Salguero 1

Vanesa Salguero
4/26/2016
ENGL 102
Professor Deadrick
Reflection
This spring semester in English 102, I learned essential writing and communication
techniques. In English 102, I was taught how to write arguments and how to express them. This
semester, I learned how to apply rhetorical strategies in order to convince the reader to agree
with what I am writing about. This class has also taught me how to organize my writing more
clearly and develop a college-level paper. I believe that this class has made me gain the skills
they were hoping to give me at the beginning of the semester. I learned how to cite my articles
properly, speak to more than one audience and how to use rhetorical techniques.
Giving credit for articles was one of the things that I struggled with the most before this
class. It super important to give credit and not plagiarize. Before it would confuse me in what
order the citations should be in. I learned how to find reliable and credible sources and how to
properly cite them. I believe in my research assignment, Animal Testing is Bad Science, I was
the strongest in my citing. This class showed me how to organize and make a cleaner citation.
Another thing that I learned in English 102 how to speak to more than one audience and
not be biased towards a subject throughout the whole essay. In the past, I would write essays that
were completely biased. Now I understand that a strong argument needs to draw all audiences.
After you have stated your reasons for the stance you must talk about the opposite opinion. I
believe I was the strongest in my essay, Marijuana vs Alcohol, because I did not give my stance
until the end. Throughout most of the body I only gave information and I was able to talk to a

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bigger audience. By the end when I would state my claim I would give my reasons for why I
chose that side. That makes an argument stronger because you already have caught the attention
of your audience.
Another thing I learned was how to use rhetorical techniques. We studied rhetorical
appeals by using pathos, ethos and logos. These strategies helped me gain skills i could use to
make an argument. I believe that the best work that I used my rhetorical strategies was in the
visual argument assignment. I talked about different ePortfolios I looked at and how much it
convinced me that they were excellent student. Some used a pathological appeal in making their
ePortfolio and how they used it to emotionally engage readers so they become more interesting. I
also used pathological appeals in my essay, Animal Testing is Bad Science. I talked about how
animal testing is cruel and inhumane by giving examples of the terrible things that go on to
animals who get experimented on.
At the beginning of the semester, I started to not pull through in my work which could be
a reason why I didn't learn as much as I wanted to. Also, it was difficult for me to motivate
myself to do any work because I was going through family difficulties. I know that I have not
done as good as I wanted to. I still met my goals as I stated in the very first reflection paper of
the semester. I was able to take skills I learned in this class and apply it to other things. It helped
me have stronger arguments and write and orally communicate with audiences that would be
interested in what I have to argue about.

Works Cited
Salguero, Vanesa. Visual Argument. 1 Feb. 2016.
Salguero, Vanesa Marijuana Vs. Alcohol.

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Salguero, Vanesa Animal Testing is Bad Science 15 April. 2016.

Salguero, Vanesa reflection 31 Feb. 2016