Reflection

This semester of English Writing and Rhetoric has improved my ability to be a credible

writer, my writing skills, and what effect my writing can have on me and others. While I had

some knowledge from high school and middle school, this is nothing compared to the drastic

improvement college gave me and, more specifically, this class. The catalyst for this

improvement started with the group projects, the book Naming What We Know: Threshold

Concepts for Writing Studies and the text's concepts. However, for the reflection, I want to

discuss the two projects that had the most significant effect on me: the Synthesis project and the

Literary Review.

The Synthesis Project is the first major assignment that has begun to improve my writing.

The purpose of the synthesis was to pick a concept from the book Naming What We Know:

Threshold Concepts for Writing Studies and write a synthesis from it utilizing 5 of the peer-

reviewed articles within it to make an argument from it with in-text citations. This assignment

was the first time I'd had to write a synthesis, so it was an interesting learning process. It helped

my ability to use peer-reviewed data to support my writing. The concept that I used, Concept 3:

Writing Enacts and Creates Identities and Ideologies, brought to light the effect my writing can

have on people and vice versa, which was a first for me as I have never had a teacher or

professor tell me this.

The second major assignment I will be reflecting on is the Literary Review. The literary

review was a group assignment in which we had to pick a topic to write about. Our group chose

The Effect of Communication on Physical, Mental, and Day-to-Day Wellness. After choosing our

topic, we found twelve sources and wrote a paper using each source to support our text. The

most challenging part of this assignment was communication between our group members.

Whenever we would have group meetings, only two other people would show up, and while the
other members would do their work, it took a lot of explaining to clarify what was needed.

Although we would end up getting the job done, it seemed like more of a hassle than required,

but this allowed me to experience group work and how to deal with it effectively.

Overall, this English Writing and Rhetoric 1 course has improved my writing skills and

ability to work in groups and handle group work. These are essential skills in the workforce, and

many of the skills I used in this class will be used anytime I need to write a report.