Kaitlyn Kester

5/4/15
Eng 120
Ms. Sunny Diaz
SLO essay

SLO ESSAY
English 120 has been a great learning experience, it has taught me not only
about English and grammar itself, but also how to become a better writer and use
different techniques in my writing. Over the course of this semester we have
covered many Student Learning Outcomes. (SLOs) We cover these through the
LSAs and MWAs as well as preparing for each of those assignments and peer
reviewing. We classify the SLOs as A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. All of the SLOs cover
different standards that have to cover through the semester. We were able to cover
these SLOs in class, in peer groups, and through our individual work.
The first SLO is SLO A, the literal definition for this SLO is; Analyze, compose,
and reflect on arguments in a variety of genres, considering the strategies, claims,
evidence, and various mediums and technologies that are appropriate to the
rhetorical situation. In other words, this means, we had to find research and be able
to interpret that information to fit in our guidelines for the assignment. The
audience shaped our tone for each assignment. For each sequence we had to write
in different tones because we were writing to different audiences.
In the third sequence, we were addressing the head of a department at UNM.
Our tone had to be very professional as opposed to writing to our peers where we
would write in a more relaxed tone. We had to write a memo and a proposal. This
type of document is used many times in the workplace to introduce new ideas. The
way we have to write when writing to a department head is different because you

Kaitlyn Kester
5/4/15
Eng 120
Ms. Sunny Diaz
SLO essay
have to be very professional, you cannot use slang that you would use if you are
writing to a friend or any of your peers.
SLO B is; describe the social nature of composing, particularly the role of
discourse communities at the local, national, and international level. We worked
through the nature of composing through peer reviewing and getting other ideas
from people in the class to help get a better understanding of our topic and get new
ideas that we did not think of ourselves. As far as discourse communities, when we
got paired into our groups for the third sequence, many of the groups were grouped
together by majors, such as, engineering, nursing, English, etc. This is an example
of discourse communities that are local, national, and international levels. We also
demonstrated discourse communities at the beginning of the semester in MWA 1
when we had to choose a poster for the major we are intending on pursuing. This is
an example of discourse communities because it is a group that we belong to that
has a language and norms that others outside of the group may not understand.
SLO C is, use multiple approaches for planning, researching, prewriting,
composing, assessing revising, editing, proofreading, collaborating, and
incorporating feedback in order to make your compositions strong in various
mediums and using multiple technologies. This is basically just describing how we
use the writing process to come to a final draft of the assignment. Sequence two is
a good example of this process because for the sequence we had to choose a
position on a relative issue. In order to do this we needed to do research on the
topic (for and against our position) we then had to write a rough draft of our position
paper, as a class, we did peer review with groups, once we get the feedback from

Kaitlyn Kester
5/4/15
Eng 120
Ms. Sunny Diaz
SLO essay
our peers, we then edit our own documents using that feedback to make our
arguments stronger. For my position paper, I decided to write on the topic of how
technology can hinder a childs education and development process. One of the
peers in my class told me I needed to be more specific about the ages that I was
talking about. I took that feedback and added that into my final draft for the
document.
SLO f is to evaluate your development as a writer over the course of the
semester and describe how composing in multiple genres and mediums using
various technologies can be applied in other contexts to advance your goals. This
SLO means to evaluate yourself and how you have grown over the course of the
semester. It also asks how the things you have learned in this class can be applied
in further English classes, classes of any subject, and further on in life such as
careers. Over the semester I have learned many things from this class such as how
to write to different audiences, in MWA 2 we were writing a bit informal and we were
writing to our peers, but in MWA 3 we had to write very professional because we
were writing to a department head at UNM. These skills will be able to help me in
further classes but most importantly it will help me in my career because no matter
what job you have you will need to be able to write documents to people above you.
We used different mediums and technologies by writing in different forms. For
example, we had to write and position paper, we had to make a memo and a
proposal, and now we are working on a website. This will come in handy with future
careers because if you need to give a presentation, no one will want to sit there and

Kaitlyn Kester
5/4/15
Eng 120
Ms. Sunny Diaz
SLO essay
listen to you read an essay. Being able to change a topic and put it into a power
point or website will make it more interesting and easier to understand.
Overall, I really liked this class and I learned a lot about becoming a better
writer. These SLOs have been able to help break up the class to understand why we
are learning each of these standards. The SLOs have been helpful to learn new
topics and better improve my writing from the standards that I learned last
semester. This class was a great way to prepare for our future in writing during
other classes and future careers.