My Final Evaluation

Andrew Cody Yates

English 111

Professor Brandon

December 11, 2012

 

My English Evaluation

            This semester I have learned many things in class. I have learned many things, and I feel as if I have improved greatly as a student and communicator. I know I have improved as a result of this class, because the lessons I have learned reflect in my everyday life as well as my other classes. Although I feel as if I have improved as a student and writer, actually there is more room for improvement.  I have evidence though that I have improved because of this class.

Rhetorical knowledge is one of the things we have learned the most the semester. I believe we focused on rhetoric, because rhetoric plays a role in many things we do in life. As the semester has worn on I realized the use of rhetoric, and the purpose you had into drilling it into our minds. The key things you have taught me on this topic are the rhetorical triangle, the proper way to communicate orally and the different genres of writing. Rhetorical knowledge is possibly one of the most important lessons we had in class.               

            The rhetorical triangle is one of the first things we learned in class. It is one of the first things we learned, and it is also one of the most important. The rhetorical triangle is comprised of three parts: the author, the message and the audience.  These three sides of the triangle are important, and each has its own specific role. It is the job of the author to craft the message that he/she wants to deliver. It is the role of the message to inform and sway the about a specific topic. The purpose of the audience is to provide feedback to the author about his or hers piece.

The lessons you gave on oral communication oral communication and gestures have been one of the lessons that have stuck the most with me out of our rhetorical knowledge section.  Even since that day were we had the lesson about body language and the neutral stance I have noticed more what people do in a group conversation. It is funny to see the way people re-act to certain things with their body language or gestures they put out. It is even funnier when they do not even realize how they are re-acting. It also was extremely interesting to me on how you can tell how confident someone is or the mood they are in just by the way they are standing. This was one of my favorite lessons in class, and I am glad to have learned it.    

          Before the class I did not know about all the different genres of writing. I would write nearly everything the same way, but now I know many new ways to write. The different genres that I learned were the review, the note, the rhetorical analysis, the profile and the evaluation. I have by no means mastered these forms, because I am just scratching the surface of learning about them. It is fair to say though that you have given me the tools to have a good base understanding of them.                                                                                                                

The purpose of the review is to give your opinion on something like a movie or a restaurant. Ultimately it is the goal of the review to list the positives and negatives about something. Then it is up to the author to decide whether to recommend it or not. The goal of the profile is to chronicle the life and accomplishments of a specific person or group. The note is a way to write down information in an organized manner to look back on to study. An author would use the rhetorical analysis to break down a piece of work, and see what the author is trying to sway you on. Finally the purpose of the evaluation is to critique yourself or someone else on their performance.

The writing process was another big lesson we learned in class. You drilled the different steps into my mind, and it is safe to say they stuck. Each part of the process is important; also they do specific things to make writing easier. The steps of the writing process are: pre-writing, drafting, revision, and proof-reading, publish and review. These are the keys of the writing process.

Each step builds off of each other. Pre-writing is important, because it helps you find out what you can say in your page. This is the step that I have improved on the most. Before this class I would never do any pre-writing. I would just go at it, and just free write what I ended up with was what I was turning in. I have examples of my steps toward pre-writing. As you will see in my pre-writing that I posted on my blog from my history report this semester (codyyatesblogsohard.blogspot.com).

The drafting stage is where you actually “put the pen to paper”. In this phase you write multiple versions of your paper to find that perfect way to deliver your message. I until now was never one to do rough drafts, but I see now how much it actually helps. I find now that when I go type my rough drafts they end up different when they become the final copy, but the rough draft helps me write a lot better.

Revision is the phase where as you put it Professor Brandon, “you add, cut and reorganize.” This step is still hard for me, because I prefer to do my revision while I type my final copy. I know this is not the way you taught it to me. I find though I still need to improve here though.                 

I also find that I proof read as I go. I know this is not the formal way of doing this step, but again I find that this works for me. The purpose of proof reading is to correct all the grammatical, spelling and punctual errors. Also the purpose is to make sure that your paper makes sense.  

The publishing stage is perhaps the easiest and hardest step in the process. It is easy, because all you have to do is deliver your message to your audience (which in this case is your Professor Brandon). The hard part of this step is actually letting go of your paper, knowing that your work is under scrutiny by the audience. In a way this step is a doubled edged sword. This is the step though that every author works and strives for.

The review stage is the final step. This is where the author recollects on his work, and the feedback of the audience. In my case this is where I will receive my grade, and ultimately see if I will pass.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Critical thinking, reading and writing is a somewhat vague thing for me. I know we went over it when we were writing our rhetorical analysis. Other than using it for our rhetorical analysis though I cannot think of any other lessons on critical thinking, reading and writing that we learned in class. I know we used the critical thinking lesson to decide if we believed our author, and to see how his ethos reflects into his piece of work.

The lesson we recently had in oral communication was fun. I enjoyed the lesson, and I also found it informative. I always felt as if I was a decent communicator, but I found the lesson extremely helpful. I never really paid attention to the way to the way a conversing acted. Like the stance people in the group are making shows someone’s confidence, or there lack of confidence.

Also I never really knew all the little details to conversations in a professional setting. Like making sure you come with “ammunition”, or topics to talk about. Also I was oblivious to the fact that is someone enters a group conversation the last person talking does now fill in the new person. I never knew that conversations around the water jug were successful, because the availability of props while talking.

I feel as if I learned a good amount in digital technologies in this class. We went over how to create, and to keep up with a blog. I have never used a blog before. We also were in a learning community with ITE 115. The pairing of the two classes opened up a lot of doors of technology for our class.

Keeping up with the blog was my favorite part of our class. It made me feel more connected with our class and lessons. As you will see with my post about the Yankees I dedicated that for Alyssa (codyyatesblogsohard.blogspot.com). The blog was overall my favorite part of class.

Our learning community with ITE 115 also really played a huge part in my learning. Those connections we had with our papers on our inventors truly helped me. You showing us the websites that had academic journals and Professor Maher showing us to properly cite sources was extremely helpful. The digital technology was in all my favorite section.

Overall this semester has showed me many things. Before this class I thought I was a pretty good writer. You have showed me though I still have much to learn. I have improved on my skill as a communicator, but I have much more to learn. I truly need to improve on my studying/reading skills. I rarely read our text book this semester. I am sure this will reflect in my grade, but I willing to bolster my ethos than try to tell you otherwise. I plan on setting aside more time next semester to study and read. I may start with ten or fifteen minute blocks, then work my way up.

I would just like to say thank you though for this semester of learning. I am grateful for everything you have taught me this semester. I will carry the lessons you taught me for the rest of my life. Thanks for a great semester.