ENC 2135 offered me opportunities to grow as a writer, researcher, and student. In the first few weeks of the semester, I chose to research women working as surgeons. I personally am a biomathematics major who wants to go into the surgical field, so researching and developing this topic was helpful not only from a writing point of view, but also as an investment in my own future. I got to learn about a pressing topic that will one day affect me in my professional life.

 

We began the class with an annotated bibliography and investigative field essay. Back in my freshman year of high school, I had to complete a similar project. I researched scholarly articles and put them into a research paper. However, that was a long time ago, and it was extremely beneficial to refresh my memory in a more collegiate and relevant context. Additionally, I had never written a paper in APA format, for in high school, I exclusively used MLA. Going into a scientific field, I know that I will need APA going forward, and these papers allowed me to learn this technique.

​

We then moved onto a rhetorical analysis of field artifacts. What I liked about this project was the portion in which we compared and contrasted our artifacts of two different genres and audiences. Digging into the parallels between two completely different rhetorical artifacts showed me how ethos, logos, and pathos can play a role in many genres in ways that I did not know was possible. For example, though I was looking at a scholarly article and a social media post, both were able to effectively employ an emotional appeal to its audience in order to advocate for women in the surgical field. I was unaware that pathos could be utilized in such a diverse way.

​

Next, we were able to create our own artifacts through the Multigenre Persuasive Campaign. This project proved the most challenging for me. I do not consider myself to be very creative, so having the freedom to create whatever I wanted proved difficult. Overcoming this, however, helped me in multiple ways. I was able to develop my technological skills, as with creating a visually appealing newsletter and flyer. Plus, I now have even greater recognition of rhetoric. After the rhetorical analysis, I was confident in my ability to recognize rhetoric, but through Project 3, I learned how to create my own. Every choice I made had meaning, and it forced me to be reflective and conscious during my process.

​

We concluded our semester with the electronic portfolio, where you are viewing this reflective statement right now. This project aided in extending each of the skills I had gained through the semester, as with visual rhetoric and technological skill. In general, I feel that my semester in this class has helped me become a more conscious writer, as well as help me be more prepared for my future as a student and surgeon. I hope that through my next three years at FSU I can continue to develop and utilize these skills to be successful.