The main goal of Language
120 is to help students develop their writing, critical thinking, and
foundational skills for academic and other forms of public discourse. Language
120 is an information literacy intensive course with three distinct
student-learning outcomes. Throughout this course, students are expected to
develop the three learning outcomes. The three student-learning outcomes are to
engage in critical inquiry and reflection, develop information literacy, and to
communicate in rhetorically effective ways. I didn’t know much about what
rhetoric really is, how it’s being used, and how important it is until I took
this class.
All
the assigned readings, class discussions, peer reviews on conversational
papers, and one-on-one meeting with the professor are great tools to help us
develop the essential reading and writing skills, and allow us to engage in the
three main student learning outcomes. My first conversational paper shows my
use of the first and second student learning outcomes. The first
student-learning outcome is to discover and process questions or problems from
multiple perspectives. The second one is to access, evaluate, and blend in
relevant information from a variety of sources in an ethical manner. My first
conversational paper demonstrates what I gained from the first few assigned
readings. From those readings, I have discovered that reading helps me become a
better thinker because it gives me new knowledge about things I do not know,
and it also helps me reflect on myself. The second conversational paper was
about the assigned reading on Booth’s book, The
Rhetoric of Rhetoric. It was not until I’d read it that I came to discover
the importance of rhetoric. We encounter rhetoric in our everyday
communication, and it is critical to listen to others’ use of rhetoric, and
avoid rhetrickary. So far, I have not finished reading “The Rhetoric of
Rhetoric,” but from what I’ve read so far, I have learned to view rhetoric with
a different perspective and I was be able to see its importance. Before I read
this book, I thought of rhetoric as a way to manipulate others. After learning
that political leaders and salespeople use rhetoric to influence us, I realized
that it is important to recognize and listen to others’ use of rhetoric and be able
to make our own judgment. I also learned that rhetoric is a critical tool to
help us communicate with others effectively.
Last but not least, the third student-learning outcome
challenged me to communicate in rhetorically effective ways. The main purpose is
to revise a written work by focusing on the structure and style of the text in
order to produce a text that communicates more effectively to the audience. I
believe, reading and commenting on our classmates’ conversational papers help
me find the use of rhetoric and evaluate their text. The main text, which
challenged me to practice the third student-learning outcome, was the language memoir essay. In this essay, I had to critically reflect upon myself about the
effects of the language I use on my thinking. I believe I took a different
route and tried to discover the unwillingness I felt when it comes to learning
English. My classmate, who reviewed my essay, helped me clear up the
misunderstanding and confusions in my essay. After meeting with professor graves, I had to
give a deeper thought into why I particularly hated English language while I
had a great passion in learning Burmese. To be completely honest, I believe I
have not yet uncovered the answer to that question. However, through crafting
and revising this paper, I’ve learned so much about myself, and also the style
in which I write. I discovered that I enjoy writing when I do not have to care
about any rules or meet a certain expectation. Most importantly, I learned that
I have to think strategically about how to communicate to my intended audience
in my writing. Although I am satisfied with my ability in achieving the first
and second learning outcomes, I believe it will take a few more practices until
I’ve achieved the third learning outcome. I am looking forward to continue
practicing these three outcomes throughout this class, achieve those outcomes
by the end of this class, and be able to use them in other subjects beyond this
class.
