Reflective Essay

Saul Greene

English 360-01

12-11-14

Reflective Essay

            Before this class I was fairly confident that I was a good writer, and I still feel that I may be. However, this semester I learned more about the process of refining than I did about actual writing. My vocabulary is fairly strong for the most part, and I am quick to catch concepts and effectively employ them in my writing, but I struggle greatly when it comes to organization on a macro level. By that I mean that my concepts are usually sound and my ideas properly written, but as a whole I usually have trouble making an essay flow and this semester I learned why. I tend to focus in on something too specific too early on, or I keep my essays too broad. This is why I was pleased to learn about the concept of a zero draft this semester. The idea of the zero draft isn’t really any different than that of a first or second draft, however it is a mindset. Thinking of the zero draft as a preliminary to even something as structured as a first draft allows many advantages. Firstly, a zero draft needs no fancy transitions, no proper format, and most of all no one direction or flow. It is the wordy man’s brainstorm and I love it. Additionally, thinking of the zero draft in such a way almost forces one to review with a teacher or themselves.

            I have never had an issue with writing an essay, and usually used to turn them in after one or two drafts. The fault there was that even with great ideas, they never became developed and ordered in such a manner to support one another and build into a claim or argument. This semester I began to meet with my teachers in their office hours. Not just for English, but all of my classes, and the result has been insane. Additionally, my understandings of the course material has been greatly incr4eased in every way. I wish I had utilized this option earlier in the schooling process and as such I would say that my biggest gain from this semester was the zero draft concept and the actions of meeting with my professors.

            Invention is easily my best attribute according to the rubric, while as previously explained, Arrangement is one of my worst. I feel that over this semester I have greatly improved on this section since meeting with the professor allowed me to properly understand how to arrange my papers. I would say that this particular selection of assignments and material truly helped me focus my writing strengths, especially since this was a rhetoric course. The essays obviously helped the most in my progression, however, the blogs helped me keep on track with the reading which in turn fueled my ability to complete the writing assignments in a reasonable manner.

            One assignment in particular that really helped me develop my organization and understanding of rhetoric was the imitation assignment. From a holistic point of view this project seemed very difficult and I, along with most of the rest of the class was very frustrated at first. However, when broken down and thought out it was actually a very valuable learning experience. Being given loose guidelines and very general prompts seemed to me at first to be the product of a difficult class, but in hindsight this project actually allowed me to learn the material and synthesize it in a manner unique to myself. The reason it was hard I figured out was because in the past teachers did half of the work for you by providing a specific prompt and details. However as we have learned from relevant readings, class discussion , and especially this project, forming the questions and guidelines for ones work is just as important as the actual product itself. As with most of my essays, I had good invention and I use that to my strength, however arranging them and expanding was always an issue. Focusing on only my ability to invent would not help in the imitation though. I not only had to come up with original ideas, but then synthesize them partially on my own and arrange them for the most effective speech. Though frustrating this proved to be a great learning experience.

Input from peers was another section of this class that I have not mentioned. Just as with my newfound ability to meet with teachers, I finally started to actually use the knowledge that my peers were suggesting to me and boy did it pay off. The best way to solidify your knowledge about something is to teach someone about it. If you are well versed enough to actually fluidly explain something to someone and do so to an extent of critiquing them, you assumingly know your subject matter very well. This was how I saw the in class peer reviews. This made me explain why I understand what I have learned and made me really see where others needed to improve, thus allowing myself to understand where I myself could improve.

I usually have trouble accepting other student’s ideas to use in my own works, but maybe this is just an ego issue. I found however, that such an issue disappears when you take a higher level rhetoric class. Most people seem happy to be in English 360 and most are extremely competent in my eyes. I really enjoyed this course because of this.

                        The goal of this class has been to demonstrate and improve one’s rhetorical awareness. As interesting as I knew rhetoric was, I never knew that it played such an essential role in everything around us. Through the development of this term I have gained insight into the way that people communicate and if nothing else, this work has left me overly analytical. Though at first it wasn’t simple, I find that I really enjoy attempting to understand what someone is truly attempting to say, why they are saying it, and what is causing me to interpret it in the way that I am interpreting it.

In my work this term I feel that I have grown vastly even just in my ability to employ rhetoric. For example, when I first started this class all I really knew was that rhetoric consisted of ones attempt to make an argument convincing. It wasn’t until I had to perform my imitation that I really learned how vast and complex this process was. And in terms of truly complex development, it wasn’t until my essay about automobile advertisement that I really figured out how effective I could be. It was in this essay that I really assessed the credibility of my sources and in doing so I attempted to not only figure out where they drew credibility from, but also what specifically made that source credibly to their audience because even the most qualified source is not credible if the audience does not believe it. Additionally, in this paper I was able to figure out how I personally can direct my audiences understanding and view of my credibility and writing. To say that the study of rhetoric has changed me as a writer wouldn’t be completely accurate. I would say that the study o rhetoric made me a writer because without rhetoric what is the point of writing. Sure, creative writing and such other pieces may not require an argument, however being convincing in any sense of writing requires a great amount of rhetoric.

Finally, though not about me specifically, I feel that a reflection of the professor is just as important as my personal reflection because they are heavily related. Because of his teaching style I have learned a great amount this semester and I feel a great thanks to the professor for this course is due. Professor Condon is not a conventional teacher and that is what made this class so productive and beneficial for me. Somehow he took the pressure of grades out of the classroom while still maintaining a class that was motivated and intrigued. He is a very qualitative teacher and I felt that he truly understood how to make a connection with a student and challenge them. What professor Condon understands that most teachers don’t in my opinion is that it doesn’t take a lot of material work to make a student understand something, but a sparked interest on the part of the student. In my case this was when Professor Condon assigned the imitatio and made us fend for ourselves.