Reflective Argument

This semester in English 102, the writing processes where more

complex. There were a lot more research that had to be done, as well
as more arguments. These assignments that were done, were
supposed to help me reach Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs),
Student objectives that must be reached while taking the English 102
course. There are ten SLOs that I had to reach, and out of those ten I
felt I have a strong grasp on six of them, SLOs C, D, F, G, I, and J. In
this reflective argument paper, I will discussing these six SLOs, and
talking about the revisions for my Essays that I had done.
SLOS
SLO C means, to use many ways for developing an essay and
getting feedback from peers to help make your writing stronger. This
SLO I had really struggled with during the first part of the semester.
I always procrastinated with my essays and they always didnt seem
to flow right. For our last Writing Assignment, we had to construct
an outline for our essay and use it to help format each paragraphs.
This really seemed to help me when it came to writing the essay and
it help me make sure the whole thing flowed perfectly.
SLO D means, to improve the points of sentences and
paragraphs, to help the fluency of the Standardized Written
American English. I have always struggled with the SLO. My sentence
structures would not flow well, and some of the wording would not
make sense. What I had found helpful was to get have a friend from
class and ask them proof read my work. This really helped because
they could easily point out my flaws and help me fix my mistakes.
SLO F means, to reflect on work that has been done and make
goals to improve the writing. This SLO, I have used a lot now and in
English 101. After each Major Writing Assignment (MWA), we would
reflect on how we thought we did and how we could improve. These
improvements would vary from starting the assignment earlier or
getting more help on writing the essay. The reflections did help
because its like a way to show were we are in this class, as well as a
way to make a goal on how to improve.
SLO G means, to use research to look at your own personal
beliefs and also at different perspectives that are brought to help
show both sides to the argument. I found this SLO very helpful and
easy to grasp onto. I used this SLO while working on my MWA 2,
writing about Gun Control. I had to do a lot of research and put
forth both sides in my essay so that my audience could decide which
side they felt was best. The research part got kind of difficult at
times, because the articles used a lot of Fallacies.
SLO I means, put together an argument paper that uses
academic research to analyze and evaluate sources. This SLO is sort
of like SLO G, however, with this SLO, I had to make sure the source I
used were credible. For example, Wikipedia and Blogs, would not
really be great sources to quote or get information from because they
are not really from an Academic Perspective. This SLO was a struggle
at times because looking through Google to find academic sources
for my topic was difficult. What really helped out was going through
UNM Libraries Database to help me find the sources I needed. The
articles in the databases were credible and academic sources that
would good for my essay.
SLO J means, to research and analyze different ways of
communicating, and to be able to write like someone in the field of
studying so that you are accepted as writer among your peers; be a
part of a new discourse community. I used this SLO for my last MWA.
My last MWA was like an informative essay that was about something
that was in my field of study. I did my essay on the Evolution on
phones. The research on this essay was difficult because there was a
lot of history involved and not very many resources where there.
When looking at some of the sources that were there, did help me
grasp the language they used when talking. For example, there
where words such as 4G LTE, that was used to describe a type of
application of a phone. Looking at these words helped me with
getting a grasp of what to expect when talking to colleagues.
REVISIONS
I had to revise two of my essays that I worked on this semester
in English 102. The essays I picked were SWA 4 and MWA 3. I picked
these ones to revise because I felt that they both needed work and
that they had a lot I could revise on.
SWA 4
In SWA 4, my essay was about Gun Control and how it should
not be outlawed. With this essay there was a lot of research that was
being involved and making sure the sources were reliable. My
original draft for SWA 4 was not very well put together. There were a
lot of errors and the sentence structures where not great. This
revision took a lot of work but after it looked a lot better.
Most of the revisions for this essay were having to deal with
sentence structure and grammar errors. I had to make many
sentences fit into the right tenses. Fixing these types of errors is
reflecting SLO D, to improve the points of sentences and paragraphs,
to help the fluency of the Standardized Written American English.
These errors were reflecting on making the sentences more fluent to
Standardized Written American English.
The thesis in this was another revision that I had to fix,
because the first thesis I wrote did not really explain what the essay
was going to be about. I had to make a thesis that explained more
of what I was going to discuss in the essay as well letting my
audience know what side I was going for. The new thesis that I wrote
did just that and it shows what to expect while reading my essay.
Doing this type of revision reflects off of SLO C, to use many ways for
developing an essay and getting feedback from peers to help make
your writing stronger, and SLO F, to reflect on work that has been
done and make goals to improve the writing. I had to get feedback
from instructor as well as my peers to know that my thesis statement
was not strong and needed a lot of work. Also, re-reading my actual
essay, I could defiantly see that it did need to be stronger.
MWA 3
My MWA 3 was an essay about the Evolution of phones. I
explained the history of phones and talked about them, starting
from the first phone to ever be created all the way to the phones
today. This essay was probably my best essay this whole semester, and
I felt like it would be good to go back and make it a lot better by
revising it.
The first revisions I had done where of course fixing sentence
structures and making the tenses in the right area. I always have a
hard time with my grammar and making sure everything flows well.
Almost every paragraph in this essay I had to fix one or two
sentences to make it better. Doing this revision helped me obtain the
objective of SLO D, to improve the points of sentences and
paragraphs, to help the fluency of the Standardized Written
American English.
After re-reading my essay and reflecting on what I could do
differently, I decided my thesis could use more detail and have
more information. I fixed my thesis to include more detail and to
make sure it states what will be in the essay. My first thesis was good,
however, it did need some work so it could be a great thesis. I used
SLOs D, C, and F. SLO D, because some of the tenses needed to be
changed and the sentence sometimes did not make sense. SLO C,
because I used peer review and my instructor to help me know that
my thesis would be a lot better if it had more to it. SLO F, because
looking back and reflecting on it, also helped me realize I need to
fix some of those errors.
Another revision I did in this essay was adding a whole new
paragraph. In my original draft my instructor pointed out that one
of my sources sentences talks about information that is not brought
up in my actual essay. So taking what my instructor saw, I added a
new paragraph and researched the information for this paragraph.
The paragraph was about car phones, so I had to find information
from sources about car phones and how were being evolved in those
times. With this revision, I used SLOs F and I. SLO F, because I used
my instructors feedback about my essay to actually make it better.
SLO I, because I did have to do more research about the car phones
to add into my essay.
Looking back this semester, I feel I have grown with my writing.
I have learned more about organizing and making an outline
before the actual essay. I feel my growth with my writing will help
me with other classes other than English. For example, when writing
an essay for scholarships, and writing for a job to let them know why
I want to be a part of their business. This class over all has helped me
get a better grasp on writing and I have actually grown to like
writing and I cant wait for next English course!