Lacewell 1

Alexis M. Lacewell
Bret Zawilski
RC 2001-410
8 December 2015
ePortfolio Final Reflection
Rhetoric and Composition 2001-410 is the second honors course that I have taken since I
joined the Honors College at Appalachian State University. Initially, I was apprehensive to take
the Honors section of this course because I do not consider rhetoric and composition to be my
strong suit, but this course has been both a challenging and rewarding experience in terms of my
rhetorical knowledge, writing process, future in the field of exercise science, and overall growth
as a writer.
Because of my previous English professor, I came into this course with some rhetorical
knowledge. I have previously written multiple rhetorical analyses based on the concepts of ethos,
logos, and pathos, but I no idea that other rhetorical concepts existed beyond those three. Terms
such as exigence, kairos, and epistimology were unfamiliar to me, but I had to incorporate them
into my first assignment, the Rhetorical Rationale. Like all of the assignments this semester, the
Rhetorical Rationale had to be related to our chosen field and/or profession. This assignment was
a challenge for me because I had to analyze and discuss texts in my field, exercise science, using
new rhetorical terms as a novice. At this point, I was taking Introduction to Exercise Science
along with Rhetoric and Composition, so I was learning the foundational concepts of Exercise
Science and trying to applying them to the Rhetorical Rationale at the same time. Because I

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learned the introductory concepts in a random order, my paper was continuously altered from
draft to draft.
The final draft of the Rhetorical Rationale discusses four rhetorical concepts: exigence,
purpose, audience, and constraints. While revising, I had to be critical of my writing process
because it is easy for me to cling to original content that required so much effort. However, I
have gained more knowledge on how to correlate the characteristics and rhetoric of my field in a
way that made responding to your feedback on the Rhetorical Rationale easier than I had
anticipated. Your main feedback was for me to find a way to connect exigence with purpose in
my text, which seemed like a daunting task earlier in the semester. When I sat down to revise, I
realized that in exercise science the exigence of many topics lead professionals to a common
goal or purpose. In the Rhetorical Rationale, the prevalence of obesity and overweight health
related issues was the exigence of both texts, but each texts goal was to have individuals facing
those conditions to participate in physical activity and exercise more. Each text went about
accomplishing this goal in different ways, but even the research I completed further into the
semester on topics in Exercise Science had correlating exigencies and purposes based on their
characteristics.
Along with expanding and applying my rhetorical knowledge, I noticed some
characteristics about my writing process. It usually takes me a while to choose a topic for
assignments and to begin writing. I tend to worry quite a bit about the final product of my texts
that I forget that writing is indeed a process. This semester I have learned to better trust that
process because not all of my ideas will come to me in one sitting, I cannot always predict the
challenges that I may face, and the direction of texts can change due to a variety of factors. The
Multimodal Mini-Ethnography is the assignment that allowed me to realize this.

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My Multimodal Mini-Ethnography is a blog called PT Prep. The blog is a resource for
aspiring physical therapists; it contains basic information about physical therapy, the process to
become a physical therapist, and some of the experiences from my personal journey to becoming
a physical therapist. Throughout PT Prep, you can identify the theme of encouragement because
physical therapy, like most health professions, is not easy to obtain; it takes time and people tend
to encounter varying obstacles. I continuously reiterate these facts, but I also encourage readers
by making it known that it is possible to obtain this career and urge them to keep in mind the
reasons that they are pursuing the career. As I wrote the second reflection for the assignment, I
realized that the progressive vision I created for pursuing a career can be applied to writing. It
takes time to fill a Word Document with words, my original plan does not always work out but I
can and will find ways to create the final product, and writing assignments may seem daunting
but I can accomplish them with determination and support.
Together, the increase in my rhetorical knowledge and trust in the writing process will
allow me to continue on the path to becoming a productive member of the discourse community
in the field of Exercise Science. Being aware of rhetorical concepts will allow me to be able to
manipulate texts in a way that utilizes rhetorical concepts to meet the needs of the audiences that
I encounter. For example, when I begin writing my thesis for the Honors College, I can construct
the information in a way that is acceptable in my field and rhetorically relay the information to
the audience in a way that is effective. Along with my rhetorical knowledge, understanding the
writing process will allow me to mindfully create texts. Being mindful while writing will place
less stress on me during the process, and I will become more critical of how the progression of
my texts affects the final products. Continuing with the thesis example, the task will be less

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stressful if I remain encouraged, and I will be more aware and appreciative of all of the work that
leads to the polished product.
Overall, I think that my total growth can be seen in the final assignment, the Major Issues
Essay. This assignment is about the effects that aerobic and anaerobic exercise have on
pregnancy. The rhetorical knowledge that I gained from the Rhetorical Rationale was put to use
as I was reading and writing. I had to be critical of the information that was presented to me by
dissecting the ethos, logos, purpose, and exigence of each text. This was important because I was
deciding what information was relevant and factual and whether or not the information aligned
with or opposed my opinion on the topic. This directly related to my writing because I realized
that my audience could rhetorically analyze my work in the same way and that effectively
conveying information about exercise and pregnancy was my way of utilizing rhetoric.
As the assignment progressed, I was making drastic changes from draft to draft that were
due to research obstacles that I had faced with my original topic. I was grateful that I was still
able to use some of my original content even though the direction of my essay changed and that I
was working toward a finished product that would be better than I originally imagined. When the
time came to revise, I knew the rhetorical strategies that I needed to employ to improve the text,
and I wrote confidently proud of the work that I had done and the soon to be final product. All of
the growth that I made in this course allowed me to approach the last assignment equipped with
rhetorical information and confidence, and that is how I hope to approach the writing that I will
encounter during the remainder of my undergraduate career and as a future physical therapist.

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Crucial Step: Revisions
I have mentioned some of the revisions that were made to my texts in the reflection above
and on the pages in my ePortfolio, but I am including them here as that was indicated on the
assignment sheet.
The Rhetorical Rationale has added content about purpose as it relates to exigence, large
paragraphs have been broken into smaller ones, and my introduction includes more of a roadmap
more readers to follow.
PT Prep was revised by including more information with posts (Going the Extra Mile
and Where to Practice What You Preach) that contained lists because readers would need more
information about the topics in the lists, and by adding content about gap years to one post
(People Plans and God Laughs).
The Major Issues Essay needed to be complete, so I added a significant amount of
content: a description on resistance training, why resistance training is often ill advised, benefits
that resistance training provides mothers and their unborn children, and a conclusion. I have also
altered my introduction to include a guide for readers and broken large paragraphs into smaller
ones.