One of the most helpful aspects of this course was summed up by the first course outcome provided in the course description: apply the writing process to develop essay using various rhetorical patterns in order to inform and persuade an audience. I had always felt that I could research and present information about a topic with relative ease, however I wanted to improve my ability to write persuasively. The course provided me with exercises and multiple opportunities to achieve this goal. Some of the assignments were especially challenging to me because I had to attempt to persuade an audience on a topic that I did not feel strongly about one way or another. This pushed me to really try to understand the topic that I was writing about and not just make generalized arguments and claims as I had done in the past when writing a persuasive essay. The improvements that I made in just the persuasive style of writing alone made taking this class worth it for my writing ability.
The second goal that I wanted to achieve from taking this class was also met. This goal was to basically increase the level of efficiency in my work. The course outcomes helped to supplement this goal, especially the 4th goal that stated, “analyze source material in order to integrate valid and reliable sources using accepted documentation style.” Understanding how to not only find by correctly use my found sources for my papers improved my efficiency of writing dramatically because I did not have to spend a great amount of time figuring out how to correctly apply and use the information from my sources in my papers without having to worry about plagiarizing someone else’s work. Also, by the sheer volume of work that was assigned over the duration of the course, I became more and more comfortable with writing in a particular style and the efficiency and level of speed that I could put into getting an end product increased.