Andrew Marziani

ENG 111

Professor Dinidu Karunanayake

10 May 2017

Reflection on ENG 111

When I attended Miamis orientation this past May I was told that I had to enroll in an

English class for three credit hours, I was expecting and okay with it. I enjoy reading articles,

books, and essays and sometimes writing. However, when I found out it was a rhetoric writing

class, my mood changed. I had just taken a rhetorical writing class last year in my senior year of

high school. I assumed that I would learn the exact same concepts such as pathos, logos and

ethos, among other rhetorical terms. I was wrong. Unlike my high school class, we did not just

learn and memorize rhetorical terms. Rather, this class taught me how to apply and analyze them

through movies, articles, chapters of books, and in our Rhethawks book. We learned how to

integrate rhetoric into our writing so that it became second nature and improved our writing. I

noticed as the semester wore on that I was doing a better job writing papers based on the

feedback I received in peer edits and in my grades across all classes. It was through peer edits

and my teachers feedback that I learned what I was doing wrong in my writing and how to

correct it. This feedback helped me immensely because it was a different set of eyes and a

different mind looking at my paper and giving me critical feedback. Looking back on my

writing as a put together my e-portfolio I realize and that throughout the year I sometimes

struggle to get a paper started, as I am at a bit of a loss of how to approach the assignment.

However once I draft an outline and read through my peers edits, I am able to quickly and

efficiently dig into and write a paper that makes me proud.

 One trend that I saw in my writing had to do with my shitty drafts. My first shitty

draft was very short contained little detail because I was stuck, my version of writers block. As

we further discussed shitty drafts, and that it was ok to have those, so long as I continuously

improved them, I felt liberated and writing more freely. I started to outline my paper and

proceeded to just feely write down my thoughts about the topic. This made writing a more

pleasant and less tedious task that I actually started to enjoy. It also made it less cumbersome

when it was time to start the next draft in my process, as all I had to do was to take the thoughts

that I wrote in the outlining phase and expound on them to create the working draft of my paper.

While reviewing my first inquiry, I noticed that my cover letter states that this is my shitty

draft and that I believe that it is good. Looking back, I can now honestly say that it is not

good at all. I just jumped the gun on my story. I was hyper-focused on the actual story and did

not properly address or even really address the main point of the writing, which was how that

moment made me a better rhetorical writer. The person who peer edited my paper immediately

identified that shortcoming to me, which helped me write my next draft of the essay. It was then

that I realized that I needed to include something from every part of the prompt in my outline or

shitty draft to ensure that I addressed each one of them to build the papers main points.

Halfway through the semester, I found myself using the idea of shitty drafts in my

other classes, especially for my complex film studies papers. For those papers I had to watch

movies and critically analyze them using jargon and film concepts which were unfamiliar to me.

My e-portfolio contains the final paper I wrote for that class, as I am very proud of it. The

strength of the persuasive arguments that I made in that paper all stemmed from what I learned in

ENG111 about outlining, drafting, redrafting and streamlining your thoughts are words. This

class truly helped me to organize my thoughts and allowed me to freely type up my ideas on
cinematography and plot, so that I would not lose a solid thought about a complex paper that was

running through my mind. I then created my shitty draft from that outline. From that draft I

created a better version, which my teacher reviewed with a critical set of eyes. After persevering

through a few more drafts, I wrote the final draft. I dont yet know that grade I received on it,

but I know the effort that I put into taking a complex topic and simplifying it to write my

thoughts about the film. I am proud of that paper regardless of the grade that I receive on it,

although I really want the A on it.

As I stated above, I sometimes struggle with introductions. It is hard to figure out a good

attention getter with which to begin my papers. I sometimes use a quote, although some teachers

think that that is too clich. For inquiry 3, I started with a quote that was an integral part of my

story. I thought that this technique was effective since it left the reader with a cliffhanger

enticing them to read more. However, with the other two inquiries I included in my e-portfolio, I

simply and immediately discuss my main points. Although, it is not a bad way to begin a paper,

it isnt very engaging and likely will not capture the readers attention.

One of the strengths in my writing lay in my conclusion. I noticed this while rereading

the inquiries. I am typically solid in my conclusions because by the time I get to the last

paragraph and wrap up the paper, I am warmed up and have immersed myself in the topic. I

also tend to make my concluding paragraphs concise and get right to the point, so the reader can

easily understand the main points of the paper and the important take-aways. One specific

example of this style is in the conclusion of my inquiry 2 essay. In that final paragraph, I only

discuss the main points of Coach Herb Brooks message to his Olympic team in his speech

before the game against the Soviet Union and its effect of a big win for the U.S.
 ENG111 has had a positive impact on me and my writing during a semester in which I

have written more papers than any semester in high school. It came at a critical point to assist

me at an opportune time, so I was able to immediately apply the skills I learned and hone them.

In the end, this class was my most enriching experience this semester and provided me with life

skills that I will always need.