Ceely Millar

English 2010

Reflection

For me, English 2010 has brought a lot of challenges, but also a lot of growth throughout

the semester. I have learned a lot and have had to implement my new and expanded knowledge

into more challenging writing pieces. During this class we were expected to produce three

polished essays, all in different genres, while implementing research based knowledge, rhetorical

skills and our own creative touches. Finishing out the semester, we had to produce a final

revision of one of our prior essays to demonstrate our growth and new knowledge gained over

the course of the semester.

The first writing piece I was assigned was an open letter on a controversial topic in

society where I would address a realistic audience and express my own opinions on the subject

chosen. This was where the first challenge appeared. In my past English classes, in high school

and college, I was always given a list of topics or a very detailed explanation of what was

expected, however, this was not the case this semester. I was given a very brief description of the

possible topics and then left to my own creativity to refine and select my final choice. I

struggled, to say the least, with finding a topic I felt I could gather enough information on and

write proficiently about; but I eventually settled on the topic of vaccinations and began writing

my first assignment.

The second and third pieces I was assigned this semester were research based informative

and persuasive essays that also pushed me out of my writing comfort zone. I was given the
choice to stay with my previous topic or to select another to continue with. Again, I was given

only a brief description and left to my own resources to develop my topic materials. For the

informative piece I chose to continue on with the topic of vaccinations, but for my persuasive

essay I changed my topic to cursive writing. During the writing process for both of these

assignments I ran into similar challenges and struggles regarding research, content and rhetorical

choices. I had to take what I learned during the lectures and use that information to gather

credible sources that had enough information to allow me to comfortably write about and expand

on the topic in each essay while employing appropriate rhetorical choices for my audiences. This

required me to rely on and leverage what I had learned in class to determine the proper direction

to take each essay. If the essays didnt employ the correct rhetorical choices or contain enough

information they would not have met the needs of informing or persuading my intended

audiences. With the two different essay types and topics I ended up going back and forth on each

regarding the direction that I wanted to take the assignments. This taught me to look at all of the

different aspects of an assignment and an essays to create a polished piece that met more than

just the assignment description.

After everything I learned and implemented into my writing over the semester I have

decided to focus my final project on my first essay, the open letter about vaccinations. By

revising this assignment I hope through my revisions to physically see the progress I have made

during the class. I have taken the expanded knowledge of rhetoric and the concept of thinking

about my audience, as well as outside opinions from my professor and from other sources to

revise this letter. It is now something quite different from what it was three and a half months

ago.
 The sixteen weeks I have spent in English 2010 have tested my writing skills. Before this

semester writing had been a relatively simple pursuit because not much was left to my creativity

and discernment in terms of what my essays were and how I would make them successful written

pieces. This class taught me to expand my thinking process prior to writing and challenged me to

become a better writer through my own trials and errors and taught me to look outside the box of

just what was assigned to write.