Allison HamptonProfessor Marcum28 April 2016

Post Course ReviewPart 1:

Rhetorical KnowledgeRhetorical knowledge is a very important concept within writing because it is the

knowledge and experiences that you have prior to beginning an argument, researching, or writing a paper. Personally, my prior knowledge and experiences have profound affects on my writings and arguments. I think it is definitely beneficial for everyone to have the types of skills that allow you to pull from past experiences and use knowledge previously acquired in order to write, complete a task, argue a position, or solve a problem. These skills are extremely useful and allow people to think critically about and analyze what they already know in relation to what they are learning and what they will learn in the future. There are many occupations and careers in which rhetorical knowledge would be useful. Occupations in fields like science, medicine, journalism, and of course literature all depend on one’s prior knowledge in order to make educated decisions, solve problems, create successful products, and make valid arguments. Future instances in which I would need these skills would include several different types of papers and writings I will do for classes I will take before I graduate, deciding on a career or job, and everyday problem solving I will do in the future.

Part 2:

Critical ReflectionI believe that critical reflection is the most important of the SLO’s we have studied and

discussed within this class. I think it is very important and beneficial for a writer, or anyone, to have the ability to review their work and reflect on what they have already composed and make constructive changes to better their product. I feel like most professions should require for people to possess these types of skills. Critical reflection allows growth and understanding of how to improve. I think I will use critical reflection skills many times in the future in and out of school. I will definitely use these skills in future classes leading up to graduating college, but I also expect to use them when I choose a career. Because I would like to have a career in the fashion industry one day, I believe these skills will come in handy when trying to reflect on past trends and styles in order to determine future trends. These types of reflections could help me to improve my abilities within art and fashion design as well as give me an upper hand in predicting future styles.

Part 3:

Knowledge of ConventionsI believe knowledge of conventions is extremely important in writing. I am the type of

writer who tries to focus as much on the rules and regulations that are tied to writing because I strive to write well and in a way that is appealing to audiences. On the other hand, I feel like I

take this too far sometimes to that point that I rely on these conventions a little too heavily and don’t try to think outside of the box very often. Many professions like journalism, writing, art, and design rely on conventions and their uses heavily. Often times products are found to be more desirable or successful if they follow or conform to these regulations than products that don’t. The fashion industry definitely uses these types of rules and regulations on a daily basis. Since I want to have a career in fashion, I would expect that my knowledge of the fashion rules and conventions would be very important and determine my success within the industry.

PART 4:

Rhetorical KnowledgeBefore this class I used much of what I had been taught in school about writing in order

to compose and complete a draft. Most of my “rhetorical knowledge” came from what I had been told by teachers throughout my years of schooling. When writing, I focused a lot on the rules and regulations that had been seemingly set in stone by all of my previous teachers throughout middle school and high school. I was always very hesitant to break out of this box of set rules that governed my writing out of fear that my writing would be wrong or not good enough compared to my peers’ writing.

I feel like our Inquiry Remix Project best utilized the rhetorical knowledge skills that we have learned throughout this semester in this class. Because our inquiry project required us to research for our respective topics while creating our project, when we were to work on our remix projects we already had a wealth of knowledge to build our projects with. While creating this project I was able to utilize information that I already knew.

Critical ReadingIn high school, we focused a lot of our time and attention on critical reading. Much of

my junior and senior English curriculum was focused on reading and analyzing different texts and writings in order to fully understand them. Critical Reading was also of huge importance as far back as middle school and elementary school. Because of this, I had a lot of previous knowledge and experience pertaining to this topic before entering this class.

Any of the group discussion we have done in this class where we have analyzed and talked about an assigned text has been very helpful in furthering my knowledge and abilities within the realm of critical reading.

Composing ProcessesBefore college, my composing process mostly consisted of cram writing all of my papers

the night before they were due. I never wrote them within the span of several days or a week where I allowed myself several times to sit down and write with breaks in between. I never had more than one draft and I rarely went back and edited. This is because I would not allow myself to continue writing my paper if I was not satisfied with part of it.

The assignment that I used composing processes skills the most for was our literacy memoir. Because we were given so much time to work on it and required to create several different parts in the process, I was able to experiment with how I went about writing and composing my paper. Instead of cramming all of my writing into the night before it was due, I

created outlines, several drafts, and spent several days editing until I was happy with the product.

Knowledge of ConventionsPrior to this class I focused heavily on the different rules and regulations of writing that

had been taught to me by many of my English teachers throughout school. I was usually very hesitant to break away from these rules and not follow them because they had been so engrained in me.

Since entering this class, I have been able to allow myself to experiment with my writing and not necessarily follow all of these rules perfectly. One assignment that I experimented with this a lot was the literacy memoir. I allowed myself to play with my writing a bit more because I wanted my memoir to be interesting and not boring.

Critical ReflectionsIn school before college, I was rarely asked to reflect on my writing in English or writing

classes. We were asked to do very few revisions and reflecting on our previous work was not focused on much. So, up until this class, I had not had much experience with reflecting on my work in order to make it better or improve my future writing.

One of the most helpful activities we have done in this class that has helped me to understand the concept and importance of critical reflections is the Literacy Memoir. Because this assignment included many separate parts and required several drafts, I was able to reflect on my writing every step of the way. I feel that this definitely improved my writing and helped me to understand the benefits that come with reflecting on your work.

Part 5:

Critical reading Critical reflection Composing processes

o Literacy Memoir draftso Brain dumpo Peer reviewso Extended Inquiry Research Mapo Voice and Vitality

Genre Mixing and Remixing Writing objectively Shitty First Drafts Literacy Sponsors Discourse Communities