Semester Reflection

Jordan 1 Katie Jordan Matt Weinkam ENG 111 10 December 2009 Semester Reflection In high school, the paper assignments I had focused more on responses to reading assignments instead of focusing on improving my writing through different writing styles. English 111 helped me to improve my writing overall by concentrating on specific topics including an ethnography, a rhetorical analysis, and a research paper. Specifically, I developed a better understanding of how to analyze and write my thoughts in a clear, cohesive manner. My ability to analyze greatly improved from when I wrote my ethnography to when I wrote my rhetorical analysis, leaving my last assignment, the research paper, to demonstrate my best analysis. The ethnography assignment left many doors open for creativity, and with that allowed me to analyze areas of the Farmer School of Business (FSB) that I might have otherwise not addressed. For example, I said, “But then I ask myself, are these chairs actually necessary? Well not necessarily, but the point is that every detail in the building has a purpose to enhance the student’s learning environment far better than the old business building did, which in turn benefits the university as a whole.” In detail, I observed the chairs in the Farmer School of Business, and was able to analyze why they might be important to the school. The creativity we were allowed to use on this assignment definitely helped with my transition from high school to college as far as my writing goes. I was able to use the writing techniques I learned in high school in order to creatively analyze details of the FSB to make an argument. Without the creative edge







Jordan 2

requirement, my focus would have probably been on the building as a whole or other details less specific, although with my focus on every small detail of the building, I was able to notice details as minuscule as the wheel structure on chairs and relate that structure to the importance of the business school as a whole. My thought process here demonstrated my strong ability to analyze, however, this assignment only addressed analyzing details and features of a place, FSB. I still needed to learn more about analyzing other material, for example articles, in order to further improve my skill over all. The rhetorical analysis assignment crucially helped my analyzing skills because I had to carefully dissect two opposing articles about a Supreme Court case addressing animal cruelty. In particular, I analyzed each articles use of logos and how that strengthen or weakened their overall argument. For example, when addressing logos in one article I said, “This explains that the law has only been needed, and in fact used, when dogfighters make illegal, abusive videos at the expense of animals. This fact addresses the specific case of Robert Stevens. Stevens produces videos of dogfights, and in the opinion of the Humane Society, he is therefore enabling this cruel industry. This explains why animal activists are fighting to keep this law intact.” I identified the use of logos in the article and then analyzed how that use of logos benefits their argument. I further explained what the article was addressing, demonstrating my ability to read, understand, and analyze the importance of what the article is saying. My work with logos in this rhetorical analysis paper shows a better overall understanding of how to analyze because I do not solely think of meaning, like in my ethnography. Instead, I decipher the meaning of the article’s logic and then apply it to the argument they are







Jordan 3

trying to make. In other words, in my ethnography I was analyzing details to make my argument. In my rhetorical paper I was analyzing detail in someone else’s argument to make my own argument. This rhetorical analysis process involves more complex thinking, which illustrates how by ability to analyze improved even more after this second assignment in English 111. The last assignment over the course of this semester was the research assignment. This final assignment required me to look through many sources in order to form an argument about my research topic, how women dress. I definitely advanced in my ability to analyze, demonstrated when I said, “The Feminist Movement has made apparent “that women are so often represented as sexual spectacle, as ‘on display’ for men” (Walters 50), but why has that come to be? The main reason comes from the imbalance in power between men and women in our Western Society; after all, the main point of the feminist movement was to gain more power for women. This power imbalance leads to the connection between gender and looking.” I found information on how women are often represented as a sexual spectacle for men, and then from that was able to further analyze and explain how that has come to be. I had to think of how different sources of information can come together in a cohesive manner to make my over argument about how women dress effective. By far, this research process represented my best and fullest understanding of how to analyze. As I said before, in my ethnography I was analyzing details to make my argument, and in my rhetorical paper I was analyzing detail in someone else’s argument to make my own argument. In my research paper, I was analyzing detail and arguments from many different sources, where I then had to combine all my different thoughts and findings into one complex argument about a topic. This







Jordan 4

more intense analytic process involved far more steps and a far better understanding of how to analyze material to make my own argument. Overall in English 111, my understanding of analyzing details and information improved as we moved from assignment to assignment. As the year progressed, we covered more information as a class about writing, and I was able to relate that information I learned into ways I could improve my analytic ability. That focus contributed to my ability to write a clear, rational, and organized paper by the end of the semester. By focusing on improving my analytic skills, I was in turn able to produce better-argued papers, step-by-step, assignment-by-assignment. I look forward to applying the skills I learned in English 111 to my English class next semester (English 112) in order to continue improvement in my writing.