Annie Scholz

Professor Zawilski

RC 2001

12 December 2017

Final Reflection: RC 2001 Intro to Writing Across the Curriculum

RC 2001 has challenged me to think critically beyond what I previously thought I knew

about writing, reading, and brought me knowledge that will transfer across the disciplines that I

will be exposed to in the rest of my undergraduate education. Previously, I had no idea what a

discourse was, and through our thorough in-class discussions I was able to gain a significant

understanding of discourses and ones participation throughout many different discourses. The

Rhetorical Analysis project challenged me to investigate unfamiliar discourses and components

of rhetorical situations, which have a place in everyday life. The textbook readings, question

question comments, and projects all helped me to develop the critical thinking and questioning

skills that I will need in my future as a lawyer. I will have to interact with people from all

discourses, and think critically and question when I work on cases. All of the projects helped to

continue to develop my research skills, which will be necessary throughout the rest of my

academic career, as well as in my career as an attorney. I found the concept of discourses the

most interesting, and the most applicable to everyday life. We encounter many discourses

throughout our lives, in school, our careers, and daily activities, and we must be able to

communicate appropriately in each discourse.

This semester in RC 2001, my writing has become much more detail oriented, and I have

learned to ask Why? more often to develop my ideas and arguments. I learned to view writing

as more of a process, and allow myself to have shitty first drafts. Before, I would put so much
pressure on myself to write a perfect first draft, even though it was just a first draft. Now, I allow

myself more room to make mistakes, which I can learn from. I have become more comfortable

with my writing by utilizing the method of writing as a process. However, my Major Issues essay

was the worst grade that I received this semester, so that makes me less comfortable with my

writing as of late. My writing process begins with a shitty first draft, which is more or less an

outline of my paper and list of my thoughts and ideas of what I would like to include in my

project. My second draft consists of notes and paragraphs under sections titled with the main

ideas of my paper. These will most likely become my body paragraphs, or will be combined to

form body paragraphs. My third draft is what I finally consider an official essay. By this time,

everything is in MLA format, a works cited is intact, and my paper is organized into cohesive

paragraphs that flow, with an introduction and conclusion. For my final draft I will make edits

based on the professors comments and corrections, and refine my thoughts before I turn it in.

In relation to my academic field, two of the writing projects that I produced this semester

are directly related. I chose to make a booklet to help future law students in their law school

application process, since I would like to have something like that for my own application

process. And for my major issues essay, I assessed the issue of female representation and law

and government careers, because womens issues are a controversial topic in todays political

sphere, and I will be a woman in law one day. Writing is vital within law, where one must write

and analyze legal documents. I expect to begin reading and writing legal documents in my future

education as I will eventually be taking Legal Writing.

I learned a lot from each project that I composed in this course. In the rhetorical analysis,

I learned how to find and assess rhetorical methods within a piece of writing. Mostly, I learned to

focus less on the content and more on how pieces of writing say what they do. The rhetorical
analysis differed significantly from previous kinds of analytical writing mainly because of the

focus on an extensive list of rhetorical elements that I had not previously encountered, such as

exigence and constraints, as well as the idea of the rhetorical situation. When composing my

multi modal mini-ethnography, first I decided on my topic, then decided to create the booklet.

Then, I created the headings for each section, followed by subheadings and information that I

would include, along with images. I did much more research for this project than the rhetorical

analysis. The research-grounded argument is one that is formulated using research of multiple

perspectives, and using that to formulate ones argument. It is necessary to be able to do this, due

to the fact that everything is a remix.

I believe that every project and discussion that we did in this class taught me more about

critical thinking when reading and writing, as well as how to assess and approach different

discourse situations. The QQCs taught me to ask many more questions, and to search for things

to ask questions about, when reading texts. The rhetorical analysis assignment brought me to the

field of journalism, which was my first time studying journalism as an academic discipline, and

taught me to evaluate the authors ideologies through their rhetorical methods. Our study of

discourses, and the Gallery Day that we had for the MME and portfolios brought my awareness

to many different disciplines that I would not have been exposed to. The awareness of discourses

that I have gathered will be helpful in transferring my knowledge across disciplines, and across

different scenarios that I am exposed to throughout my college and law school education. Since

deciding to major in Political Science and become a lawyer, I have completed the mini-

ethnography and major issues essay with a focus on this discipline. Previously I was an English

major, which consists of a lot of literary analysis, but now I must learn to read and write with a

greater focus on literal content as opposed to literary methodology.