Cover Letter

There is much that I have accomplished this semester in regards to my own

improvement as a writer. This is the first semester that I think that I can honestly say that.
We have done many different types of writing this semester, including types that I was
not quite familiar with. I think that the exposure that I got to these types of writing and
being forced to practice them helped me improve as a writer. One of these mediums was
either blog or storyboard. I had never done either of these types of writing before, so I
didnt really know how to go about them. I had to figure out on the fly how to do it, and it
made me think more about the way that I had to present the project. Being able to change
your style of writing at any moment in order to adjust to your audience is a huge part of
being a great writer.

Course Outcomes
1. Analyze Rhetorical Situations: Students will analyze the subject, purpose,
audience, and constraints that influence and determine what kind of
document (genre) they will write.
Being able to identify and analyze the rhetorical situation is vital when writing a paper or
do a project. This includes identifying a genre and an audience. For project one, my
audience was anyone who wanted to learn more about The Cave, but I imagined a group
of scholars. Project one closely resembled an analysis piece, because I was deciphering
Platos work based on an educational viewpoint. For project two, my audience was for
anyone connected to education, or feminists. Project two was more of a modern day
issue, so I thought a blog would be the best medium to use.

2. Find and Evaluate Information: Students will develop research strategies for
their rhetorical situation, and then gather information from primary and
secondary sources; they will evaluate the sources for quality, validity, and
appropriateness for the rhetorical situation.
Finding and evaluating information to me means utilizing all resources necessary
to create a successful piece of writing, or project. For project one I used multiple
sources I found online, as well as the YouTube video with a visual representation
of The Cave. For project two, I used The Girl Effect video we discussed in class,
as well as a Time Magazine article. Without these sources, my writing would lack
insight and credible information.
3. Compose Documents: Students will develop strategies for generating content,
organizing it into a logical structure, and otherwise shaping it to address the
needs of their audience within particular disciplines.
Composing Documents is extremely important because it is important for my
respective audience to follow along with my writing. Without organization, the
paper lacks clarity that is necessary to be effective. This also has a lot to do with
genre, because you have to think about how to logically structure a piece of
writing in regards to the medium. For example, for my first project, the
organization was pretty standard, with an introduction and thesis, following with
the body paragraphs, and then ending with a conclusion. For my second project, I
used a blog, I jump right into my thoughts rather than having a traditional
introduction.

4. Present Documents: Students will edit and revise their writing to provide
clear meaning and coherent structure; they will use effective document and
paragraph structure, documentation and genre conventions, and document
design to create a rhetorically complete presentation.
For present documents, it was really helpful having peer edits as well as the IA
review. The IA gave a lot of useful feedback, and I used that mainly as a guide for
my initial revisions. I then made sure to give useful advice to my peers during
peer reviews, because I would hope they would take time to do a thorough review
on my pieces. The peer review process also gave me ideas, and clarified questions
I may have had on a particular project.
5. Reflection: In reflecting on major writing assignments, students will be able
to explain course outcomes and how they have achieved them.
Reflection was a great way to wrap up any final thought I had on my projects. I
felt confident when writing my reflections, because I had put in the needed
revisions to create an effective paper. The student learning outcomes posted on the
syllabus were a good resource when going to write the reflections. By the time I
started my last project, I felt as if I fully understood the learning outcomes.
Reflection is a great way for students to evaluate their work, and I enjoyed this
portion of projects.
For project one, one of the main edits I made to enhance my paper was to
add a paragraph explaining my idea even more. I also cut out some portions that
were not helpful towards my thesis. Another thing that I did was to change some
of the words that I used that were either too colloquial or just sounded bad. I think
that these edits helped to make this project a lot better.

For project two I decided not to change very much as far as the content,
but decided that I would add some stylistic changes in order to make the project
more visually appealing. I also added some hyperlinks to make it easier to
navigate the project and for the audience to be able to check sources easier. I
added a photo of Bill Clinton at the convention to make the project easier on the
eye and not be only words. I also added a little bit of content to help make my
project clearer. I added the portion, This is due to many factors such as dropping
out because they become pregnant and cannot take care of their children in
school3 as well as the fact that bullying has become an epidemic in this country.
I think that this is a helpful insight for the paper that clears up some portions
presented earlier in the project.
This course has been very informative in regards to the rhetorical situation
and being able to both identify and analyze the audience for a paper. This is the
first class that I have taken that has actually helped me identify this. All of the
course objectives for this course were very helpful in order to improve my
writing. I think that I did a good job of applying the course objectives to all of my
projects, and it improved my writing by a significant amount.