Aidan Stapleton

March 21, 2021

Mr. Meyer

ENC2135

Project 4 Reflective Statement

Throughout this course, I slowly gathered a variety techniques to aid me in my writing

process. The process of planning, executing, and reviewing three projects this semester provided

me with a variety of strategies for the writing process.

Project 1 taught me several strategies to employ in my future writing processes. First, the

value of introductions. The introduction articles, such as “How to Write a Good Introduction-The

Writing Center at MSU”, gave me great insight on what it took to formulate a concise, yet

effective introduction. Also, discussion board 6 and the conference in week 5 enabled me to

understand the value of planning out large projects like this. The peer review week gave me the

opportunity to view the strategies of other students, as well as hear feedback from people in my

position. Lastly, the annotated bibliography assignment intertwined with project 1 taught me the

value of finding strong, credible sources. The lessons learned in the annotated bibliography made

finding credible sources in projects 2 and 3 a much easier process.

Project 2 aided me tremendously in understanding how to deconstruct artifacts, as well as

introducing me to the topic of genres. The greatest skill I learned throughout this project was

artifact analysis and breaking down the strategies of the author. In addition, the journal 7 Knives

Out critical analysis assignment improved my rhetorical analysis strategies greatly. Looking at

the ‘why”, such as why writers employ certain techniques gave me the ability to better analyze
the artifacts in project 2. It also aided me in project 3, as I better understood what it took to

produce a strong artifact myself.

Project 3 gave me tremendous insight on genres, as well as how to use different genres

and modes of communication to promote the same message. Although I had taken advanced

placement English courses in high school, the concept of genres was completely foreign to me

before this class. The practice activity in Journal 9 was paramount in helping me understand how

different circumstances dictate the correct genre, yet still produce the same message. I emulated

this in project 3 when using two different genres to target two distinct audiences. Discussion

Board 10: Genre Conventions gave me a space to formulate my thoughts about which genres I

was thinking about using. Although my plan changed, it forced me to begin brainstorming about

what I needed to do. Lastly, the rhetorical rationale gave me the ability to reflect on my own

work and why I employed the techniques I used. It enabled a “roles-reversed” situation from

project 2.

Individually, each project taught me different strategies for the writing process. However,

overall, the taught me an important lesson about myself. Although I entered the year as an

exploratory major, I now leave with a greater sense of what I would like to pursue, and this class

contributed to that. For years I despised writing, as I was always writing about concepts, I was

not passionate about. However, once given the ability to choose what I want, I naturally

gravitated to a medical issue. I produced strong projects and they did not feel like obligations.

ENC2135 gave me insight that my future lies in the medical field.