Intro

This semester, I took English 120 with Ms. Diaz. I had taken her last semester so I
wanted to take her again because she was an awesome teacher. This semester I learned about
analytical and rhetorical writing. Throughout the semester, we were writing essays with prompts
for hypothetical situations and analyzing things we see in everyday life. The first essay I did, I
had to analyze a commercial and write about how it used logos, pathos, and ethos. I decided to
analyze an Exxon Mobil commercial where they have a group of children speaking about why
they want to be engineers. The next essay I did was a research essay. I had to take a subject
matter and write about it and a reason to change it. I picked the United States drinking age and
why it should be lowered. A few people in my class disagreed with me; however, I felt I made a
very strong argument and had the research and proof to back it. For the next major essay, Ms.
Diaz broke us into smaller groups and we got to do a group project! We had to write a proposal
to fix a problem like low education, hunger, or homelessness in the area around UNM or the
Albuquerque area for $10,000. I also had a series of smaller essays between the Major Writing
Assignments. With these smaller essays I used them as a skeleton for our Major Writing
Assignments. They were useful for setting up the train of thought for a Major Writing
Assessment and general guidelines and ideas to incorporate into the MWA.
SLO A
Over this semester, I got to practice and work on much of my weakest style of writing,
analytical writing. SLO A is the ability to write to fit a rhetorical situation, so deciding which
tone is appropriate, what you have to research, and choosing what to include to be able to answer

the question given. I was rather quite scared of going into this subject matter, feeling like I had a
high probability of failing. In this class however, I feel that I have done very well for myself. I
have learned so much over the past few months, I really think I grew a lot in this class as a
writer. For instance in MWA II, I had to do research for a topic and make an argument about the
subject and reflect on it to make sure the argument is sound. This accomplishes SLO A very
easily. I used the internet, books, and other public research to gather information then I typed it
out to make a strong argument for my point. My argument was to lower the drinking age for
economic benefits, 16 for beer and 18 for spirits, and add a $1 tax to alcohols. So I gathered
information on what other countries drinking ages are, teenage drunk driving rate and the
drunken driving rate from people 21 to 30. I also did some minor math and found how many
people in America are between the ages of 16 and 20 and then found and used the US national
average beer price to calculate. I used the hypothetical situation that if only half of the people
between the ages of 16 and 20 buy 1 beer it would generate about $40,590,000 in revenue. This
all accomplishes the goal because we had to research and write persuasively about something, I
found all my information from multiple sources, and then I was able to compile it and put it into
a persuasive form to fit the situation of my subject being in a paper.
SLO F
Over this semester I have gained a ton of experience writing in my worst parts of my
writing. I have learned to use as many resources as possible to get the information I need. Most
of that was learned through MWA II. I did a bunch of research on a subject and wrote a big
persuasive essay. When I did research, I used the internet, books, and I learned how to use the
UNM librarys search function. I also learned how to find a bunch of credible sources, by using

finding what makes a source reliable, whether its a firsthand account or if its a government stats
or if they are portraying accurate information. I learned how valuable books can be, and as an
engineer I learned that not every answer can be found on the internet, which one day may not
prove useful for just me, but possibly humanity.
SLO C
In this class I worked on the writing process a ton in every essay. My original process
was write a really chopped up and dumbed down version of what I was wanting to say, then in
class we would peer review it, then I would write it all out and expand until I met page
requirements. This was not a good process for analyzing or for most of the writing in this class. I
learned that its better to write a few smaller paragraphs with definite points that are clearly
defined then extending those out with evidence for my claims or proofs for my arguments. Then
come into class and peer review, where my peers go over my essays and make comments on
revisions that would improve my essay. I then take that home and add most of the revisions in, I
disregard some if they are duplicates or would hurt the main point of the essay too much. Then
after I edit, I go over it one last time to make sure it all works.
SLO H
SLO H has a special place in my heart for this semester since I am an engineer. Most of
SLO H was accomplished in MWA II, I felt that it was the most important to me. How to
ethically quote other peoples work in my essays will one day be huge for me. I will one day be
doing majorly important work and if I were to plagiarize it could end my research. It also helps
me understand others standpoints and how to address them, like if Im in an argument I can try to

understand how they see it better so I can try to reach a better solution. SLO H was definitely
accomplished most in MWA II by writing and citing inside the essay. Using information to
prove a point then giving credit to the person who found it to make my essay ethical and it also
means that people can see my research and find out if I am correct or incorrect
Conclusion
I have grown so much this semester in my worst area of writing. I am so happy that now
I can make a stable argument and be able to research subjects and find proof of what Im saying.
I am happy I have a better understanding of the situations in which Im writing (rhetorical or not)
and which tone is best to use for each scenario whether formal or informal. I am happy I took
this class and was given the opportunity to.