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Mercedes West
Professor J. Chapman
ENG 180 Section 18
12 May 2015
My English 180 Journey
The purpose of English 180-College Writing class was to introduce college writing, with
an emphasis on the writing process, reflective writing and critical thinking. This semester I was
able to learn various ways to analyze writing. This semester we focused on five objectives:
discourse community knowledge, writing process knowledge, rhetorical knowledge, genre
knowledge, and knowledge domains. Each objective was represented in each of our assignments.
The Writing Process was very important in every assignment. There are steps and
processes necessary to take to complete a satisfactory essay. The writing process is identifying,
analyzing, and building on reading, writing and revision. For the Summary assignment I had to
analyze the website of a discourse community but I was unsure of where to start. I chose to
analyze the sorority Delta Sigma Theta Inc. website. The first process of completing my
summary was to visit their website and ask two questions, “What’s it about?” and “What’s its
purpose?” I visited the Writing Center and I received a lot of help on formatting and structuring
my paper. Artifact 1, is the paper of my thoughts from examining Delta Sigma Theta Inc.
website. Completing drafts and revising is important when submitting a work that is satisfactory
for yourself and satisfying requirements. Professor Chapman repeated that some popular authors
revised their books over 100 times until they were happy. The important aspect I have taken
from completing the writing process with every essay is to pay attention and make changes to
comply with requirements. Artifact 2 is the final draft of my Summary assignment I built on my
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rough draft and developed a well-constructed paper. I had learned in my high school English
classes that there are 3 steps to writing a paper: the rough draft which is first, the second draft,
and the final draft. The rough draft could be a list of thoughts or a more structured outline
containing a thesis. The second draft would be the first attempt of bringing all thoughts together
and writing the paper. Lastly but most important is the final draft which is a revised version of
the drafts that fulfills all requirements.
Before English 180 I did not know what a discourse community was. Since I’ve learned
it’s a group of people that share the same beliefs. We had to apply what we learned about
discourse communities to how they could possibly influence the way of thinking, writing and
reading. We were introduced to the Group PowerPoint Assignment. As a group we had to
analyze a discourse community at Western Illinois University and collectively we decided on
AOD, Alcohol and Other Drugs. After learning about their social construction and genres used
we developed our power point. Artifact 3 is the finished product of AOD’s analysis. We
analyzed their outreach programs for their audience and pages that provided information for
anyone to use. I learned that AOD was an organization formed to help students in trouble with
drugs or alcohol. The issues and behaviors addressed in the discourse community has the
influence on thinking, reading and writing. On their website they provided the public with
information on how to help others in serious situations under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Every discourse community has their own ways of communication based on their shared beliefs.
Artifact 4 is my reflection on completing the Group PowerPoint assignment. I reflected on the
website and their programs that were solely catered to their audience. The word choice was easy
to understand even being a person that isn’t affected by drugs or alcohol. Though the discourse
community of AOD is wide ranged they still share the experience of being somewhat affected by
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drugs or alcohol. It was impressive to learn it wasn’t just an informational organization it was
hands-on with the students at WIU. Discourse community was a large part of our curriculum and
was a part of many other assignments. I am now able to understand what a discourse community
is and what influences it has on reading, writing and thinking. The topics addressed amongst any
specific discourse community would relate to their inner connections to each other. The words
they use or the way they speak will be significant because they will share an understanding, just
like a family that speaks Maori, the native language of Australia.
Another objective addressed in English 180 was rhetorical knowledge. Rhetorical
knowledge is being able to interpret rhetorical situations as a social construct, understanding how
perceptions of purpose and audience are influenced by discourse community. Artifact 5 is the
Visual Literacy Essay where I had to identify the elements of the rhetorical situation and the
varying roles played by alphabetic and visual text in the rhetorical situation. I used photographs
and my own art work to tell my literacy journey. I used my portrait of Marilyn Monroe to
“explain a characteristic of my literacy creativity.” My art work had words in the background
and I believed my literacy works did the same by conveying words of myself and my audience. It
was a chance to learn how a physical image could tell a story of just as a book could. Multiple
genres create stories the same as alphabetic text.
Genre knowledge is an objective addressed mostly in our final paper the Genre Analysis.
In the Genre Analysis I had to choose a discourse community and analyze their various genres.
Artifact 6 is the finished product of It Can Wait’s genre analysis. I chose to analyze It Can Wait
a campaign started by AT&T. Their message was to stop texting while driving and they used
different genres to spread the message across the nation. It was easy to connect the genres with
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the success of the discourse community. By It Can Wait using social media and their other
genres lead to their success with lessening the people texting while driving.
Knowledge domain is the most important objective of the class because it is the collective
knowledge gained with an emphasis on rhetoric and genres. Since completing English 180 I have
learned more about the writing process, discourse community, rhetorical, and genre. Each artifact
used as evidence to emphasize the objectives in each assignment and my understanding of the
objectives.