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Gabriela Moreno

Professor P. Mirchandani

ENC 1101 - Project 4

April 23, 2024

Reflecting on ENC 1101

I always knew that the Freshman Composition and Rhetoric course would be a challenge

for me. Nevertheless, I did not expect my first shock to be a thirty-one-page long syllabus and

four major projects. Accordingly, and regardless of taking ENC 1905, I was frightened. Do not

misunderstand me, I love writing, but the thought of exploring new concepts and genres would

make my stomach feel uneasy. For instance, this was a problem I encountered throughout the

entire term since I never, in my entire life, had to analyze the strategies a person uses to influence

an audience or utilize those strategies and advocate for a cause myself. Back in high school, all I

did was summarize, and not even in English. Despite all of that, there was this excitement to

learn how to improve my writing skills, thus I changed my perspective and the challenge became

an opportunity for me.

As I had changed my mindset, I knew that I could not procrastinate my work until the very

last minute. Therefore, the biggest lesson I will take with me forever is to plan everything.

Thanks to that, I learned to focus on each draft, each peer review, and how I could improve my

writing so it had a greater impact on the audience instead of focusing on the final result only.

Additionally, by planning, I discovered that I can reduce my stress and anxiety and even take

some time off whenever I feel frustrated to clear my thoughts and brainstorm new ideas.

Consequently, if anyone asked me for advice for this class, I would tell them that doing
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everything step by step and planning are not a “waste of time”, as I thought they were before

entering this class.

Furthermore, I have discovered so many new concepts, such as arrangement, rhetorical

strategies, and research. For example, in the past, I did a lot of PowerPoint and Canva

presentations and, at the end, they would all look disorganized, and I would not understand why.

That was until I saw my classmate’s group presentation and understood the importance of

arrangement and how one color palette, image, or theme could fit my project better than another.

On the other side, it is most impressive how a person can convey to the audience’s reason, logic,

and emotions with the use of rhetorical strategies such as pathos, ethos, and logos. I will hang

onto these skills to communicate efficiently in the future. Lastly, the skill I liked the best, hated

the most, and would not like to repeat, but still should improve is doing research. I do not have

enough words to explain how frustrated I feel when I have to research any subject, it is the most

tedious thing for me to do since I do not possess the patience to sit in front of a computer and just

read. Nonetheless, writing an annotated bibliography showed me that it is not impossible and, if

needed, I would be capable of finding good and reliable sources to support my projects, which is

why Project 2 taught me the most.

Another key aspect that influenced my growth was the collaboration that peer reviews imply.

During this term, I had incredible peers who precisely detected the weak parts of my

compositions and whose outstanding writings showed me that there are different ways of

communicating successfully. Similarly, I know peer reviews are reciprocal, therefore, I tried to

always give my best advice without being rude. Apart from that, it must be noted that feedback is

not limited to the classroom or the peer assigned. On one occasion I helped a friend brainstorm

some ideas he could use for his project, and whenever I could, I would ask friends who had
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already taken ENC 1101 for their feedback because we all can use the help of others to improve

what we cannot notice and grow.

In conclusion, I have acquired a lot of knowledge and skills thanks to ENC 1101. My

critical and creative thinking have improved, but I still need to work on managing Wix and

Weebly better, practice how to better communicate my ideas inside and outside the classroom,

review terms such as multimodal communication, and keep checking the modules of ENC 1101

to get ready for ENC 2135. Thanks to this course, I now comprehend that it is not only about

writing, it is about conveying to the reader through the accurate use of skills and strategies. Now,

I can see that there is a world of improvement and learning in front of me, I just need to be brave

enough to embrace all of the opportunities that are given to me.