Dear Professor Carr,

This has been a great semester that included a lot of learning and hard work! I can truly say that i learned a lot which Im truly grateful for.

To what extent have I achieved the course learning objectives?

So at this point in the class I definitely feel that I’ve achieved or at least understand all of the CLO because through all the major assignments and other class assignments I’ve done them and truly understand them. To name some of the ones I feel like I’ve mastered or really did well in, I’ll start with the CLO, “develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.” I give this one as an example because we really had to work in groups the entire class so there was always constant communication between groupmates and the class in general in our class discord. Just little things such as setting up times to discuss the work really showed how we use the social aspect of writing to enhance our work. Another CLO I feel I achieved is, “practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects.” This one I feel like I definitely achieved because in the lab report and group proposals we had to find sources to help back up our claims and theories to enhance our and the readers’ understanding of our work. I final CLO i will see i achieved is, “strengthen your source use practices (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources)” I feel like i achieved this CLO because i had to really strengthen my source practices because there were certain assignments that the source usage was key so i had to make sure my source usage was on point. Also to make sure that I didn’t plagiarize.

In what ways have my perception on what writing is and has evolved this semester?

So before this class i had no idea what exigence was because i had never heard the term before but now i understand what it means which is Issue or situation that leads to demands for rhetoric speech or writing. I say this specifically to say that I believe exigence is one of the most important reasons for writing in my opinion. And since I didn’t know what it meant in the beginning of class it has enabled me to really know what my writing should be about. It also means ​​”Why is one compelled to speak out (write)?” Which to me is important now when I write.

How does the audience impact the content and purpose of text? 

The audience impacts the content and purpose of a text because depending on who’s reading it you might change vocabulary and the exigence of the text. To give an example back to one of my assignments we had to create instructions and my group decided to do it on how to make peanut butter and jelly. We decided to make it short and simple with simple vocabulary words because a young kid might want to know how to make one and can see these instructions. We made sure to make it friendly for anyone. 

what happens to the other rhetorical elements when you change one of the elements within the situation? For example, when you change media, do the other elements change?

Through this class I’ve learned that when you change one of the elements within the situation it does change. For example when you change the media of instructions it changes completely. An example of this is when you change something from print to powerpoint the amount of information might change since the amount of information you can have changes.  

– was there a challenge in writing across genres and addressing specific audiences?

Writing across genres and addressing specific audiences was not difficult because I had a lot of practice writing about the intended audience I was searching for. Switching genres was difficult for me because, while I can address a specific audience, I had to make sure that my goal for writing to that audience made sense for the genre I was writing in. To achieve my goal in whatever genre I was writing, I had to either write unbiased, persuade, write to inform, or write just what I wanted out of my readers.

 -*this is the semester of “re entry to ‘traditional education.’” We have spent the last 2 years, give or take, conducting learning and teaching online. Some of us may have hated it, while others were able to thrive in these “abnormal” conditions. NOW, we have returned to the traditional teaching/learning in our “appropriate” environment of the classroom. discuss how the shift back to the classroom has affected your educational experience? conducting group work? student life? which do you prefer? discuss your transition and experience.  (some students found a practicality and usefulness in the online learning approach, while others struggled and suffered tremendously because they were unable to focus being outside of the classroom)

The shift didnt affect me at all because ive been successful both online and in person. Also online I feel like I don’t pay attention as much and dont take notes at all. Meanwhile in person I felt obligated to take notes and always pay attention. Student life wise i actually felt like a student because to me online learning you don’t get the student experience. I prefer online because to me its more comfortable and i don’t have to leave the comfort of my home. 

Thank you for the awesome semester Professor and enjoy your summer!

Best regards,

Sander