Shayla Malecki

ENGL 101-004
MWA #2 Reflective Letter



UNM English Department Assessment Team,

As a result of taking the English 101 course, I have made significant
improvements in my own writing as well as better understanding the writing of
others. I have gained a better understanding of rhetorical situation and genre along
with writing as a social act. This, in turn, has led to bettering my writing as a whole,
including planning, researching, prewriting, composing, revising, collaborating, and
incorporating feedback to make stronger compositions.

Rhetorical situation is a very important component to understand in writing.
Breaking down the topic, angle, purpose, audience, and context of a piece of writing
can help in understanding the overall genre of a piece and also help one to compose
a piece of their own. In class we further discussed what the five elements of
rhetorical writing really meant. Topic- what am I being asked to write or speak
about? Angle- what is new about my topic? Purpose- what am I trying to
accomplish with my writing? Audience- what will the readers or users expect
before reading the piece? And context- where and when will my audience encounter
the finished product? I have previously struggled with the overall purpose of my
papers. I would tend to venture off to many similar but not relevant topics rather
than sticking to what my thesis stated. Learning more about the purpose and
audience really helped me to stay on track with my main idea. The purpose of a
paper is a key component for how the paper is written. If the purpose is to
persuade, the paper will have many logos, pathos, and ethos to try and convince the
reader to side with the author. Or if the paper has an epideictic rhetoric (to praise
or blame), similar to a rave or rant, than the paper will have many strong opinions.
The tone will be more one-sided rather than welcoming or inviting tone. Audience
also plays a key role in writing. Understanding who will be reading your paper and
for what reason is very important. The audience can dictate the tone of paper. For
example, an email that I send too my English professor will be extremely different
than an email that I send to my best friend. Writing etiquette drastically varies. An
email to my English professor will be professional and serious, as opposed to the
email to my best friend which will have slang terms and humor. This is because my
English professor and my best friend are apart of two different discourse
communities.


Discourse communities go hand and hand with the rhetorical situation
elements of purpose and audience. Different discourse communities have different
characteristics. They each have a unifying goal or purpose, a group genre, and their
own means of communication. There are specific norms and interests of these
groups. Learning about discourse communities has guided me for choosing a tone
and using certain words in my different papers based off of the purpose and
audience. In one of my assignments, I analyzed a commercial and wrote about why
the commercial was successful. It was extremely easy for me to do this assignment
once I figured out the discourse community that the ad was direct towards and
intended for. The language and dialect, style of clothing, music, setting, and more
was all focused towards a certain group of people. This assignment actually caused
me to start recognizing the social aspect of writing in everyday life.

Rhetorical situation and writing as a social act are two major concepts that
have helped me to improve my writing. I wish to continue learning more and
bettering my skills as a writer.

Shayla Malecki