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Daniel Lord
Professor C. Summers
ENG 102
22 JUL 2015
Reflecting on the Summer of 2015
During the summer of 2015 I have developed my English skills on a collegiate level at
the University of Illinois. Throughout the summer I have reflected over my English abilities in
rhetorical knowledge, critical skills, twenty-first-century literacy, style, and mechanics. This
reflection process allowed me to continually write drafts, reflect on means of improvement, and
then write superior drafts. The summer of 2015 is now coming to an end, and so too must my
reflection process. This portfolio is comprised of four papers created from this reflection process.
Upon reflecting on the first paper, John Gault's radio broadcast to America, I came to the
realization that my paper was lacking in the rhetorical knowledge of civic engagement and
proper MLA format. After completing more research on OWL Purdue MLA format of papers, I
have successfully reformatted my paper to include proper page format, a corrected header, MLA
style citations, and have kept line spacing per ENG 102 syllabus requirements. Civil engagement
was lacking due to not addressing how Gault's radio broadcast affects the audience and whether
or not it is effective. The reflection process allowed me to revisit this paper and explain how
each aspect affects the reader.
Reflection on the second paper, Why America was not ready for Obamacare led me to
improve critical skills of understanding, twenty first literacy of technology, MLA format, and
rhetorical knowledge of invention and development. To further the critical skills of
understanding and twenty first literacy of technology, I have included an audio portion of this
text. I have also reformatted the paper to meet MLA requirements. The rhetorical knowledge of
invention and development has been improved through an analysis of how other nations have
implemented universal healthcare better than the United States, and how our system of
healthcare could benefit from their examples.

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After intensive reflection on the first two papers, the brevity of the reflection process for
the final two papers only allowed time for direly needed changes. While the drafts of these
papers have come a long way from the original, to the student reviewed draft, and to the teacher
reviewed draft, due to having less than a week to perform a final revision on two papers, and
writing three more papers, and building a website, these drafts are not completely where I would
like them to be at the end of my reflection process.
During the writing process for my third paper, Fourth of July in Washington D.C., I
reflected over the assigned topic much. The intent of the paper was to persuade college-aged
students in the Springfield area to visit the United States Capital. The persuasion techniques I
used were patriotism, a sense of wonder, and excitement. Immediately in the paper I grab the
audience's attention by telling them, "Every American has a patriotic duty to make the pilgrimage
to Washington D.C. for one fourth of July"(Lord 1). This statement draws the rebellious collegeaged student in by telling them they have to do something. This age group does not listen to
commands without knowing why they should be doing something. This command forces them
to want to know why or why not they should follow this advice. After ensnaring my audience, I
give them what they want, knowledge. While some working adults have made the venture to
Washington D.C., a typical college age population of a city distant from the Nation's Capital
have not. To inform these student's on what they are missing out on, I begin my verbal tour of
Washington D.C., detailing all of the wonderful sites and attractions that they might not be
informed about. Some things I could add to the paper is more information about the museums,
like how they are open longer hours on the Fourth of July to ensure visitors can spend sunset to
sunrise touring the capital. I could also add some more facts to alleviate common myths about
Washington D.C., like having to arrive at museums hours before they open, just to ensure that
one can tour the museum. This is not true, in fact, even on the busiest day of the year, the
longest line into a museum is the ten minute line through the metal detector. To improve my
paper upon the final reflection, I have corrected my MLA format, and have added more patriotic
quotes to further instill a sense of patriotism.
The Reflection of paper four, Underwater Tunnel Traffic revealed that the paper was
lacking in many aspects, including rhetorical knowledge of invention and development, and civic
engagement, critical skills of understanding, and twenty first century literacy of technology. To

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improve the invention and development of the paper, I have removed paragraphs specifically
targeting the problem, in order to make room for some new paragraphs outlining the solution.
The weakness my paper exhibited in civic engagement was due to relying to heavily on one
source. In order to alleviate this, I have broadened my use of references on the problem and have
added more sources to describe a solution. The twenty first century literacy of technology
inadequacies have been fixed due to proper utilizing proper MLA format and by further
illustrating the solution through the utilization of a slide show.
The continuous reflection of my papers for ENG 102 has taught me to be a better writer
through the use of rhetorical knowledge, critical skills, twenty-first-century literacy: information,
style, and mechanics. Through research and usage, I have mastered the use of MLA citations,
sources, and format. Reading over my papers has taught me to continually revisit the nature of
the assignment, and ensure that I am meeting the requirements assigned throughout the entire
paper. This experience has forced me to challenge my current writing styles in order to improve
upon them. Throughout my reflection processes during the summer of 2015, I have not only
revised these four papers, I have revised my skills at writing as well.

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Works Cited
Lord, Daniel. Fourth of July in Washington D.C.. Hampton, 2015
Lord, Daniel. "Rhia and Danny". 2015, Picture