Zoey Hildebrandt

Professor Melissa Ringfield

ENC 1101

6 December 2021 

Critical Reflection Essay 

During the development of the human mind, we're constantly learning new things from

the moment we are born to the moment we die. There is always more to learn, and there is

always a new teacher to inform us. The best thing about learning is that you never know who

you’ll be after the lesson is over. You never know how much the information will change your

perspective on the world or if it will at all. Coming into ENC 1101, I didn’t believe this. Coming

from an elite prep school with a demanding curriculum, I thought this class would be a breeze. I

believed that the course would cover things I had previously learned in my reading and writing,

but I was proven wrong. This class showed me a different side to writing. It’s taught me new

terminology to help improve my writing skills. It has aided me with my analytical skills and

helped me to understand literacy better. To demonstrate what I have learned during this class, I

made a portfolio to showcase the different assessments I wrote and what I found difficult. 

            For our first major assessment, the goal was to choose a topic and use specific patterns to

create a rhetorical argument in order to speak to or persuade our target audience. My chosen

topic was something that I am very passionate about; animals. More specifically, my objective

was to inform a target audience about the benefits of adopting animals instead of buying them

from breeders or big stores. I mainly focused on dogs, having owned only dogs my whole life.

The project challenged my ability to see the argument from a different perspective and write

facts without bringing too much bias into it. I did not do an outstanding job with that as I did not
write about the possible benefits of breeders and big stores and solely focused on adopting.

Another challenge for me was choosing a genre that my audience would easily access and read

or listen to willingly. I opted for a blog. With organized article entries and various pictures of

animals to incentivize reading, the blog is easily accessible, and people of all ages can read it.

The feedback that I would give myself would be to dedicate a passage to the other side of my

argument. I focused too much on my side of the argument without providing words or an

unbiased view of the other side. My major assessment two is a good example of how I used this

observation in further discussions. 

            In my second major assessment, our assignment was to find a recent article and Toulmin

analyze it. I picked an article from ASPCA that wrote about banning puppy mills, a topic that I

am vehemently passionate about. ASPCA wrote it to inform its readers about their support of the

New York Bill that was being passed. They listed plenty of evidence that supported their

decision and taught readers about the terrors of puppy mills. While writing this major

assessment, I found it challenging to apply the Toulmin reading to my writing. I barely used

Toulmin terminology like warrant, evidence, and reason, which is the main reason why I was

asked to rewrite my major assessment. It caused me to look at my second major assessment

again, helping me to understand the Toulmin analysis better. Some feedback I would give on my

second major assessment is a recommendation on being able to provide both sides of the

argument while understanding Toulmin's analysis while writing. I only had a vague idea of how I

was supposed to be writing my assessment when I should have asked questions to help me

understand it more. Regarding my writing for both sides, it was an improvement from my first

major assessment. Instead of only writing my argument explicitly for one side, I added a

paragraph for the other side of the argument. It was difficult, but I was able to find points for the
other side. While the first two assessments were focused on creating arguments that appeal to a

particular audience, the third major assessment was an entirely different method of writing. 

            For my third major assessment, the objective was to tell a story from our past that must

deal with literacy and analyze how discourse and literacy impacted identity. For this major

assessment, I chose to write about the time in 5th grade when my mom helped me learn writing

literacy in terms of creative writing. I spoke about how her teaching me about creative writing

became a big part of my identity and how it helped me with many issues. I used the readings of

Gee and Mirabelli in order to explain discourse, literacy, and how I could best connect them to

my story. I took observations made from my first two assessments about not understanding the

reading guides better and decidedly asked thought-provoking questions to prepare me for the

next assignment better. While writing my third assessment, I used more references from the

reading guides, Gee and Mirabelli, whereas I barely used any from Toulmin in my second major

assessment. These three different major assessments challenged me to think differently and apply

the knowledge that was new to me. 

            Overall, this class has aided me in becoming a better writer by teaching me new ways to

analyze and write. It helped me to see things from a different perspective and taught me to write

in unbiased ways. I learned new terminologies such as literacy, discourse, evidence, warrant, and

reason. These tools educated me in new ways and provided valuable insight so that I was able to

analyze and write better.