Throughout this semester, I managed to achieve the course learning objectives that all contributed to my progress in this class and writing in general. An outcome(s) I achieved is recognizing the importance of MLA/APA citations and properly citing these sources while presenting them in my writings. I also discovered the various methods of researching sources by utilizing the library databases that are provided. Furthermore, I was able to understand and comprehend the different aspects of structural writing which enhanced the clarity of my works. While these are some miscellaneous outcomes I believed to achieve, there were many more that were presented in a subtle manner that never struck.

     The first objective “Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing” is about the strategies that are used to make the processes of these aspects easier for yourself to go through. Understanding the texts by annotating parts difficult to analyze or paraphrasing them into your own words to use as evidence can help create a promising draft from the information gathered, allowing you to create and finalize a revised version that is the most coherent. The way we did this as a class was through peer revisions and reverse outlining. Out of the two, I found reverse outlining to be the most useful because distilling the information in our long paragraphs into a few sentences helped organize my thoughts and showed what could be done to improve said paragraph. Peer revisions were also beneficial as I let other people give feedback on my drafts and have them point out my glows and grows.

     The second objective, “Explore and Analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations,” is about analyzing rhetorical situations in reading, writing, and media, in which we gain multiple perspectives and interpretations from various sources to grasp a better understanding of the source. From this, I’m able to see how these authors use various strategies to enhance their statements which leave an intended impact on their audiences that are either for or against their opinions. We did this as a class by reading the debate articles and answering their respective discussion posts. From one of the discussion posts which was about “race-switching in the media,” I sided with the idea that they should simply coexist in a way that doesn’t alter the source and can instead, be considered as another original piece of work that connects to the main source.

     The third objective, “Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations,” highlights the concepts of structural writing to help you become a much more efficient and effective writer. I achieved this by recognizing the terms that contribute to this framework which include purpose (what our work is about and why we are writing about it), tone (how our message is delivered or conveyed to reach a wider audience), diction (the choice of words and phrases to enhance and strengthen the points we made), etc. We did this as a class by learning and recognizing the usage of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, which all correlate to the type of audience we’re reaching or appealing to and what type of text or media we’re analyzing. In my Research Critical Analysis essay, I claimed that “Little Red Riding Hood” delved into hidden themes of malicious intent and child endangerment, which were all connected with the “wolf” who also holds many negative characteristics originating from a historical context that fully establishes his role as an antagonist. By using ethos to secure credibility for my claims with sources and logos to make sense of how it’s all connected, I was able to deliver my message to an audience that was oblivious to the hidden themes that were presented in “Little Red Riding Hood”.

     The fourth objective, “Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences,” is about the understanding and utilization of a variety of print and digital media to reach our audiences. In other words, we’ve used images that are related to the topic we’re discussing and the sources used, to enhance the visual aspect of our writings further. We did this as a class by creating our digital portfolios and using multi-modal elements to enhance our writing. With the digital portfolios, we had to create a webpage that showcases our multiple works which gives off the impression of a resume. In all of my essays, I had to use multi-modal elements to give the reader a visual source of my ideas and to make my writing less boring to go through.

     The final objective, “Compose texts that integrate a stance with appropriate sources, using strategies such as summary, analysis, synthesis, and argumentation,” discusses how you can distinguish your ideas from other ideas in different sources to add to your greater claims or create new insights that all connect to the sources you’re utilizing. Thus, I’m able to enhance my writing by integrating multiple sources and their thoughts on the topics discussed, ensuring that each one contributes to my whole idea. We did this as a class through the argumentative essay and synthesis matrix. The argumentative essay was centered around creating an original argumentative statement and using multiple sources to back up the claims I formed. For the synthesis matrix, I was able to sort my ideas and find the evidence from each of the sources I was using to back up each respective idea.

     Overall, after achieving all of the course learning objectives, I can meaningfully say that my work will follow the guidelines of structural writing more effectively by considering all of these aspects that contribute to the process and outcome of enhancing my writing. Furthermore, I can establish proper citations for the sources I’m referencing.