Kelsey Dawkins

Professor Slayers
Composition 2
1, December 2015

Final Reflection
This semester in Composition 2 has been very rewarding for me. The assignments you have
assigned us has allowed me to learn and write a paper properly through your teachings. You have
taught me so much especially through the daybooks you have us write every day when we came
to class. The daybooks really made me think for myself and helped me view writing in more
depth.
The first major assignment that I had to do in composition 2 was to write our first
argumentative paper. The first steps in this process was to decide what I wanted to make an
argument on. I had several things in mind that I really was against such as abortion and same sex
marriage but, I wanted to do it on something other than what everyone usually made an argument
about. The argument I decided on was animal cruelty. I felt as if this was a good choice because I
could elaborate and talk about a lot of ideas and conflicts. Before I could write this
argumentative paper I had to learn how to write one. In class we learned about kinds of
arguments. There are four kinds of arguments I learned about. The first one is arguments of facts
such as where did the facts come from and are they reliable. Arguments of definition is one thing
defined as another. Arguments of evaluation is presenting criteria or standards for evaluation.
The last one is arguments of proposal presenting an issue or problem. This is really important
information I considered when I was working on my argumentative paper because without these
you dont have a successful paper. The next learning outcome that was important to my paper is
rhetoric it is the art of argumentation. It is designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect on

Kelsey Dawkins
Professor Slayers
Composition 2
1, December 2015

the audience. Past and forensic describes what happen. Present and epideictic describes who or
what deserves praise or blame. Future and deliberative describes what should be done in the
future. In an argumentative essay you have to pick one of these points that you will reach and
have talked about by the end of the paper. I picked future/deliberative because I wanted to get the
point across that something needs to be done in the future to stop animal cruelty. More laws need
to be made and stricter enforcing so that people will stop this awful crime.
The main ingredients in an argumentative paper is the thesis, context, reasons and
counter-arguments. A thesis is the cake of the paper it either draws the reader in to wanting to
learn more or pushes them away to not wanting to read the rest. A thesis should be highly
debatable and arguable. Context provides the reader with background issues that my paper is
dealing with. Context will vary depending on my audience. Reasons can also be conclusions. I
have to remember to state my reason for what? To have a good argumentative paper you have to
have strong objectives. Looking at the other side of things really opened my eyes to whether I
had effective reasons. My second argumentative paper I wrote about same-sex marriage and I
had a better understanding on different ways to go about how to write it.
My critical thinking has defiantly changed over the semester. This was my first argumentative
paper and I made a 75 on it and then the second argumentative paper I made a 100 on it because I
looked at all the things I just talked about and really got a good understanding of how to write it
effectively.