Rashad Roberts Composition 1 Dr.

Gail Richard 11/08/13 Cover Letter During my first college composition class, taught by Dr. Gail Richard, we were challenged to execute five objectives within our writing. We went through a process during every writing assignment, we engaged in critical thinking, reading and writing, we used knowledge of conventions, composed in electronic environments, and we most importantly gained and used rhetorical knowledge. All of these skills sets either taught us something completely new, or it brushed up on the skills we already had. Process With every assignment that was issued in this rhetoric class, we went through a writing process that included brainstorming, composing a rough draft, having peers analyzes our work and then we submitted our final drafts. In doing this, we learned to be open to critique and analysis from our peers during collaboration. We even, during our proposal assignment, engaged in collaborative writing where everyone within their respective groups took on different parts of a practice proposal and it was then presented during class. We used a variety of technologies to address a range of audiences such as blogs, creating documents through word processing and hardcopy work.

Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing In addition to using a writing process for every assignment, we engaged in critical thinking, reading and writing. This includes writing and reading for inquiry which involves Narration and Rhetorical Analysis. We discovered and synthesized primary and secondary sources during our written proposal assignment in which we were required to use one source in our work. We also gained understanding with relationships among language, knowledge, and power. We did this during our written proposal. When it came to the use of inquiry, our rhetorical analysis was the best way in which we engaged, because we questioned and provided our own analysis of someone elses work. We used our ability to sway or persuade with rhetoric and knowledge which is a very powerful skill. Rhetorical Knowledge By the end of our first composition course, we used rhetorical knowledge which required us to focus on purpose, respond to different audience types, and appropriately respond to different kinds of rhetorical situations. While focusing on purpose within all of our assignments I learned the purposes for writing which includes entertainment, persuasion and giving information. In doing that, we had to analyze what type of audience we were addressing which also required us to include an appropriate tone in our writing. In order for us to do that we had to analyze the rhetorical situation and how we should respond to each. We learned when to respond and how to respond during this course. All of this contributed to our overall focus or purpose within each paper. Knowledge of Conventions

This really involved a lot of the structure and tone that we used within our work. It can be said for most of us that grammar, punctuation, and spelling is very important to our work because we stressed that if these are not intact that our ethos would be hurt in our writing. This also involved the practice of appropriate documentation of any sources that we might have included in our work. This was included in all of our assignments because these are important components to rhetoric. Composing in Electronic Environments In the duration of this course, we composed in electronic environments. This was really done during our written proposal because we had to use websites that fitted or supported out topic within our written proposal, and we were required to document the websites that we used. This could also include the usage of computers to create documents using a word processer. We also composed assignments online such as online blogs. We were assigned five online blogging assignment over the duration of Composition 1 which got us familiar with composing within electronic environments. Conclusion All of these WPA outcomes helped us grow, whether that meant because we learned something new or because we needed to refresh already acquired. We went through a process during our writing, we engaged in critical thinking, reading and writing, we used knowledge of conventions, composed in electronic environments, and we most importantly gained and used rhetorical knowledge. In the end this course has been a great course that has thoroughly prepared me for my next composition course at UALR.