Thrasher1 Andrew Thrasher English 10600 course reflection When I first started English 10600 I had no special goals

set for myself, except for improving my knowledge of English. For example making my grammar, reading and writing better. These are all my main goals whenever I enter an English class because they are all meant to enhance my knowledge. Enhancing your knowledge through taking a course is usually a very general rule most people have obviously. But, as I went to class I learned this was not a typical English class. Vocabulary that I had never heard like rhetoric, antithesis, ethos, pathos and logos were being taught to me. I soon realized this English class was special because Purdue was trying to teach me how to become more persuasive and I was excited for this because I knew persuasion is a tool that can be useful no matter who you are. So, another personal goal I wanted to achieve was to become a more persuasive person through my work in English 10600. But, Purdue had several goals for me that I have realized strengthened my writing. One goal that the university wants us to achieve is help students understand the rhetorical situation of the writing, its: purpose, audience and context. This is an important goal for us because if we understand these things we can understand the authors main point quite easily. This also helps us as students to understand other peoples views. Another rhetorical goal Purdue has for students are using writing for academic, civic, professional and personal purposes. This helps me with my personal goal of improving my writing because it gives me a reason to write in several different circumstances. Through doing this, the University is trying to teach

Thrasher2 students to understand that each writing has a specific purpose, audience and context. This helps me understand other peoples use of rhetoric and also increases my understanding of other peoples writings. An important Critical thinking, reading and writing goal the university has for students is giving us opportunities to write to discover about ourselves. This is an important goal that the university has given me this semester because it helps me realize my true potential as a writer. The second goal the university has under this set of goals seems to tie in well with the first goal. Which is also why it is very important to me. It is to help students develop our abilities to create, interpret and evaluate a variety of types of texts integrating verbal and visual components (Blackmon, Hayes and Pinkertk3). This goal we have worked on is helpful to improving my writing abilities because it helps me express things when I write, therefore improving my writing abilities. During English 10600 we have also tried to understand arguments from other peoples perspectives. It is important to study other peoples perspectives and arguments because this will make you more familiar with their beliefs (Blackmon, Hayes and Pinkertk4). By being more familiar with their beliefs you can devise a better response to their argument, which puts you a step ahead of your opponent. Understanding someone elses argument also helps students understand the writers audience and purpose of their writings. The goals of critical thinking, reading, and writing that the university has made for the students in English 10600 are very useful and have helped me, especially with my rhetoric. The writing process goals have been helpful as well.

Thrasher3 The University has made up a certain process to help develop my writings from a first draft to a final draft. Before the final draft is produced, we had to get peer revisions, revisions from the professor or maybe even write another draft. These are skills that I would normally do, but the emphasis we put on these steps in class helped improve my writing. I was also taught the importance of sounding professional in my writing. One of the knowledge of convention goals was, to demonstrate that coherent structure, effective style, and grammatical and mechanical correctness contribute to a writers credibility and authority. The emphasis of this goal is to make your writing more interesting, by doing so your thesis of the paper seems more reasonable and appealing to the reader. This is a great persuasive element to use because the better the paper looks, the more likely the reader wont think the writer is not intelligent due to grammatical errors or a sloppy paper. The class also introduced some new helpful technology to enhance our knowledge with new technology (Blackmon, Hayes and Pinkertk5). English 10600 introduced me to audacity, a sound-editing program. My class worked on conveying thoughts through sound and music in a paper we wrote through the sound-editing program. It helped me get familiar with a new technology I had never known, which is one of the goals the university has for the students (Blackmon, Hayes and Pinkertk5). So, English 10600 helped set a lot of goals for me and it also helped me reach several of my own goals. I learned to make my grammar better, improve my reading

Thrasher4 and my writing. Most importantly, I was taught to be more persuasive. This was my ultimate goal and I believe I have achieved it through this course.

Thrasher5 Works Cited Blackmon, Samantha, Linda Hayes, Laurie A. Pinkert. Composing Yourself. Southlake: Fountainhead press, 2013. Print.