Revised What I Learned

Ryan Jacoby
Dr. Brandon
English 111
10/20/10

What I Have Learned So Far

This year in English 111 I believe I have put in enough effort and completed my assignments to achieve an A for the semester. Some of the things I have done is I have been to every class, I do the weekly assignments, I finished the paper due for you and Dr. DeMayo, and I have learned a lot through the course of this class. Some of the main points I will hit will be the general course goals: rhetorical knowledge, process, critical thinking, reading and writing, oral communication skills, and digital technologies.
Before I started the class I had no idea what a rhetorician even was. Now I know a lot about what rhetoric is and what rhetoricians do. Rhetoric is the study of how to accomplish your ends by using communication. Rhetoricians use the pathos, ethos, and logos triangle to accomplish their ends. For instance ethos is the development of your character or reputations, logos is your ideals and logic, and pathos is your emotions. Rhetoricians have agendas, goals, and purposes and use that to bring a message to their audience. They have to know that their audience expects from them so they can know how to craft their message. A lot of times the author will use a genre for a certain audience. When using a genre you must be honest, give your own opinion, try to anticipate “the other”, and give good solid information. Your opinion is the basic structure of your argument.
This year I have also learned a lot about the writing process. That has been one of our main focuses this year. I have learned some tricks before I start writing that I never even thought about before this year. For instance I think about my audience, what my purpose and agenda is what genre I will be writing in, also format, tone, formality, and content. Some tricks and techniques I have learned are brainstorming, what I already know, research, listening, questioning, and talking with someone else. Some of my works that prove that I have learned how to use these tricks would be the brainstorming I have done on my blog, or the free writing that I did in class. I used some of these skills to start the last paper and now this paper. I also learned the different steps of the writing process: pre-writing, drafting, revising, proof reading, publishing, and review. I never really thought about using these steps before this year. I would always wing my papers and just turn them in without any revision or pre-writing before hand. This year I have used different forms of prewriting like the group brainstorming sessions. I also used the free writing once in class. I have written a draft for both of the papers that I have written. I exchanged my papers with a classmates last weekend in Dr. Demayo’s class to proof read and we exchanged opinions on how to improve each others papers. Then I made the changes and published it and turned it in to class the other day. I have learned how to write formally and informally. For instance the first blog entry I did was twenty-five simple sentences. Also the learning reflections I do are informal as well. I wrote my last paper formally because it was a paper due for class and that how a professor expects the paper to be turned in. Also I am writing this paper formally as well.
My next area to prove I have learned a lot of new things is the critical thinking, reading, and writing area. For my first paper I wrote I learned a lot about two different civilizations and what it meant to live the good life. So I used to research and my writing to learn a few things new in history while writing a paper for English. I have also learned how to use quotations. If take another’s idea from a website, book, blog, or anything that’s not my writing I must use quotations to give credit and to show it wasn’t my idea. In the paper I just wrote I used a primary source to look up facts about my topic and would quote the facts to support my reasoning. This class year I have also learned how to produce journal entries, blogs, letters, and memos. Most of my journal entries I enter into my blog. For instance we do a weekly learning reflection that is like a journal entry for me. This year we have also used or primary source book to read from and then in class we will usually discuss it. We will usually read it before class then we will come to class and look at the questions at the board and give our thoughts on what we interpreted from the text.
I have also improved on my oral communication skills this year as well. I have improved because of our groups. I am usually a shy person but I feel like the groups is a good way to express your ideas to people without having to say it by yourself in front of the whole class. The groups have loosened me up a little and its easier for me to participate with others. For instance when we do the group brainstorming I can give fellow classmates some of my opinions while getting to write down some of theirs as well. it’s a real win-win situation for everyone. Also when we do the exercises out of the primary book and we discuss our interpretations in the group then tell the teacher what we think our section meant. I have also learned that if you look at the teacher and look interested then that makes it look like that your listening and paying attention more then someone who has their head down, or is scribbling on their notebook paper.
The last thing I will talk about is the digital technologies aspect. I had never used a blog before this year. I actually had never really taken place in a website where you can write things our express what you want to on them. I use the blog a lot because I have too, but also I enjoy reading others blogs to see what they write about. I sometimes look at my classmates blog to get ideas, to see how they write, and sometimes just because I want to see how well my classmates can write. Its fun to compare your paper with another classmates. This year I have also learned how quote sites on the internet to enter into my paper. For example I used a quote from an internet site on my last paper. Also I used the internet to look up all the areas on the map for my map quiz in history.
I believe I deserve an A because I have learned quite a lot this year, and I have been doing my work. You can see that I have been doing my work by looking at my blog. Also you can see that I have learned a lot by reading this paper and by the time I turn my portfolio in. I have learned a lot up to this point right now, and I am excited to see how much more I will learn by the end of the class!