Jacob Bogdon

Course Reflection

I had the opportunity to take English 101 and English 102 with Mike Pfister, one of my favorite
professors so far at ASU. I took this course because it was a prerequisite course for my major of
Sports Journalism, but I did not anticipate how much I would like this class. I have learned a
seemingly endless amounts of writing techniques in this class, and I have also been able to
improve on writing a persuasive essay and rhetorical analysis. Professor Pfister has also taught
me how to use Habits of Mind and WPA outcomes to reflect on my writing assignments and
improve my writing.

Entering the second semester of my freshman year at ASU, I felt that Professor Pfister had
improved my writing ability significantly in the first semester and I was excited to be able to
become an even better writer. The first project I completed this semester was a rhetorical
analysis of a mural in Downtown Phoenix. The mural I chose was an unnamed mural on the
south-facing wall of the Angels Trumpet Brew House near Roosevelt Row. This assignment
asked me to identify and explain the visual elements of this piece. I was also asked to deeply
analyze this mural in order to find the true objective that the mural was wishing to administer
when spotted by people on the street. The main WPA outcome that I used to help me be
successful when drafting this writing project was the use of critical thinking. The use of critical
thinking helped me find the true meaning behind the mural with the help of research and
knowledge I gained from speaking with owners of Angels Trumpet Brew House. The main Habit
of Mind that I used to complete this rhetorical analysis was Curiosity. This mural was designed
to invoke curiosity, as most murals do, so this was the main reason why I was able to remain
focused and interested in this mural in particular. Using flexibility, another Habit of Mind, I was
able to overcome some of my struggles while analyzing this mural.

The second writing project that I did in English 102 was a research project that would lead into
Project 3. This was very interesting because Professor Pfister allowed everyone to choose their
topic that they wanted to research. The topic of the research was to find a controversial topic
that we care about and research what changes need to be made. I chose brain injuries in
football, because I am a big fan of the sport and this topic can have a major impact on the future
of the sport. The WPA outcome that had the most impact on me while I composed this writing
project was rhetorical knowledge. This helped me formulate my argument and figure out what
research worked best to support this argument by looking making me think about the audience
of my essay. ​The best way to form an argument off of the research that I found involving head
injuries was to think about how my audience, likely fans of football, would want me to present
these facts so that the fans could think about these problems that are present in the game of
football. The Habit of Mind that I practiced the most while conducting the research for this
project was Openness. Being a big fan of American football, it proved difficult to go in-depth on
the biggest problem that faces this sport. Doing this also opened me to Engagement, as
learning all of these problems and researching it lead to me being very engaged in learning
more about CTE and other brain injuries.

The third and final writing project of the semester was a persuasive essay using the topic that I
researched in project two, brain injuries in football. My main objective of this essay was to
convince people, specifically fans of football, to understand the dangers of playing such a
dangerous sport and to push for safer regulations and equipment in the NFL. The dangers of
playing this sport had been disregarded by the NFL for some time, and only in the past 10 years
had more research been released about the dangers associated with the constant head impacts
that occur often in this sport. The WPA outcome that had the most impact on me when
composing this persuasive essay was rhetorical knowledge. Being able to analyze the audience
of this essay was very important with how I would present my research and formulate my
argument. Trying to present a claim that has a negative effect on the game of football would not
be received well among fans of the sport, so I was forced to research a lot so that I could
present the best argument possible. The main Habit of Mind that I practiced while developing
this project was once again Openness. This project had a lot of the same elements as project
two, but formulating it all into a persuasive essay was easy because of the amount of research I
had completed.

This course has helped me significantly improve as a writer and learn a lot about rhetoric. I
entered this year as a decent writer, and after a year of learning from Professor Pfister I can say
that I have improved a significant amount. But, there is still much more for me to learn and I am
excited to see how I will grow as a writer in the next three years at ASU.