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Melissa Wilde

Rhet/ Comp II

Professor Rudloff

May 1st, 2013

Looking Foreword:

a reflection back on a semester of writing

In my first writing assignment, I stated things as they were. Now, in my final paper, I am

supposed to reflect on what has changed. Having been enrolled in IB Higher Level English and

Theatre over my last two years to high school, my sole task was to perfect the art of writing

literary analysis and research papers quickly and well. Therefore, coming into St. Edwards I

already possessed a rhetorical toolbox that allowed me to get my thoughts out on paper in a

cohesive manner. That is not to say, however, that I havent grown in being able to recognize my

skills in composition and how they have grown since my earlier years in high school. At the

beginning of the year I walked into the classroom with rhetorical and compositional skills, but

refined my research skills to match the frame of researched argument.

I came to my freshman year with a strong background in analyzing and synthesizing the

content of other writers, particularly in the context of classic and world literature. It was a

welcome challenge (compared to the banal barely analysis of Rhet/Comp I) to be asked to take

apart the arguments and findings of sources in my Annotated Bibliography. While the time

consuming nature of the assignment was not my favorite, the A.B. really forced to look harder

not only at the source itself (which I was comfortable doing), but also the source of the source, a

further step I rarely took the time to take in. Since the Researched argument was such an

extended project I was very glad that we were forced to really look into the resources we were

using to support ourselves. I had done these types of research papers with accompanying

annotated bibliographies before, but I found that revisiting this process really helped my

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researched argument overall, even though I wouldnt have thought to do it on my own. In the

realm of rhetorical strategy, I feel as though I had the abilities, but being forced to exercise the

strategies I wouldnt think of utilizing augmented my Paper #3.

The area of composition has always been a strong point for me. As an avid talker and

thinker, writing my ideas down on paper came quickly to me in my earlier years, and grew as my

though processes did. Even as this semester carried on I was rarely marked down for issues with

clarity, and my first drafts generally required less of an overhaul than others. One area of

composition I reflected on a great deal, however, was the reviewing of others. I have always

hatedpeer reviews, and in all honesty that hasnt changed. The peer reviewing I give seems to

always be more constructive than the wimpy critiques that are overrun with compliments that

dont help me make my paper any better. An additional problem with giving constructive

criticism within the framework of the researched argument is that the intended audience has this

level of acquired knowledge that makes grasping the rhetoric of the paper increasingly more

difficult. Besides having additional revelations that the peer criticism system is ineffective at this

level and with type of assignment, I find that the composition process has remained the same.

In the realm of research I was much more limited in my experience, and the daunting task

of taking the broad topic of gun violence and narrowing it into a topic long enough for eight

pages but specific enough to be covered thoroughly was frightening at first. Additionally we

were asked to take this topic and flesh it out with a ton of research. The visits from the librarians

opened me up to two incredibly invaluable resources, Academic Search Complete and the Inter-

Library Loan program. These two library resources made my research so much easier than it had

been at my previous school library. However with these powerful tools, particularly Academic

Search Complete, comes the responsibility to correctly assess the sources you find and how

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relevant and useful they will be to your researched argument. As I mentioned before, the

Annotated Bibliography forced me to look at all of my sources in depth, but additionally the

Craft of Research brought up many good points, particularly about how all research is within the

context of a larger conversation. This encouraged me to look at my sources chronologically and

discover how the opinions and views on my topic have changed over time. Overall, the skills I

have acquired (regarding the accumulation and examination of my sources) are ones that I can

use in the future with other academic writing in college and graduate school.

Overall, my research journey throughout this class has been a re-visitation of the skills I

acquired in IB peppered with challenges that allowed me to refine my skills in research and

reflect on my previously attained skills in rhetoric and composition. As an education major, the

higher levels of researched argument wont be directly useful to my career, but as I work to

attain my Masters in Education these techniques in rhetoric and composition will most

definitely come in handy. A general capability to discern bias will be useful when deciding what

content to distribute to my students.