Paul Ahearne-Ray

UWRT 1103

November 17, 2019

Writing Theory

At UNC Charlotte, in the UWRT program, there are 5 SLO’s or Student Learning

Outcomes: Rhetorical Knowledge, Critical Reading, Knowledge of Conventions, Composing

Process, and Critical Reflection. This paper is about my interpretation of each of the 5 SLO’s

along with a few examples of each from my work throughout the semester.

Rhetorical Knowledge

Rhetorical Knowledge is basically knowing what is happening around someone’s writing;

it’s understanding who the intended audience is, the purpose for writing, and the impact a piece

has on a reader. A proficient writer uses Rhetorical Knowledge to help a reader better understand

a piece of writing, and background information is an essential part of Rhetorical Knowledge.

Readers need to know why something is important, with Background information a reader can

understand why a certain author is writing about a subject. A vital part of Rhetorical Knowledge

is Rhetorical Situation, which explains why a piece of writing was written in a certain way.

Rhetorical Situation includes the author, the intended audience, and the purpose of writing. A

good writer understands the Rhetorical Situation and his/her writing should accurately fit.
The first screenshot above is the introductory paragraph from my Thesis for URWT 1103. My

paper was about whether attending college was worth, and in the paper, I discussed how it is not

the same for everyone because everyone is coming from different circumstances. So in my Intro

paragraph, I provided a little background about myself the writer and a little about how I felt on

the subject. Then I mentioned the student debt crisis which is the main reason people are

rethinking college in 2019. The second example is from a Summary Lab Report in ETGR 1101.

In the report, I had to summarize the whole Electrical project and explain the expectations and

how we were supposed to go about completing the project. The big difference here is the

audience which is the Engineering staff and, in a report,, there is absolutely no use of first-person

and hardly any use of the third person. They want us to explain the project without talking about

the people involved.

Critical Reading

Critical Reading is the ability to fully understand what a writer is trying to say, it’s taking

all the information and the ways a writer presents that information and truly comprehending what

a writer is talking about. Critical readers can separate all the aspects of a piece of writing,

meaning they can pick out all the evidence and distinguish it from the author’s takeaways, and

they can see the patterns that writers use. Proficient Critical Readers don’t just read something

once and understand it, they may have to read it over many times, but they will develop a deeper

understanding of a piece of writing.

 The first screenshot is of the Canvas site for my ETGR 1101 class, in particular, it is the

directions for a Cultural Awareness Memo we had to write. This one challenged my critical

reading skills because for a week I constantly read over it and it took me forever to fully

understand what the memo was supposed to contain. The second one is from one of my Research

Summaries. As I researched the author, I found out it might not be the most credible source

because she was the president of a college and was advocating for college and then later, she

“resigned” because her finances were being investigated.

Knowledge of Conventions

Knowledge of Conventions is simply knowing the guidelines and rules for different

genres or writing styles. A good writer uses Knowledge of Conventions to follow the rules a

piece of work pertains to if it’s for an English class chances are the paper is supposed to be in

MLA format. Writers also use knowledge of conventions to portray neatness or professionalism

through the correct use of mechanics and punctuation. Knowledge of conventions is less about

the content of a paper and more about how it is presented.

This is from my ETGR 1101 Summary report, in that class, they want everything in the Chicago

Manual of Style. So for my sources, it has to be titled References and the citation has to be in

Chicago.
The second screenshot is from my thesis and I chose this example because I kind of used an

appositive it’s not the best use of one, but it still is an appositive. Since I don’t need to include

THE AVERAGE in the sentence, I chose to use it as an appositive, with commas on both sides,

to add to the feel of the sentence.

The last example is also from my thesis, I chose this one to express a way in which you can

introduce a quote. One of the many ways to do so is with a comma then quotation then the actual

quote.

Composing Process

Composing Process is how a writer goes about writing a piece, not to be confused with

how it is formatted, Composing Process is more about what a writer does to prepare to write. In

1103 for our Thesis we initially researched a little about possible Inquiry topics, after we settled

on a topic, we started looking for sources, then came the draft, then the final. This was by far the

best-planned paper of my life because I never would have started working on a paper nearly 2

months in advance. A proficient writer uses the Composing Process to finetune their work, very

few people do their best on the first try it takes time and other people’s input to be a good writer.
The first screenshot is from the early draft of my thesis. When we peer edited in class, I would

always get one or two comments from each person in my group, as well as 6 comments from my

teacher. The ones from my teacher were much more helpful because she wasn’t just saying you

need a comma.
The second screenshot is my introductory paragraph from my early draft, and the last screenshot

is the into paragraph of my Final draft. When I was doing my early draft, I didn’t know how to

start so I just rambled on about how I was always around UNC Chapel Hill and how I interacted

with the school. When working on my final draft I felt that me going to UNC sporting events did

not relate to my topic, so I got rid of really all of it except for the sentence where I talked about

how as a kid I always wanted to attend UNC. I left it because it was just one sentence explaining

a little bit about 8-year-old Paul Ahearne-Ray, not half a paragraph explaining my childhood.
Critical Reflection

Critical Reflection is looking back on your own work and judging it. An exemplary

writer uses Critical Reflection to analyze their work, they re-read it and ask themselves why,

why does this matter. Good writers use Critical Reflection to see if they can back up their work if

they can provide an effective explanation as to why something matters than that part is good.

Critical Reflection is kind of like a writer predicting what critics might say and staying ahead of

them by critiquing their own work.

The first screenshot is the concluding paragraph of my thesis, I used this example because there

were many different versions that existed only for a couple of seconds. In one of my earlier

versions, I talked way too much about the 2020 presidential race. Another example is that at one

point I sounded like I was trying to argue that college is worth it in my concluding paragraph.
After re-reading both these ideas I quickly realized that they did not fit in the conclusion and

would be under a little scrutiny. The second screenshot is from my response to Wertz-Orbaugh’s

Re: Composing article I included this example because when I talk about what resonates with

me. That is my reflection of the article not what someone else said it is about that is what was

most important to me in the article.