Contrary to popular belief, writing is a social act and takes place as a community working together. Writing is a skill that is essential and through practice and determination can improve tremendously. Throughout the course of ENGL 21007, I have learned many things about myself, including the strengths and weaknesses that I possess in terms of my writing. The feedback mechanism that is woven into our class and discussions promote a healthy method of improving our writings. Even the usage of drafts create this environment to take critique and allow our final to be steps ahead of our initial draft.

Regarding the course learning outcomes, the more assignments we completed, the more we became able to check off that list. Initially, it was difficult to truly articulate a stance and address audience expectations. However, through prewriting and discussions it becomes easier to articulate the genre, medium, and rhetoric to the audience. In the technical descriptions that we have accomplished, as writers we must account for the jargon we use. For example, there may be a specified part that may be general knowledge for some and completely unknown to others. The usage of discussion boards and breakout rooms significantly increased the collaborative and social processes that writing is encouraged to have. Writing can be boring and monotonous without a particular stimulation or feedback. The best writers read to learn from other writers. Henceforth, the usage of peer reviews allows us to understand the perspective of different writers.

Another course learning outcome would be strengthening your sources. There are numerous ways to do so such as evaluating, integrating, quoting, and even paraphrasing quotes. These methods were utilized to their fullest extent in the rhetorical analysis assignment as we were required to analyze a professional document. However, there were some difficulties when first starting. For example, it took practice to truly be able to use the library resources, online databases, to search for an appropriate peer reviewed article.  It was also difficult to analyze the professional document as they had a lot of jargon. Although, through drafting, the feedback generated, allowed us to revise our mistakes and evaluate the document more critically where we may have been unclear.

The rhetorical analysis may have been my least favorite assignment, however, I still enjoyed it since the journal I chose was rather interesting. If I had more time to do this assignment I would have most likely worked on my analysis as after reviewing that section was lacking the most. Comparatively, my favorite assignment piece would be the preliminary literature review in the collaborative project. I enjoyed it as I understood a lot of the jargon that the documents posed and as I wrote I felt as if I was truly furthering the discussion of masks. I also think that my flow of words is the best in that section of the assignment. Regardless, overall, I think the structure of all my assignments does exist and is particularly easy to follow. Although, moving forward I think revising the rubrics and seeing what the analysis section of each assignment entails will be where I can improve. I like writing because it is an extension of who you are and your thought processes, as people read my work, I want them to think “Wow, that was phrased pretty well, I understand that completely”. I want my work to show who I am and how I interpret certain scenarios and subjects with enough of each audiences own interpretation.

The writing in this course has affected me beyond this course. I think the emphasis on drafting and structure has allowed me to develop skills that I subconsciously use in other classes. Compared to writing in my past, I usually write the introduction and wing it. However, when it comes to a heavy assignment that has a certain quota and headings that need to be discussed, creating a flow of ideas is essential. The flow of ideas does not necessarily have to be intricate, rather just a couple of lines entailing the direction of your paper. Specifically, this method helped tremendously when it came to the collaborative project, when it came to introducing the topic and building a foundation for our innovation to be discussed. I know a lot more about citation and in text citations and even plagiarism more than I ever knew before. The quiz assignments and having to watch those YouTube videos allowed me to understand the extent and how to properly cite correctly. After using APA citation for most, if not all, of our assignments I know how to cite and do in text citations correctly.

A good example of using in text citations and proper formatting is in my Technical Description assignment. ENGL 21007 is the first class that I have had to properly format an entire paper with a table of contents, reference, or even appendix (when necessary). In text citations and paraphrasing is essential when strengthening an argument that has a proficient source. For example, I was discussing how the newest iPhone is the “’biggest, heaviest, and most expensive’ version of the iPhones, for good reason (Gibbs, 2020, para. 1)’” which helped strengthen my argument that the iPhone 12 Pro Max is the best iPhone currently out on the market. I also used paraphrasing which makes sentences less congested with quotes, for example when I was speaking about material, “the iPhone includes a glass and metal that overall, create a very sleek phone on hand (Panzarino, 2020)”. At first glance, citations do not look very major, however, it is very important for legal reasons and emphasizing the claims that you make in your papers. Another method I use is citing all my references in that preliminary thought process I do first, just so in text citations are easier. It saves a massive amount of time rather having to scramble and try and cite everything when I am finished.

Overall, I believe I performed quite well in this class, however, there are some sections where I believe I could have done a lot better. I spent a lot of time collaborating with others and receiving feedback to consider in my writing. Which, as a result, especially in group assignments, allowed each peer’s writing to be improved. While I did not conference with Professor Delamare, I believe that the feedback that I received on my draft assignments were very helpful. I appreciate the time and effort that our Professor has given each student’s assignment, it makes the writing process more social and add a more humane aspect. Writing will forever be a social act, and as a community we can grow to be greater writers than before.