Flemming 1

Samuel Flemming
Dr. Guenzel
ENC 1101
30 November 2014
Self-Assessment
I have always viewed writing as one of my weak points but the more I write the more I
prove myself wrong. I had no idea the writing genre was so vast. I didnt occur to me that
everything you write to something as simple as a text message is writing. I separated the two into
different categories. I merely thought writing was only for school or notes nothing more. This
class proved my thoughts wrong.
When I started this class my knowledge about writing was very limited. I had no idea on
what a Discourse community, any concept of Rhetoric, Intertexuality, Activity Theory etc. The
list could go on forever but over this semester I have learned a lot about writing. Now instead of
just reading something I will research the authors background and see what made him take that
stance. I will also look at what was his purpose? Who was his audience? What genre did he write
in? How did he connect to his audience? This are just some of the questions I would answer to
understand the author. These do not just apply to analyzing a author though. For effective writing
I would ask myself these question to help focus my paper. For example if I were to write a paper
on Why is it a good idea to go to college. I would first ask myself who is my audience? I
would choose High School students age because they are the ones most likely affected by this
paper. Why am I writing this or what is my purpose? I would write it to help students understand
that with a high school education it is hard to get a good job, one that you would love to go to
everyday. How will I try to connect to my audience? I would try to connect to their dreams and

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use my own as an example. My dream is to go to space so I choose an engineering major to build
things that go into space and hopefully get the chance to go myself. I would not use fancy or to
sophisticated words in order not to bore my audience or confuse them. You get the point.
Discourse community and activity theory were hard concepts for me to grasp at first. I
was confused on what a discourse community actually was. I knew it was a group of people but I
did not know what they shared in common. A discourse community, as I began to understand, is
a group of people with a set of common goals and ideals. This can range from anything, such as
9/11 being a plot from the government to justify a new war, or somethings less serious such as
video game concepts or TV series debates. Each one has their common ideals and try to make
others believe as they do, making them a discourse community. Another example of a discourse
community would be a sports team. They all want to have fun but what I more fun than winning?
Sports teams usually have a goal of winning a title or a championship, or if you were on a team
like I was just being better than last year. Sports teams also have easily distinguishable
thresholds of membership such as Junior Varsity or Varsity. Varsity usually has the most
experienced and best players of the team and JV has the new people. . Activity theory is really
nothing different but just more specific. It includes many other aspects such as tools, motives,
subjects, rules, community and division of labor. All of these are extremely important to the
development of the system.
Rhetoric is the biggest concept of this class and was easy to understand. It took some
brain power to actually grasp the concept but it was well worth it. Rhetoric is everything that has
influenced someone to do something and answers why they did it. Everything that happens in
someones life leads up to what they believe and their ideals. For example Frank believes that the
government is evil and completely corrupt and that a rebellion is in order. Why does he think like

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this? Maybe when Frank was growing up he got mistreated by government officials or his
parents got betrayed by someone in the government. As he grew up teachers hated him, but he
met a man who cared for him and looked after him. This man hated the government. Seeing what
good came out of a man with such ideals made Frank adopt the ideals himself. Rhetoric is
extremely extensive and vast and no one can truly understand the extent or depth of it.

Intertexuality is a very interesting and good concept. It is very related to

rhetoric and how everything you read shapes your future idea. Every concept
you thought you had and put into a paper was actually bits and pieces of
many other peoples concepts thrown into one. Original thought are extremely
hard to come by. With so much knowledge and writing out there it is almost
impossible to not bring something else into your thoughts. Even from when
you are a new born baby your thoughts are not even original. You try and
mimic the voices and words your parents and the people around you. None of
this paper is an original thought. It is combined of many concepts and ideas of
others and other pieces of papers, just not directly quoted.
I have learned many things over this semester. This class has vastly
expanded my knowledge of writing and how to be a more effective writer. I still
cant believe how many concepts I didnt realize were true but right in front of
me. This semester has taught me a lot and I cant wait to see what the next
semester has in store.

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