RUNNING HEAD: COURSE OUTCOMES RESPONSE

Alyssa Desormeaux

Course Outcomes Response

University of Central Florida

COURSE OUTCOMES RESPONSE

Course Outcome 1:

Within this course, I was introduced to a lot of new reading concepts that I have not

known of before. Specifically, while learning these new reading concepts, I was able to see how

many of the concepts that were introduced to me, were also concepts that I was able to apply to

myself, even before I knew of the actual meaning or idea behind these concepts. For example, I

never realized how the ways that I would act differently within some of my different

environments, could relate to Gee’s concept of having many different Discourses. Furthermore, I

never realized how within those Discourses, the different ways in which we may act in our

different environments contributes to Gee’s idea of how we also have an “identity kit” that we

would use in order to properly fit in and/or adjust to these Discourses.

With the readings that we have read or talked about throughout this course, they have

allowed me to see and understand some of my normal everyday life actions, such as the many

different Discourses that I have, as well as some of my literacy actions. However, although I was

able to understand many of the readings that we have read now, it wasn’t always easy for me to

understand the meanings behind them while I was actively reading them at the time. The strategy

that help me the most in being able to understand these difficult texts was going to my class, and

participating and listening to the class discussions, that we would have, where I would also ask

questions in order to clarify some of my confusions on reading these difficult texts.

COURSE OUTCOME 2:

While writing my many different essays, as well as reading the readings on writing

processes, I have learned that when it comes to our writing processes, it is alright for your first

draft, your rough draft to be a little horrible, or terrible, due to how it is your very first draft. I've
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learned that with your first rough draft, you should not really worry too much about it being all

too perfect. When writing your first rough draft, you should focus more on allowing yourself to

brainstorm about some of your ideas, writing them out on the paper, and later on re-reading it

through and choosing which of your ideas to keep and elaborate on, as well as fixing some

mistakes that you may or may not have made.

Over the time that I have written out my assignments/essays for this course (ENC 1101),

I’ve noticed some improvements/changes within my writing processes. For example, with my

revisions, I at first would write out my essays and would then revise them by looking for simple

grammar mistakes. But over time, I have learned that the proper way to revise what you have

composed, like how an experienced writer would revise their work, would be to not only check

for grammar mistakes, but to also check for if the arguments, ideas, and/or concepts that you

have introduced have stayed consistent and flows nicely with your main theme/idea. That when

you as the writer, are revising your work, you should revise it to see if there is anything that you

may need to add, to clarify/ further elaborate the meaning of what you are trying to say, or take

something out, in order to ensure of the reader’s understanding of what they are reading.

COURSE OUTCOMES 3:

Within this course, I was taught how to adapt to different writing contexts that I would

need to address within my writings, essays (Major Projects). A few specific examples,

demonstrating my understanding of being able to adapt to the different writing contexts that I

needed to address within my writings would be being able to understand the concepts of having a

literacy sponsor by Brandt (1998), as well as Discourses by Gee (1989). Within the reading by

Brant (1998) about having Literacy Sponsors, she mentioned how our Sponsors can contribute to

our learning and understandings as well as improving or withholding of our literacy skills. I was
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able to adapt Brandt’s (1998) definition of a (Literacy) Sponsor to myself for my essays/ Major

Projects, when I remembered how I would listen to music on the radio to help me improve my

English literacy skills.

Additionally, as previously mentioned, we also read another reading/ writing by Gee

(1989), where we learned about our different Discourse Communities and how within those

Discourses, we have our own personal “identity kits” that uniquely goes with those many

different Discourse communities that we have. With Gee (1989) mentioning how we all have

many different Discourses, he furthermore went on to mention how we all have our main

Primary Discourses, and our Secondary Discourses. Our Primary Discourses, as described by

Gee (1989), also known as our initial Discourse, is the one that allows us to have our initial

understandings of ourselves and the world around us. Our Secondary Discourses is when we

have our interactions within the outside world, in the public, through institutions and more.

I was able to apply Gee’s concepts of Discourses to myself, by describing my home,

friends and family to be my Primary Discourse, and my school to be my Secondary Discourse. I

was able to describe the “identity kit” that I would use for both Discourses by talking about how

differently I would dress, speak, act, as well as including some of the different things that I

would learn about within these different Discourses.

COURSE OUTCOMES 4:

Within this specific course, the many essays that we were assigned to write had to do

with writing them within a more narrative genre. When writing out our essays/ Major Projects, it

was important that we focused on lots of personal narrative, including giving details and specific

examples to further clearly contribute the concepts to ourselves within our Narratives. While
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writing my essays in a more Narrative/ Personal genre, it was clear and easy for me to see how

exactly this genre is shaped and operated by a social and rhetorical context.

I was able to find the Narrative genre to be shaped by a more social context due to how

within a Narrative, you are telling a story based on your own personal, social experiences.

Within the Narrative genre, you are taking the time to remember some social/ personal events or

memories that have happened within the past and applying it to yourself, and further shaping

your Narrative. The rhetorical context can help shape the Narrative genre because of how it

allows you to focus on the purpose of sharing your personal experiences with the audience.

Within the Narrative genre, it is important to mention lots of personal examples, and explicit

details for your readers to be able to clearly understand some of your personal experiences and

possibly see if they can relate your own personal experiences to themselves.