Metacognitive Reflection

I have always enjoyed writing and taken a passion on doing the

best that I can. I came into class thinking that punctuation meant a lot
when it came to perfecting your paper and I would always nit pick at
the details on the first draft. This lead to me over looking the bigger
picture of flows and structure. I learned that you need to let things
simmer from you. This has helped my writing style improve a lot. I
also have always been one to free write, and knock my papers out with
maybe one rough draft and thinking that I was finished. Now I can take
pride in knowing that it takes A LOT of drafts, and its preferable
because you can take your time to perfect it.
Another great skill that I have learned is how to put yourself on a
writing schedule. I will use this skill with not just writing but everything
in my future. You need to plan accordingly and set delaines for
yourself. This makes procrastination a major issuewhich I have had
problems with in the pastbut now I can see that that does nothing for
me but add to the stress.
Another thing that I felt was very valuable was the course text
about Kairos; I even wrote in my journal Kairos! Very cool!. I have a
good sense of when and what is appropriate timing form working in the
restaurant business being a hostess for 4 years. This has helped me
become a manager, and further my professionalism in every aspect of
my life. I have always wondered if there was a word for this type of

thing, or if it was a personality trait, or if it could even be leaned. Now I

think its really cool to be able to look knowledgeable and say that a
person has or doesnt have good Kairos.
Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are also something that was a very
valuable learning tool. Everything from commercials down to a cereal
box speaks to one of these terms. In my notes from examining the
beer bottles I looked at something I see a lot and got to see it in a
different way. I wrote about 805 beer They have a trendy black can
that also is mysterious, also the can is something that I havent seen
before, it has what looks to be a sea scape. This can exuded pathos to
me, and made me look at all beer cans! The media is made up of
decisions that are trying to influence and make a point to their
audience. Their points are proven by what type of rhetoric they use.
Now when I am writing I will be able to know my audience and contour
my piece of writing towards them. Before this class I had no idea what
rhetoric was, I was even reading it wrong for the first text we read, I
was thinking it meant something like an obvious answer to a question.
Now I know that it is a tool used to persuade the audience in the terms
of language.
This class has made me become a better student because of the
in-depth way in which you taught. I dont learn well when someone is
speaking at me or just tells me to read the textbook. I like how the
texts that were chosen Understanding Rhetoricwere comic like and

that made me remember a lot better. Therefor I learned that I am a

visual learner, and this style of teaching works well for my learning
style. This along with the journals was very helpful. I thought that this
was a very effective way to get our brains thinking and to see that
others might feel the same as you do. Without the journal process we
wouldnt have been able to connect with one another as much in class.
I also am a very shy person but felt comfortable speaking up in class
because of the casual vibe through the classroom.
At first wasnt too sure about the Interview Essay and the
process we had to go through to get the final product. Going back
through my interview questions I had made a lot of mistakes that were
corrected. I wrote in my Journal from 2/11/15 I need to use rhetoric
when analyzing my writing artifacts for my interview. Then I went
back into my questions and revised them. For example one question
was Why did you choose to make the home page with a lot of
different information along with all of the tabs to click on? You had
then commented that unless the person that I was interviewing
created the website they probably wouldnt know the answer to my
question. This was helpful to restructure my questions to a broader
scheme that was more likely that he would be able to answer.
When I sat down and interviewed my recourse it hit me. This
wasnt just a paper we had to write, but a process that we will take
with us after the class. We were forced to get out of our comfort zone

and not be afraid to fail. I learned that talking to people isnt that bad
and they actually do want to help you! Overall I enjoyed learning new
writing skills as well as refresher of things I already knew.