Stephen Collins

UWRT 1103
1.)
Ive practiced some of the concepts that weve covered that relate to
composing before. Drafting, collaborating, editing, and rewriting are some of the
main ones that Ive practiced before. In many of my previous classes, Ive had to
analyze a source and then put the information that I gathered from my analysis into
an essay. I would then have to collaborate with others by editing their papers and
have them edit mine. Ive always been pretty good at this so there wasnt much
room for improvement, I dont think.
I do believe that having good compositional skills are helpful in nearly every
field. In the field of Chemistry that I am pursuing, it is especially important. One of
the major aspects of my field will be writing research articles in the future. I will
certainly need to use many of the forms of the composing process that weve
discussed in class. Collaborating would probably be the main one because most of
the papers will firstly be written with the help of a group. These papers would also
go to others who would peer review them. More fields than just mine would need it
however. Fields such as medicine, construction, and government work would also
greatly benefit.

2.)
Critical reading is a skill that Ive only improved a little bit in this class. Ive
always been relatively good at critical reading, but I have refined it in this class.
Reading for the literacy memoir was probably the main this that assisted me in this
subject. The Brothers Karamazov was one of the books that I read for the memoir
and it shaped my ability to analyze, interpret, and evaluate ideas a lot. The book
taught me a good bit about certain aspects of the world that I might have otherwise
not noticed.
Evaluating sources is an area that I also have only improved a little bit. The
research map would be a main thing that has caused me to improve in this area. I
have to find a source, read what it says, and then evaluate it for bias and accuracy.
If I do not properly evaluate my sources for these things then my paper would
probably end up pretty badly. The fact that these sources are for different audience
also helped my critical reading ability because I was able to see how having a
different intended audience affected a writers tone.

3.)

Ive learned a lot from the course, and I would say that everything that I
learned could be divided into the learning outcomes. For rhetorical knowledge
the main thing that I leaned was how to become flexible in my ability to shift
voice, tone, and formality intentionally. The paper that helped me most with
this would be the literacy memoir. The reason that it helped me so much was
because I learned that these concepts were not apparent in my paper.
Knowing that they were not there enabled me to see how to add them in the
future.
Critical reading is another aspect where Ive learned a lot in the class. The
class has helped me learn how to better evaluate sources for accuracy, credibility,
and bias. The research map that we are currently doing has helped me the most
with this. In each of the sources that I have used, I try to evaluate them to the best
of my ability for the aforementioned subjects. If there is an extreme amount of bias
in a source then I would try my best not to use it. This will be especially important
later on in my life because I will need to evaluate scientific scholarly articles for
their accuracy.
The literacy memoir has also helped me with my composing process and my
critical reflection. We had to collaborate in the form of peer responses and edits
many times during the course of the memoir. I also had to reflect a lot on my life
during the memoir, and using writing as a means for reflection really helped me
with that.
Knowledge of conventions would probably be the thing that I have learned
the least about in the class. I suppose the main thing related to this area that Ive
learned would be more about how to properly cite my sources. It also helped me a
bit with my knowledge of linguistic structures such as grammar.

4.)
Critical reflection Literacy memoir
Critical reading Literacy memoir and the various texts that weve read in
class
Rhetorical knowledge Literacy memoir
Composing process Literacy memoir
Knowledge of conventions Research map