Ivy Rasmussen

Period 3A
November 3, 2015
Self-Reflection Paper
Process
In English 1010, I felt the most beneficial assignments were the Positive and Negative Writing
Experiences, the My Favorite Place paragraph, and the Response Essay. In the Positive and Negative
Writing assignment, I was required to dig into my past and recall a time that I enjoyed writing and
another time that I disliked it. This assignment forced me to think deep into my past and in doing so, I
was able to discover the reasons why I like writing and the reasons I dislike it. This assignment first
introduced me to the concept of show writing, as opposed to tell writing. The My Favorite Place
assignment challenged and forced me to use show writing more than any previous assignment I had
completed. The assignment also challenged me to use a more advanced and descriptive vocabulary and
to write for an intended audience. The Response Essay challenged me in an entirely different way. The
assignment required that I take an authors set of claims and arguments and completely dissect them to
the point that I could develop reasons to disagree or agree with them. This essay required me to use a
vocabulary that would match that of my intended audience and challenged me to develop my own tone
and writing style. I enjoyed that all three of these writing assignments challenged me in different ways.
After reflecting on them, I have found that they have caused me to grow as a writer in an extremely
short amount of time.
I decided to use logos and pathos to complete my Response Essay. These are the most
productive writing strategies because Kohn also uses them to persuade his audience of his opinions. I
figured that countering his statistics and studies with reason and personal experiences would be the
most effective because it would destroy any concrete evidence supporting his claim. The personal

experiences were productive because I placed them at the end of each argument Kohn made; therefore,
the audience would internalize this experience the most and forget any of Kohns weak claims.
The biggest problem I faced in writing this paper was that, somehow, I had to counter all of the
statistics and strong claims that Kohn gave to the reader. This was difficult because I had to break down
the true meaning of his arguments and try to discover any flaws in his claims, without actually looking
up any outside information. I was fairly successful in doing this because I used personal experiences to
prove that Kohns arguments were not entirely true. Doing so made the reader question the validity of
some of the authors arguments.
The most significant strength in my essay was that I caused the reader to question any of the
studies that Kohn used to prove his claim. This destroyed any concrete evidence to prove Kohns point
and allowed the reader to accept the counterarguments that I made against the essay. The most
significant weakness in my essay was that I did not have any real evidence and statistics from large
populations to support my claims. I only had my personal experiences for support.
When I was writing this essay I discovered that as I break down an authors piece of writing, I am
able to counter any of the evidence in some way. I used to believe that I was only able to write on one
side of an argument, but after this Response Paper I came to realize that there is always significant
evidence to write for both sides of any argument.
Subject
As I read this essay, I came to disagree with Kohn when he stated that grades tended to reduce a
students ability to think creatively or retain knowledge for a long period of time. I argued that as a
dancer, I am required to think creatively and generate new ideas constantly. In fact, the grade does
affect the way I work, perform, or retain choreographic material in any way. Therefore, using this
experience, I was able to demonstrate to the reader that Kohns argument was not true in every

situation and that he could not use evidence from a controlled experiment to draw conclusions about
students as a whole.
Even though I disagreed with the authors claim that grades tended to reduce a students ability
to think creatively or retain knowledge, Kohn was able to convince me that what he was saying was true.
However, when I started writing my response essay and breaking down Kohns claims, I changed my
opinion and decided to look at Kohns claims as hasty generalizations and invalid.
Writing about this subject taught me that even though grades are thought of as necessary, they
are actually de-grading students and do not give them motivation to learn. Before reading this, I did not
realize how subjective the grading system truly was and how much it negatively affects students. I have
always assumed that all educators enjoyed giving grades, but this essay, written by an educator himself,
countered my previous beliefs and provided me with new ways to feel and think about the grading
system.
Rhetoric
While writing this essay, I imagined writing to the same audience that Kohn was addressing
(educators). This influenced my writing because I tried to act older, more sophisticated, and more
knowledgeable. I decided to use a more advanced vocabulary as well as enough logical and emotional
evidence to fully persuade any educator of my claims. Finally, I tried to point out parts of Kohns essay
that I agreed with and disagreed with in order to not push away any readers who may be subjective to
one single opinion.
I want those who read my essay to understand that a simple study and a couple statistics may
not be enough evidence to generalize something for an entire population. I want the readers to also
realize that there could be other reasons for a students lack of creativity and retention abilities.
Hopefully after reading this response paper, the audience will understand that there is more than one
way to feel about an argument and that one piece of evidence is not enough to support general claims.

I would describe my voice in this paper as confident and formal. I start out fairly objective
towards Kohns claims but I eventually move to a more assertive attitude. I demonstrated that I had
gone through past experiences, counter or supportive to the authors claims, and in doing so, I was able
to convince the reader of my validity.
The two rhetorical strategies that I used that I am most pleased with are my vocabulary and my
tone. I decided to use a more advanced vocabulary to match the language of Kohn. If I didnt do this,
then the reader would question the validity of my statements rather than Kohns. I was also proud of my
tone because I showed that I had an opinion on the subject but I made sure to show my respect for
Kohn so that I did not come off overwhelmingly strong.
I did take some risks in writing this paper because sometimes it is very hard to combat a paper
that has research to back up its claim. I had to use my previous knowledge and personal experiences to
convince the readers that what I was saying was true. Kohn had already had personal experiences and
evidence to back up his claims and so I had to come up with a way to cause the reader to question his
statements.