden our perspectives as writers with the help of our peers through peer review. Another
activity we did in this course that contributed to the progression of this outcome was making an
outline for Major Writing Assignment 2. The outline of Major Writing Assignment 2 was actually
Low Stakes Assignment 4, however, we also composed a pre outline using notecards during class
that really helped us know where we should place certain points in our major writing
assignments. Composing an outline helped us progress in this learning outcome, specifically in
the prewriting part of the writing process.
Student Learning Outcome G.
Student Learning Outcome G. states that students will, use writing and research as a
means of discovery to examine your personal beliefs in the context of multiple perspectives and
to explore focused research questions through various mediums and technologies. This learning
outcome addresses the exploration of our own beliefs and perspectives through the research of
various peoples point of views. This research is then used to write what we have discovered
about not only our own beliefs, but other peoples beliefs as well. For this learning outcome, the
research we must conduct should be done through asking questions, such as in interviews.

During this course, we have progressed towards this learning outcome in a few ways.
One assignment that specifically contributed to the progression of this outcome was Major
Writing Assignment 3, the documentary of an urban legend. In order to retell the story of the
legend, we had to research different versions of it and compose what we noticed was the most
consistent version. We also created questions for interviewees that related to the urban legend.
We created questions for both an expert in the field of urban legends and also for a street person.
After coming up with the questions, we set up interviews and were able to get different
perspectives on the same subject. This allowed us to broaden our knowledge of what we believed
of the urban legend and understand what others believe to be true.