English has never been my favorite subject.

Speaking the language was already hard

enough for me, and I had even less of an interest in learning the actual subject of English reading

and writing. My interest for the course dropped to an all-time low in senior year of high school,

where we learned out of a SpringBoard book from an unenthusiastic teacher and wrote one

essay per semester, like every year before. The topics included in the SpringBoard book could

not have been any more boring and repeated what we have learned from the past three-four

years. To give some perspective on how boring it is, think of relearning the rhetorical appeals

(logos, ethos, and pathos) over and over, without actually applying them to writing or going

more in-depth with the topic of rhetorics. Unsurprisingly, I brought this bored and uninterested

mentality into my Comp. 1 class. I knew that college English had to be different somehow, but it

did not change my opinion on the class, at first.

After my semester in Comp. 1, I can happily say this mentality has changed, and that I

have actually learned quite a few things from the course, such as how writing is a forever-

ongoing process of making meaning, and what motivates a writer (specifically literacy sponsors),

just a couple of the topics I will go more in-depth about. I believe that this course had taught me

such complex topics effectively, although there was one thing I could not understand- reading

complex texts by myself.

Understanding writing as a continual process of making meaning

Before starting this course, my understanding of writing was limited to this: a way of

getting ones point across, through whatever means they can use and whatever knowledge they

have. After reading Stuart Greenes Argument as Conversation however, I began thinking that

writing can be more than just stating facts down or getting a point across, but can be thought of

as an ongoing conversation, a dialogue between the author and the audience. With that way of
thinking, it can also be thought that the audience can use writing as a way to communicate their

ideas to the author and the rest of the audience, contributing to the idea that writing can be like a

conversation. As conversations continue to be developed by the author and/or the audience, it

makes the conversation more meaningful, as more and more thought is being put on the topic

by those who contribute. This continual process with writing can be referred to as discourse, a

term that was foreign to me for a while.

Discourse is the ongoing communication between the rhetor- the person who is

communicating- and the rhetors audience. Using these conversations created by both sides,

the discourse can continue and take on so many directions, informing those who are interested in

the discourse on what is going on, and can even introduce new ways of thinking by each new

rhetor that joins the conversation (basically, by those who contribute).

Comparing this to my high school learning, this certainly was a lot to take in, that writing

can basically be like an ongoing argument. In ENC 1101, I feel that the concept of writing as an

ongoing process that creates meaning was hammered into my head effectively. I found a deeper

appreciation for the continuous writing of any topic that can be talked about, and how that it can

basically go on forever as a discourse that can educate those who are interested.

Motivations of a writer: Literacy sponsors?

All writers have their own identity, their own literacies, and their own interests. But the

one lesson that stuck to me most was what motivates a writer, more specifically the literacy

sponsors in their lives.

Coined by Deborah Brandt, a literacy sponsor is anything, whether it be positive or

negative, that helps someone become more fluent in a particular subject. This includes people,
ideas, even institutions, basically anything that can shape a person and their literacy. For

example, Deborah Brandt used the story of Dwayne Lowrey and his struggles, citing that his

inspirations were the influence of his father, the philosophy of worker education, and the

attorneys and college-educated coworkers who arrived at his workplace (Writing About Writing,

Page 87).

Before reading her piece, my definition of a sponsorship was quite limited, as I thought

sponsorships were limited to helping a person or group of people with financial support (for

example, scholarships). Now that I have a better understanding of the concept, I now know that

sponsorships are not limited to finances, but are actually many other individual factors that can

build a persons literacy, such as a way of thinking or role models.

Reading Complex Texts

There is one thing that I have always had trouble with though, but I attribute that as my

own fault. As someone whos native language is not primarily English, it was hard to understand

the more complex texts, as the sentence structure and language used in it was quite foreign to

me. I have had others help me reword the text to something more understandable, but I never

learned how to do it myself. For example, I distinctly remember having to ask my roommate to

simplify entire paragraphs from Doug Downs Rhetoric: Making Sense of Human Interaction

and Meaning-Making because I could not understand his idea of rhetorics. There are other times

where I had to look up an entire page of words, because I did not know what they mean. This

part may seem normal, but sometimes I felt like some of the words were more common than not,

and I just never learned that vocabulary earlier.

 Going into this class, I got the notion that I was already expected to know how to read

such high-level subjects. I truly did not, nor did I ever read such topics before college, and

although my level for reading more complex texts might have increased, I did not get much help

in learning how to read the more difficult texts by myself.

So, going back to UCF, how did the course really go?

The above were just a couple of the lessons that I learned in ENC 1101 (and what I did

not learn). Going by the expectations of the school, I believe that the course effectively taught

me what I was supposed to learn. Along with the above, I learned that peer review is more than

just giving compliments and getting the grade, but more about actually helping the writer with

honest critique and feedback, that our writing is more than just a basic, required five-paragraph

essay and can actually be impactful in actual discourses, and that there are different processes

and technologies that can help a writer communicate their ideas.

Conclusion

All in all, I learned a great deal more than I ever thought I would in ENC 1101, quite

interesting topics to boot, and I know that there are things that can be improved upon later in my

life. I will carry with me the lessons Ive learned here in hopes that I can use them to improve my

writing in the future, whether it is in ENC 1102 or anywhere else.