Throughout this semester the course learning outcomes from the syllabus have been incorporated into most of the assignments we were asked to complete. While this class differed greatly from a freshman FIQWS class, the course learning outcomes helped me to understand the purpose of the assignments as laid out in the syllabus throughout the semester. Throughout this portfolio are the assignments I have completed this semester and this reflection accounts for the outcomes I have addressed and the ones I must still build upon. My portfolio menu presents the four primary assignments in this class and under the primary assignments are sub assignments that assisted in me completing the primary assignments, most of the course learning outcomes are addressed in these sub assignments leading up to the completion of the primary assignment.

The first-course learning outcome was to “Acknowledge your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibilities.” The purpose of this course learning outcome to my understanding was to measure our style of writing and other styles of writing to better out writing. I felt this outcome was addressed primarily in the class textbook. The recommendations and guides presented in the textbook helped me measure my style of writing to what was recommended or expected in a certain style of writing. Also, this learning outcome was addressed during the workshops held during class, my group members gave me feedback and received feedback on how we would interpret or change an aspect in each other’s writing. Consequently, the third course learning outcome “Negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation,” was also addressed during workshops because my goal was to receive criticism on how to achieve my writing goals and help others achieve their goals in the sense of achieving what they wanted their audience to understand the purpose of their writing.

The second-course learning outcome was “Enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment.” This course learning outcome was addressed primarily in my processes from the first draft of a paper to the final draft, most of my first drafts as shown in this portfolio are formative and are the basis of which my final draft is written. Next, the fourth-course learning outcome was “Develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.” This course learning outcomes ties into the second course learning outcome because in the “Reflective Letters” of the “Scientist Profile Paper” and the “Literature Review Paper” along with the “Introductory Letter Self-Reflection”, for these three sub assignments we had to post in a blog where we were able to read other reflections. For the “Scientist Profile Paper” we had to peer review the reflection of two classmates, both of which can be found under “Scientist Profile Paper”. Although I only received one peer review, I felt being able to read the reviews of others helped me understand the social aspects of the writing process.

The fifth-course learning outcome “Engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond.” This outcome I felt was addressed during the class discussions of the readings we were assigned throughout the semester. We read a variety of different articles, some research papers, literature review models, and papers that represented what we should avoid in our writing. However, I felt this course learning outcome was not addressed as heavily compared to other outcomes in this class. I feel this was the case because most of the assignments I had completed this semester were new to me and the element of genre analysis was addressed throughout the class discussion. However, multimodal composing requires more disciplinary writing from me in the future as I was not familiar with the concept before this semester.

The sixth-course learning outcome was “Formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing.” This outcome for me was addressed primarily in the final assignment of the semester. The second sub assignment under the section “Final Research Paper” is the “Research Proposal”, in my proposal I did not have a drawn-out argument. reviewing the narrative of my proposal helped me to incorporate that argument into my first draft. Although my first draft was formative, I had developed a strong argument to write my research paper on. I was able to formulate this stance and integrate it into writing this paper. Course learning outcome seven was “Practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects.” This course learning outcome was necessary to complete the “Final Research Paper” along with the “Literature Review Paper” and the “Scientist Profile Paper” because we were shown many times during class the recommended databases to use. We learned how to evaluate a journal based on the number of citations and how to differentiate a model source, this course learning outcome was one of the most frequently addressed throughout the semester regarding the merit of the assignments.

Lastly, the final course learning outcome was “Strengthen your source use practices (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources).” Like outcome seven this outcome was addressed from the beginning of the semester and was incorporated starting from the “Literature Review Paper”. My “Literature Review Paper” citation style was AMA while my “Final Research Paper” and “Literature Review Paper” both used the citation style APA. AMA and APA followed different integrating and quoting styles as shown in my papers. Although I personally had trouble with synthesizing and analyzing sources, I will better address this outcome in the future by devoting more time to the editing process and ironing out any imperfections when it comes to integrating sources that may interrupt the consistency of my writing as a whole.
Overall, all of the course learning outcomes in the syllabus were addressed throughout the semester. Some outcomes I must address moving on and other outcomes I am confident I have mastered as a result of this semester. This portfolio is organized in the fashion of the four primary assignments on the top menu and under those assignments contain the sub assignments that helped me to complete those four primary assignments.

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