Evaluation, Final

Loful Elyardo

Professor Brandon

English 111

06 May, 2013

English 111 Evaluation

            I have learned many things that have made me a better communicator and author in English 111. I was introduced to the ideal writing process, oral communications, and rhetoric. The class has helped me in my own writing process pushing me closer to the ideal writing process. I have learned valuable rules of oral communications to help me deliver speeches. Rhetoric helped me learn about influencing readers. This course has truly raised my academic level and knowledge

            Personally, the most important thing I learned in English 111 was the ideal writing process. The writing process helped me organize my thoughts so I can better communicate my message to my audience. The process consists of six steps. Prewriting is when you discover what you can and should say. You must also define the goals, audience, and genre specifically. In the beginning during the prewriting stage I never used mind mapping as a tool during my writing process. As the class progress I began using this technique which helped me organize my ideas. There is an example of the mind mapping technique is posted on my blog. The process of getting ideas out of your head and coming up with a near complete work onto paper is the next step called drafting. I learned that the draft doesn’t have to be perfect and that criticism should be turned off. Before English 111 I used to proofread and edit while writing my draft. As the class progressed I learned it was a time waster because depending on what I revised the draft may not be the same as the final draft. During the revision step the author decides everything. Reorganizing, adding, and cutting are changes made to the message to make it more affective. The draft must be gone through multiple times. On my blog I showed examples of drafting in my Ray Puglia research project and in my rhetorical analysis. The next step in the ideal writing process is editing. I gained the ability during the course to see messages from the perspective of someone else. This is where checking for spelling and grammatical errors takes place. When delivering or publishing the message, the audience decides how the message is delivered. The author must research the audience’s expectations to deliver a message they can understand. The last stage of the writing process is review. This is a step that I feel I need to work on. After working on a paper I never looked at it again. It is necessary look over the work again to assess the effect had. The author evaluates the affect had on the audience and is self critiquing the work. The ideal writing process helped me the most in the English 111.

English 111 taught me a valuable lesson in communication and influence. The process of understanding audiences so you can better communicate with them when writing an essay, speech, or argument is called audience analysis. This skill is very important to have. Understanding the audience’s interests and feelings is a very is an essential step in audience analysis because it is the key to not violating the audience’s expectations. People will not listen if their expectations are violated. Finding connections in experiences the author and the audience share closes the distance between the author and the audience making the message to be delivered and comprehended. Changing how an audience feels, act, behave, and thinking are kinds of influences used. The appeals triangle of logos, ethos, and pathos helps craft the author’s message to appeal to the audience and assert influence on them. Being aware of ethos, logos, and pathos in my own writing helped me to create texts that appealed to my audience in many different levels. Ethos appeals to the author’s credibility, authority, or character using that to support claims. Pathos uses feelings, desires, and fears to appeal to the emotion of the audience. Logos appeals to the reasoning and common sense of the audience. It uses examples to demonstrate points made. I learned that an author’s ability to influence an audience is based on how well the author appeals to the audience. I used these skills on my rhetorical analysis on a commercial featured in the 2013 Super Bowl posted on my blog. I expressed how I recognized the appeals in the commercial and analyzed the influence it had on the audience.

            During my days in English 111 one of the main lessons I learned was on rhetoric. Rhetoric is the study of available means of communications. According to Dr. Wheeler from Carson-Newman College, when we write or speak to convince others of what we believe, we are rhetors. When we analyze the way rhetoric works, we are rhetoricians. One of the things helpful in learning rhetoric was the rhetoric triangle. The triangle is made up of the three appeals. The general means of persuasion are ethos, logos, and pathos. As a communicator I learned that I have to use my credibility to back up my reason to deliver my message and to hold the audience’s attention. The communicator has to have the right appearance for his message, enough authority, and persuasiveness. The message has to have concrete information backed up by evidence. It should have strong argumentative reasons and appeal to the audience’s common sense. The audience’s beliefs and values also come into play for rhetors. The author must craft the message to appeal to their beliefs and experiences so they can better understand the message and be influenced.  Each corner of the triangle is needed for the success of the communication. This course has turned me into a rhetor, helping me become a better leader in this society.

            I learned how to a write a memo during our course. A memorandum is a paper document that is usually short used for communicating inside a group. It was my first lesson on it and I’m glad I learned how to write memos because further down the line it will be imperative that I know how to write a memo. For example, on my blog I wrote a memo to the professor giving him information on a paper needed it to be done. It is informal and informed the professor about new information and updates.

            English 111 has prepared me for the next step of college and I am grateful for this class. The ideal writing process, oral communications, and rhetoric are crucial parts of the syllabus that impacted me the most. I have learned numerous tricks and tips for writing papers, memos, and reviews. From speeches to rhetorical analysis, English 111 was a valuable course that has made me a better communicator and a rhetor.