Throughout my time in LANG 120, I have started to develop the writing processes of engaging in critical inquiry and reflection, developing information literacy, and communicating in rhetorically effective ways.
Our first major writing assignment was the Little Library assignment. This really helped me with developing information literacy, because it called for me to investigate five different sources and discuss why they were important to me and how they could be important to someone else. It even invited me to discuss how the texts I chose relate to “the bigger picture.” As an example, in my summary of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, I state that, “this would be a good book to put into a little library, because readers can see how race issues have been resolved, but also persisted. So not only is this an entertaining read, but it could potentially raise some sort of awareness for racial issues.” This effectively illustrates my ability to develop information literacy within a text.
Then my StoryCorps listening analysis really helped me to communicate in rhetorically effective ways. When I first wrote my analysis I really focused it on a surface level. Then with some prompting, I started to dig deeper into both parties true feelings. My revisions allowed me to look into what the parties were feeling and how it could have triggered their actions. Overall, the assignment taught me that revisions are not just grammatical, but rhetorical in nature.
Then finally, our rhetorical analysis essay taught me how to engage in critical inquiry and reflection. I drafted three thesis statements, then after it got narrowed down, I revised my chosen thesis multiple times. The essay itself prompted me to ask a critical question and then evaluate it with evidence and outside perspectives. At first, my essay was mainly plot summary, but after revision it is starting to be more of an investigation from different perspectives.