english reflective essay
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This is my English Reflective Essay for the English Rhetoric Portfolio written by Andrea Edwards.TRANSCRIPT
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Edwards, Andrea
English Rhetoric and Composition Portfolio
Reflective Essay
Fall 2015
One More Time
Aside from the various personal issues I had to battle over the last three years in the
graduate school program, and the various struggles I have had to overcome in terms of finishing
my academic work, I haven’t a single regret. Those struggles I have faced have only served to
give me the strength I need to complete my studies and continue researching for as long as I can.
The first two papers I wrote for the program were for Dr. Kraemer’s English 582- “Rhetoric and
Poetics”, and Dr. Hall’s English 551-“Studies in English Literature”, and those papers were
“‘Now I Lay Me’- Hemingway and Narrative” and “Ecocriticism on William Blake’s ‘The
Lamb’ and ‘The Tyger’” (which was also my Graduate Symposium paper in 2012). I felt for the
longest time as though these were two of my best papers because I worked tediously on them. I
was fresh and new to the program, and I wanted to leave a lasting impression on my colleagues,
professors, and academic community as a whole. At the time, I was also a fan of Ernest
Hemingway and William Blake.
As I was creating my paper on Ernest Hemingway’s “‘Now I Lay Me’-Hemingway and
Narrative”, I had also created the previously mentioned seminar paper for Dr. Hall. At first, my
intention was not to present “Ecocriticism on William Blake’s ‘The Lamb’ and ‘The Tyger’” at
the Graduate Symposium despite having poured my entire being into it in an attempt to prove I
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was worthy of being admitted into the English Graduate Studies Program. I had to present this
paper to the rest of my colleagues. This paper was also the reason for my inspiration and
motivation to write higher quality papers, but I always felt as though I couldn’t do so because
they would never be as great as my symposium paper, or the paper I completed for Dr.
Kraemer’s course.
I loved Ernest Hemingway’s style of writing, and I was fascinated by his prose and short
stories on war and political topics, which did not appear to be hot button topics of the time. They
were, nevertheless, topics which needed to be addressed. Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like
White Elephants” caught my eye because I related to the female protagonist of the story in terms
of sharing a familiar situation and perspective. I loved Hemingway for addressing this issue
insofar as shining a much needed light on the women and the struggles we face. Ernest
Hemingway won me over again with “Now I Lay Me” in the form of his protagonist Nick
Adams. I was able to relate instantly with Nick Adams since I had experienced dreams and
memories that were similar to Nick’s, and I had friends and family members who wanted me to
get married. I also loved the how the story was narrated and Hemingway’s style of writing. The
lyric narrative was an essential part of this short story.
The next rhetoric course after this English 582 or “Rhetoric and Poetics” for me, was
English 587: “Teaching Basic Writing”, and in this course one of our assignments was about
“Teaching Style”, so I created a project on teaching style in first-year composition student
papers. At first, I disagreed with Karen Vaught-Alexander’s views on teaching grammar and
mechanics before style in freshmen composition papers; however, my views on this have
changed in light of having tutored and taught students at the elementary school level. I clearly
see now how grammar and mechanics are of great importance, and as important as style is in a
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student’s paper, conveying the meaning intended to for the audience’s adherence should be a
primary focus. We, academics, ultimately want to teach students how to convey their ideas in a
well-constructed manner, and in order to do this those students need all of the resources we can
provide them with in order to succeed.
Winter Quarter 2013 was my back-to-back Rhetoric and Composition courses quarter,
and I had taken English 583: “Composition Theory” with Dr. Edlund and English 584: “Theory
and Practice of Modern Rhetoric” with Dr. Kraemer, and I considered this quarter to be my
“experimental quarter” in terms of the projects and topics I choose for my respective courses. My
best-friend, Winston, and I choose to co-write the “Rhetorical Analysis Ted Kaczynski’s ‘The
Unabomber Manifesto” for English 584. In retrospect, it may not have been a wise decision to
write such an experimental academic paper; however, I do not regret having written it. There
were plenty of topics to choose from, yet I chose to compose a paper on this subject essentially
to differentiate myself from my colleagues. Winston and I stated:
Our paper looks at Ted Kaczynski’s “Industrial Society and Its Future”,
otherwise known as “The Unabomber’s Manifesto” for how his rhetoric warns
readers to the dangers of technology dependent society. Along with other
sources, we analyze how Burke’s pentad, focusing on the scene-agent ratio,
comes into play as several people like Heidegger argue the current situation of
society from our machines or the nature of Kaczynski’s argument for how it
pertains to the lives of Americans. It is the collision of different factors of society
relevant to the activities of Kaczynski where defenders of organized institutions
(such as law enforcement) or the common person assert their positions (Abstract
from “Rhetorical Analysis Ted Kaczynski’s ‘The Unabomber Manifesto”).
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At the time, I viewed rhetoric, such as Kaczynski’s manifesto, to be a dangerous and riddled with
misinformation. The messages were convoluted, yet I also viewed it to be intriguing in the sense
that Kaczynski honestly believed his own ideology, and had gone so far as to murder and
threaten lives in order to send his message to the masses. I also asserted Burke’s Pentad was
fitting for the analysis due to the combination of variables occurring in the overall events
transpiring in the course of the several months and years Kaczynski had carried out his attacks.
Aside from this assignment, there were other aspects of this course I genuinely loved.
Another assignment we had for this course was to read Dr. Edlund, “Bakhtin and the
Social Reality of Language Acquisition”, and when I saw Dr. Edlund’s name on this assignment,
I began to realize professors have written papers as well, and Dr. Edlund’s article discusses
Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of language acquisition. This article also addresses syntactic and
grammatical problematic areas alongside failures in rhetoric. Once I was in several of Dr.
Edlund’s courses, I soon began to realize that professors have to write and research often in order
to gain and maintain their standings at their respected universities. They also wrote those papers
because they genuinely loved researching for their respected fields of study.
I was also enrolled in Dr. Edlund’s English 583 course the in exact same quarter as I was
enrolled in Dr. Kraemer’s English 584 course, and in Dr. Edlund’s 583 course, I learned how to
teach students how to address their discourse communities using several of James Berlin’s
theories and arguments as stated in Rhetoric, Poetics and Cultures. Much of this proved helpful
and useful when I was tutoring college students with learning disabilities at ARCHES. I had
several students who had difficulties communicating with their professors because they were
unaware of what their professors were requesting in their writing, and after reading the articles
and textbooks required for reading for class, I learned how to better address my students’ needs
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and wants in their writing. Several of my students had a better success rate with their writing
after I stated to them that their professors wanted to understand how much of the discourse they
comprehended. These professors were demanding their students analyze the theories and
practices of their fields, and demonstrate an investigative interpretation of what they have
learned in their courses thus far. It is often difficult for students to fathom what their lives will be
like after they have graduated college, and they can’t imagine how their college writings will
apply to their professions, however, it does.
The next quarter, spring 2013, I was enrolled in English 588, and for this course, Dr.
Edlund gave us the option of writing about Machine Scoring, MOOC’s, and different forms of
teaching colleges courses, and I chose to write about Machine Scoring in light of how technology
was changing, in relation to demands for efficiency or other department concerns, computer or
machine scoring was readily becoming the norm at colleges nationwide with arguments for
automatic evaluation and possibly feedback. I was rather frightened by this due to my prior
experiences of how unreliable technology could be. I did not see machine scoring as an answer
to professors and teachers’ prayers of a better formula or format of scoring student papers.
Machine scoring, to me, did not seem to be an adequate answer to current demands for
education, and it appears as though I may have been somewhat right about it. I tutored students
for one year at a multimedia middle school where the technology, at times, was anything but
reliable, and the students, the majority of them, were not taught how to take test on computers.
The majority of them didn’t even have the patience for it. The other problem was there was not
enough emphasis on reading articles and analyzing them. Achieve 3000 was a system set up to
address such elements of their studies; however, it is also a flawed system because it does not
detect all of their errors. The instructors are still in charge of that aspect of the program. If
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machine scoring is similar to Achieve 3000 and turnitin.com, then the professors still have the
power to determine the score or grade of the student’s paper.
The final Rhetoric course I had taken was Rhetoric 581, and I loved this course. It was
History of Rhetoric, and I loved this course because I love learning the history of anything I am
studying. I love learning the history of a subject or field of study because I have a point of origin,
and I have a greater awareness of where this field of study is going in terms of ideas, arguments,
theories, and methodology. Aristotle and Cicero were two of my favorite rhetoricians, and my
colleagues and I were given several wonderful assignments in this course. The first was for out
midterm, and it was an article which completely opened my mind, and one which bestowed upon
me a rhetorical epiphany. The article was entitled “The Lie Factory: How politics became a
business” by Jill Lepore, 24 September 2012, and it was an article from The New Yorker. It
solidified and validated my feelings towards the political system in the United States of America.
For years, I felt as though our political system was terribly divided, and now I knew why. Lepore
explained in such great detail, and with historical evidence, why the political system was in such
disarray, and why people feel as though they cannot win when it comes to their political views.
As though there is no middle ground, and although I felt sick to my stomach after reading it, I
felt an extreme sense of validation after reading it. I have kept the vast majority of my articles
and term papers from the program (I have done my best not to get rid of anything, or throw any
of my articles and papers away); however, I view this article as my trophy because I can use it as
proof whenever anyone attempts change or devalue my personal or political views.
I had several favorite assignments from this course, and I would have to express now that
this had to have been a favorite course due to all of the wonderful assignments Dr. Edlund had
given us. I loved the “Group Panel Enactment Project” Dr. Edlund assigned to our class because
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it gave me a greater understanding of the rhetoricians, their theories, and the roles they play in
rhetoric. My group members were Brittany Cortez, Sally Olivas, Claire Rodriguez, Terry
Steagull, and our group was named “Rhetors United”. We created a skit centered around
arguments my character from the novel Roman Blood. Our characters had to analyze the novel,
and provide arguments and statements about the novel. My character, Cicero, spent much time
defending himself because he believed the statements created about him were false, inaccurate,
mere speculation, and an over-dramatization of the case and my character. It was enjoyable
having to defend myself and listening to the arguments being made by my fellow rhetoricians.
Another project we were given was the final project, and for this one, I choose to analyze
memory and oral tradition in rhetoric and academia. The project was entitled “Memory and Oral
Tradition in Rhetoric”, and I loved my enlightening research for this paper. I had to find articles
on memory and oral tradition, and I had to create a lesson plan for students in a freshman
composition course. This fascinated me due to what my students at ARCHES and my colleagues
and I were going through during that particular quarter. Winston Falkenstein and I, along with
two of our other colleagues, had to study for our Comprehensive Exams that quarter. I also had a
student at ARCHES who came to me that quarter because she had been accused of plagiarism
(which is considered a crime in any portion of academia), and I was tasked with helping her out
of her predicament as I may have stated in my essay on memory and oral tradition. She was
accused of accidental plagiarism because she struggled to remember where certain quotes or
phrases came from; this was the inspiration for my project. I acknowledge I may have brought
this to the attention of other academics and scholars before, although I feel it is important to
address this because there are students who have ended up in her situation, and I admit I could
have been one of those students at one time in my academic career.
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This was an eye-opener for me because I had never met someone who had been accused
of academic plagiarism before, let alone being challenged with the task of assisting her in
rectifying her academic standing. I did everything I could to assist her while also researching
how our minds and memory function. I admit I have difficulty remembering at times and have
felt the fear of never wanting to be in a situation where my memory failed me so much to the
point where I would suffer for it.
When I began researching this project, I learned there was a long history of rhetoricians
and people being concerned with memory because of the emergence of writing, reading,
literature, books, television, computers, and now the scariest one of them all, smart phones,
where a person doesn’t have to remember any kind of information—they can simply search for
said information on their phones. If the rhetoricians of the past could veer into the future, they
might easily fear for humanity if they knew what our modern day technology was capable of
doing in terms of searching for information and not having to memorize any of it. Although there
are people in this world who still have wonderful memories, and the ability to remember any
kind of information presented to them, there are those of us who are not so fortunate unless we
do exercises and brain games to strengthen our minds into functioning in the manner to which we
would wish them to do.
I included the oral tradition portion of it because oral tradition is rooted in memory, and
without memory, there essentially wouldn’t be oral tradition. The two are synonymous with one
another because it appears as though people cannot have oral tradition without memory, and in
turn, memory is highly important to oral tradition. My grandmother had a wonderful memory,
and she had such active mind even into her passing. She could remember nearly everything. She
always had these amazing stories to share with her three grandchildren and two great-
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grandchildren. She remembered stories from her days in the Great Depression and World War II,
and she could remember even the tiniest of details right down to how much food cost and what
people had to do during the black outs. I wrote a history paper on her for my U.S. Women’s
History course because her information was remarkably detailed. I sadly couldn’t believe much
of what she told me at first until I began researching what told me and discovering she was right.
Her mind was so sharp! I only wished my memory could be as great as hers if and when I ever
become 93 years old.
So one more time, although my journey through the program may not have been a
smooth one, I have created many wonderful memories. If I had to do it all over again, I certainly
would. I have learned how to write and research in ways I never dreamt possible as well as
developing the skills necessary to distinguish the difference between great writing and
arguments, and arguments which can be considered “works in progress”. I have a greater
perception of what great arguments are, and if someone believes an argument to be wrong,
incorrect, or invalid, to trust one’s intuition by checking those facts and statements and
discovering why those statements might be inaccurate. My time in the program is ending here;
however, my story and journey into the next frontier is only beginning.