Rodriguez 1

Gabriela M. Rodriguez
ENC1102-0W96
7 December 2020
Struggles and Growth of and Upcoming Writer

Throughout the semester I learned what rhetoric is, and the many ways it is used in our

daily life. In the reading of Doug Downs “Rhetoric: Making Sense of Human Interaction and

Meaning-Making” I learned that everything we do has a motive, and it is driven by our emotions,

thought, and knowledge. For example, when we want to persuade someone into doing what we

want, rhetoric is being used. As one develops as a writer, professors want students to critically

analyze the situation, understand the problem, and how can the answer be adapted to the real

world. This made sense when reading about “Argument as Conversation” by Stuart Greene

where he emphasizes the importance of reading, when wanting to talk about a rhetorical problem

and be part of the conversation. His reading helped me for the research paper because I saw that

the community I chose, had their own lexis, genre, and discourse. So, to be able to present the

argument to the readers I needed to investigate more about who formed part of that community,

their motive, and the recursive problem.

Connection of Sources

In “Literacy, Discourse and Linguistics” by James Paul Gee explains that to understand a

community and, hence, be part of the conversation we as readers and writers should uptake

different roles. By doing so, it will shape part of our social identity, because even though you
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want to immerse in a particular community, you still can be part of different discourse. An

interesting fact I learned when reading “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community” by James

Porter is that everything we have read on books, journals and research are connected. For

example, when prepping for the DPT (Digital Paper Trail), various of the sources exposed a

different circumstance, but were still connected at the root of the issue. What guided me to notice

their connections were the keywords I used.

Revision

When dealing with academic writing I had trouble organizing my ideas and because of

that, I had repetitive sentences and no cohesion. Instead of analyzing a question or instructions of

an assignment more in depth, I was only thinking about short answer. This led to me having

writers block as well as writing in a mechanical style, limiting the fluidity of the entire

paragraph. What helped me fixed the essay was to construct a revision plan, because I was able

to concentrate where exactly I was having problems.

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With “Revision Strategies of Experienced Adults” by Nancy Sommers, I understood the

importance of revising everything that I write, because the goal of every writer should be to

discover and expand new meaning that is found in their critical analysis. Sommers also

mentioned a strategy that called my attention which was Heuristics. This strategy, which was

used by experienced writers, helped them jump to the answer and then, from it develop other

sentences which explained what, why and how. Not only gets rid the linear writing that one is

taught in school, but it also helps the writer avoid writers’ block. From this I improved a bit my

writing, but there is still a long way to go.

Improving Critical Thinking

I still need to improve my critical thinking, because I do understand the idea and essence

is there, but when writing it down, readers (peers) find it confusing. A good example was the

Rhetorical Analysis Draft, where I failed to explain how the source, I chose supported the

research paper. Because of that, I went back and read “Toulmin Mode of Argumentation” by

Stephen Toulmin, who explains that when supporting a source with an argument six steps should

be followed, which are claim, grounds, warrant, backing, rebuttal and qualifier. For example, for
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the Rhetorical Analysis. In order to fix the Rhetorical Analysis Draft, I used all six strategies and

asked myself questions in regards of the source to expand the discourse and understand its

importance towards my research paper.

Class Discussion

From class discussion I learned that every peer has a different style of writing and

critically analyze. For example, when answering questions for the discussion post, some were

passionate and other than giving an answer, they also provided facts or personal experience.

Meanwhile, others kept it simple and straight to the point. All were great, it just shows different

ways to get to the answer. In the past I never had luck getting a great team, but this class gave me

an awesome team that showed me the importance of communication. For example, on one of the

meetings, a peer of mine was unable to make it, but all the members of the team provided him

with feedback of what was discussed.

Even though everything has been online, having great communication skills gave me

security to reach any of my peers knowing that I would receive an answer. In terms of online

peer review workshops, I learned that I still have practice MLA format, due to mistakes like the

structure of the references, forgetting to add headings, and the cover page. When constructing the

body for each perspective I spent more time on one and forgot about the other two in terms of

information lengthwise. This made it seem like I cared about only one perspective and not the

three as whole as base of my argument.

Outcomes that serve for future career

The Research Dossier, Primary Research Methods and Inquiry and Researching Writing

in the Disciplines prepared me for doing research in the Biology field as well as for my future
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career. From the three outcomes I learned that one should prepare when planning a primary

research, by constructing a research timeline, keeping track of all the data, and narrowing my

topic. While doing Research Dossier I notice that is not so different from how the science field

does it. For example, things like the format changes, the usage of source concentrates of

research, journal, articles, and everything should be written in third person passive voice. Other

than that, the usage of IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results, Analysis, Discussion) is used in

the science field, as well rhetorical analysis, and critical thinking.

Moving forward

In the course of English Composition 1102 I had been able to grow as a writer, and this

can be seen through my E-Portfolio, where I have posted various drafts along with the final

paper. In the blog posts where I concentrate the feedback I get when being peer reviewed

towards the Rhetorical Analysis and Argumentative Research Paper. The way each blog post is

made shows originality, because the pictures I added have humor, advice and creativity, because

even though creating the E-Portfolio was challenging because I am not technological, I still

wanted to have fun. In regards of my writing outside school, I am considering opening my own

blog to talk about things happening or just to distress because writing gives me comfort.