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Alissa Watson

Professor Jones

Comp II

28 November 2019

Service Project Reflection

This semester I was placed in Environmental Rhetoric and Composition 1020. I have

thoroughly enjoyed this course and everything it has taught me. Throughout this course I have

become a better writer and even a better person, become aware of the fact that the Earth needs to

be better taken care of and appreciated for the resources it provides, learned how to manage my

time so that I can complete all assignments, and learned that I can make a difference in the

problems our society is facing. I acquired these skills and knowledge through writing papers,

service projects, and even lectures.

This course is a beyond the classroom course. This means the students will spend equal

amounts of time inside the classrooms doing lectures, peer reviews, etc., as well as time outside

of it doing service projects, group work, etc. For most of our time spent outside of the classroom

in this course we spent it doing our service projects. These service projects included driving to

the stream were assigned with our assigned groups. We were told to clean it up to the best of our

ability in the time frame we were given, take lots of pictures, and document all of the minor

details in our field reports. All of the materials we needed were provided to us by the City of

Chattanooga, which was very nice because most of us are broke college students.
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In this course we were also assigned a research paper along with a multi modal mitigation

project. The research paper required extensive research and a lot of time for writing and

organization. I learned a lot about myself as a writer and about proper research. Each time any

sort of major essay was due in this course we were to peer review someone’s essay and then

allowed at least two additional days to revise our essays and resubmit them. Sometimes we were

even allowed to do this multiple times. I personally liked this method because it allowed me to

use the constructive I was provided by a peer to make my essays even better. The multi modal

mitigation project was a group assignment that we were assigned that required us to compose a

multi-modal project that would serve as an advertisement used by the City of Chattanooga to

promote a cleaner watershed within the city. This was very helpful because we were able to

brainstorm as groups and come up with ideas that were definitely better than what we would

have come up with on our own.

Previous to this course I had very little to no knowledge about pollution or the extent of

the damage that it is doing to the planet we live on. Pollution is a very serious issue that most

people are very undereducated about. I know that I was guilty of this before I obtained the

knowledge that I did from being exposed to the requirements of this course. I think everyone

should be well informed on the serious issues of our society, and most people are not. One way

to change this is to put it in the news, or even through published writings.

My favorite part of the service projects required in this course was the fact that I was able

to go out and learn this new city I just moved to by being exposed to it’s streams, along with

gaining a new perspective on the severity of pollution. I was able to go to different locations and

observe all of the trash just sitting everywhere, and make a difference in the city by cleaning up
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the area. Whether this trash came from people simply throwing items of trash out of their car

window or homeless people leaving their trash wherever they please because of their situation, it

is still a major issue. This being because a very large amount, if not all, of this trash will end up

in a body of water of some sort. Then, that trash will float into the Tennessee River, which in my

opinion, is one of the most beautiful landmarks of the city. It is so upsetting that people treat

their own home the way that they do.

On the other hand, my least favorite part of this course was honestly the fact that it was

so early in the morning. I personally am not a morning person, whatsoever. I would prefer to stay

up into the late hours of the night or even the early morning to accomplish things. This time

frame is actually when I work best and most diligently. Because of this, and the fact that I have a

job, I do most of my schoolwork during this time frame. Therefore, I would have preferred if this

course would have been at a time a few hours later, because I do stay up so late on a normal

basis.

I personally plan on taking the practices I learned throughout this to my hometown with

me and incorporating them into my everyday life. I plan to pick up trash and place it into a

garbage can if I see it lying on the ground, inform the people around me of the major issue that

pollution is, and maybe even reaching out to some organizations in my hometown to see if they

would advertise about putting a stop to pollution.

I would highly recommend this course to anyone who asks. I would even consider taking

more courses like it, if they lined up with my major. Professor Jones centered basically

everything in this course around pollution, or at least some sort of environmental issue or topic.
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Because of this my knowledge about not only rhetoric and composition as a subject was

broadened, but also my knowledge on environmental problems and topics relating to it.