Student Learning Outcomes
for Composition 2 with Madeline Mendoza
Rhetorical Analysis Essay Project
The purpose of the assignment was to analyze and write a rhetorical analysis on a piece of multimodal work, in particular a movie poster, meme, or commercial. I feel that I have accomplished writing a rhetorical analysis on the image that I have chosen, and that I broke it down with a clear and concise analysis. I do feel that I missed the mark slightly being at the image I chose was not multimodal (just an image), though I feel I have also made up for the choice in image by accompanying it with an analysis of the article that the image is from. I go into this a bit more in my reflection attached to the essay itself, but for ease of access I chose this image because it was more relatable to the rest of the content on the portfolio and because it spoke to me more than movie posters or commercials.
My rhetorical strategy was to open with what a rhetorical analysis is to get everyone on the same page, then to break down to image by each of its genres and modes. To follow up and finish the piece I tied the image, now fully explained, to the article that I received it from. For my process, planning around deadlines and other priorities made it pretty simple for me to dedicate a chunk of time to get the majority of the work done, with small interludes of editing. The main block of time was primarily for understanding the rubric and looking for an image that called to me and was appropriate for the assignment and my portfolio. This part took the most amount of time, and it is also the part that I feel I should have spent more time on. My prewriting is composed mostly of bullet points that I want to cover and small quotes that I thought were relevant (in this case certain things I thought of that helped analyze the image). I did not receive a peer review, so there was not much for me to work off other than my own adjustments. I found that the image I chose was not very relatable to the article and somewhat ironic in the way that it was presented, but I am sure you will see that when you read my essay as it was included.
Annotated Bibliography Essay Project
The purpose of the assignment was to create an annotated bibliography, a reference list that gives a summary of the of each entry. I chose two different styles to compare from, pop-culture and academic journals to be specific. The main overlap between the fictional and factual genres is that terraforming is still fictional. So far, I have noticed that terraforming, in the fictional examples, is that there is always some sort of colonial need for a new planet. Now there is some scientific standing on the theoretical concept of terraforming, this is what I am hoping to find more of. I feel that as I go further into my research, I will be able to answer how terraforming in fictional pop-culture relates to academic research of terraforming as a possibility for humankind. There will likely be many unanswered questions at the end of my research for this project. I feel that I will have questions on pressure, atmospheric ratios, chemical compositions, and much more. Though those questions will have to be for future study, for this assignment is limited to its relation to pop culture.
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Final Research Project
As you may have noticed if you looked at my annotated bibliography my research topic was terraforming. For my actual project I chose to research how terraforming relates to popular culture and science today. Though I did not use all the same resources from my annotated bibliography, it would have been much to long and I found some more modern examples that were more relatable to the public at this time particularly for popular culture.
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While working on my projects and doing my research there are a fair amount of complicated terminology and jargon that I had to sort through and tried to include what was necessary but limit it so that as many people as possible could understand. It is very important to pay attention to what is being said and how, as something as simple as a comma, or even homophones (words that sound alike but are spelled differently) can make a huge difference. A cute example of this is in my Final Research Project, you may notice I stated “(Please forgive me, I was sick when recording so be-warned of the sniffles)” above the presentation. One may ask if I meant ‘bare’ with me rather than ‘bear’ with me. After doing some research, if you were to ‘bare with me’ it would mean to reveal with me, whereas ‘bear with me’ means endure with me. Don’t believe me? Check it out here: https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/grammar/style-and-usage/bear-with-me-or-bare-with-me-which-is-correct.html
Final SLOs of the Semester
Using areas of the “University of New Mexico Outcomes for First-Year Composition” (listed below) as a guide to write reflections for every Student Learning Outcome (SLO). These reflection will basically be arguments for learning each SLO.
UNM Outcomes
Rhetorical Situation and Genre
A. While working on the projects for this semester we have had to do a lot of analyzing, composing, and reflection on arguments in a variety of genres. For our first project, a rhetorical analysis essay, we had to analyze a multimodal piece and compose what our reflection of the piece was. “I do feel that I missed the mark slightly being at the image I chose was not multimodal (just an image), though I feel I have also made up for the choice in image by accompanying it with an analysis of the article that the image is from. I go into this a bit more in my reflection attached to the essay itself, but for ease of access I chose this image because it was more relatable to the rest of the content on the portfolio and because it spoke to me more than movie posters or commercials.” (Reflection of my Rhetorical Analysis Essay).
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Writing as a Social Act
B. The social nature of composing depends on the discourse community itself. In some communities writing and composing can be very social, for example my Smithing Discourse Community Project from last semester. I found that for this semester I did majority of my research in solitude as it is a more complicated and less socially interesting topic. Though I will admit that though I worked alone on this project I cannot say that it does not have its place in the world. You may notice by looking at my Annotated Bibliography that the works and pieces I researched date as far back as the 1950’s, and though most were from the United States, an article I read by Vincent Bruyere is originally from Italy, making the topic not only local (Williamson, in my Final Research Project), national (Clarke), and international (Bruyere).
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Writing as a Process
C. In all of my works and projects I take the time to plan, research, and organize my thoughts and notes. All good things take time, and anything worth doing is worth taking the time to do it correctly. You may take a note of this as you transfer from my Annotated Bibliography (pre-research) to my Final Research Project of the semester. You may note that I did quite a bit of research, reassessed my situation, revised, and altered what I thought would be more appropriate for the assignment as I went through to two projects.
Grammar and Usage
D and E. While working on my projects and doing my research there are a fair amount of complicated terminology and jargon that I had to sort through and tried to include what was necessary but limit it so that as many people as possible could understand. It is very important to pay attention to what is being said and how, as something as simple as a comma, or even homophones (words that sound alike but are spelled differently) can make a huge difference. A cute example of this is in my Final Research Project, you may notice I stated “(Please forgive me, I was sick when recording so be-warned of the sniffles)” above the presentation. One may ask if I meant ‘bare’ with me rather than ‘bear’ with me. After doing some research, if you were to ‘bare with me’ it would mean to reveal with me, whereas ‘bear with me’ means endure with me. Don’t believe me? Check it out here: https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/grammar/style-and-usage/bear-with-me-or-bare-with-me-which-is-correct.html
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Reflection
F. My development as a writer has progressed some in the sense that I have learned a few new phrases, jargon/terminology, and above all I have changed my citation and presentation style from MLA to APA for my degree. Going through and making sure everything was represented in APA citation was rather a pain as I have been used to using MLA most of my educational life. It was not all to difficult though, and though a slight improvement it is an improvement nonetheless.