collage

Niko Nemceff

Maj. Garriot

ERH 101-03: Writing and Rhetoric

28 July 2016

Help Received:

Joshua Austin NN

Cameron Nagle NN

Jack Neenan NN

Word count: 1447

 

Self-Reflection

I am an athlete. I swam in a competitive year round swim team called SEVA. This is where my journey starts. I started swimming my sophomore year in high school which is when I was struggling in my English class. I never really had the greatest teachers and never spent enough time on reading and writing. I was always swimming right after school and weight lifting and then when I would get home I would be too tired to do school work. I would just eat a lot for dinner and then watch TV or play Xbox and relax before bed. Reading and writing never really clicked for me. I never wanted to do it and if you saw me doing it then the only reason why would be because it was due and it was for a grade. That was how my sophomore and junior year went, but then it all changed when senior year rolled around. I personally knew my English teacher (Mrs. Cooke) and her daughter swam on the same swim team as me so I always saw her around and I could always go to her for help. She was the one that I actually learned a thing or two about writing and reading. She taught me how to properly use MLA and APA format, how to conduct a research paper, and most importantly time management. From then on I improved on my papers and reading quizzes and mainly earning A’s or high B’s on these assignments and then finished strong with an A in the class. Which was my first ever A in an English class. While I still need more development in writing and reading, my high school to college experience has changed by learning how to write an intro and conclusion, constructing a thesis, and being able to know the difference between an analysis and a summery.

“Past experiences with learning literacy…play a role in…people’s future attitudes toward reading and writing” (Petersen 197). I am using this quote because I myself had a similar experience that affected my way of thinking towards writing and reading. Also how learning literacy and praise from the teacher/professor can change one’s attitude.  My experiences from high school, whether it was trying to learn how to effectively write an intro and a conclusion to being able to distinguish between a summary and an analysis in my first essay was a difficult task. Which will always have a lasting remembrance to me because this was when I started to learn how to conquer these different topics that I struggled with. And now perfecting these skills will produce me to become a successful writer and to benefit these skills while I achieve my goal of commissioning in the armed forces.

My junior year was not the greatest for actually learning English. I came in there not really doing well and always getting a C in the class. It didn’t really help that I had a teacher that just graduated and started teaching. One would think that would be a great thing because she is fresh with knowledge but not her. She couldn’t teach well and for an honors class she made it feel like it was even easier than a regular class. I remember the first paper that she gave us. It was on something that we kind of learned in class but very briefly. And I thought I completely bombed the essay but it turned out that I got an A. Don’t ask me how it happened but somehow it did. I struggled with doing the intros and conclusions on the essays but still received good grades. Her unhelpful teaching didn’t help me develop anything more that I didn’t already know about writing and reading. But since I was only a junior and seventeen I didn’t really care I just was thrilled to be getting good grades for once and accepted the A. And it made my parents happy because it boosted my GPA so it made me happy too. Which looking back, it didn’t help me at all in the future but this all changed come my senior year.

My senior year English class was great, helpful, and so much more useful than my previous years. I personally knew the teacher through my swim team as well as through my summer pool. Being able to know the teacher helped tremendously by enabling me to get in touch with her whenever I needed it. Another writing technique I needed a lot of help with was constructing a thesis. I could never grasp the concept of how to make it an argumentative statement and then picking three topics for my evidence and then proving them in each body paragraph. Mrs. Cooke (my English teacher) worked her magic on me and showed me the ways of how to construct one. It was around December when we had our first paper that was a proper college research paper. I was freaking out like I did on the first ERH 101-03 paper that we did. We spent weeks on researching and drafting this essay. It took most of my fellow classmates and I to figure out what we were even supposed to do. Question after question I became better at developing my thesis and eventually had my paper finished. It turned out that I got an A on it! (93). After that huge paper I felt more confident doing the rest of the papers in the class and got great grades one after the other. My senior English class helped me immensely by finally learning how to properly construct a thesis statement that can have a counterargument and how to decide how to make three examples to support your claim. To this day I still use the same skills for the papers that I have done for ERH 101-03, and am sure that it will help me in my career field that I decide to do when I am older.

Next thing I know I am already taking my first college English class (ERH 101-03).

Coming into the class I was a little skeptical on how this class was going to go. Even though I had what I learned from Mrs. Cooke under my belt, it is still a college class so I already knew it was going to be a challenge. When the professor said everything we learned in high school won’t help us in ERH 101 absolutely got my heart pumping. As well as getting an essay prompt on the first day didn’t help my case either. Which turned out that all four papers over the course are analysis papers that are not my strong suit at all. “You stop your paper at summary. You summarize the policies and then tack a sentence…” (Garriott qtd in Nemceff “Syllabi Analysis” 5). A summary is when one paraphrases a text and puts it into their own words, while an analysis is when one interprets what the text is trying to convey or the purpose of the text. I always had a difficulty identifying a summary from an analysis ever since high school. On my first paper I clearly kept making it a summary and not actually stopping at the summary itself. Doing this and not knowing the difference between the two definitely showed how I need more help on this situation by getting a D on the paper. From then though I took the initiative to better myself and get the help I needed to get better grades on the next three. Over all I have improved on all of these issues and have kept improving on each essay every time. I know ERH 101 will have taught me all of the parts that I had difficulty on and develop me into a more knowledgeable and successful writer and reader.

Throughout my years as a high schooler I have struggled through multiple different structures in writing. Whether its figuring how to figure out my intro and conclusion, constructing the thesis, etc… Over these past few years I have slowly progressed through writing and reading and becoming more knowledgeable of them so I can perform better each time. Throughout the knowledgeable that I have acquired I feel more confident that I can benefit these skills for when I commission and have to communicate to fellow officers or enlisted men and women.

Works Cited

Wardle, Elizabeth and Doug Downs. Writing About Writing. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014. Print

Nemceff. “Syllabi Analysis.” ERH 101-03 STP, 2016. Print

 

 

 

 

 

Niko Nemceff

Maj. Garriot

ERH 101-03: Writing and Rhetoric

28 July 2016

Help Received:

Joshua Austin NN

Cameron Nagle NN

Jack Neenan NN

Word count: 1453

 

Self-Reflection

I am an athlete. I swam in a competitive year round swim team called SEVA. This is where my journey starts. I started swimming my sophomore year in high school which is when I was struggling in my English class. I never really had the greatest teachers and never spent enough time on reading and writing. I was always swimming right after school and weight lifting and then when I would get home I would be too tired to do school work. I would just eat a lot for dinner and then watch TV or play Xbox and relax before bed. Reading and writing never really clicked for me. I never wanted to do it and if you saw me doing it then the only reason why would be because it was due and was a grade. That was how my sophomore and junior year went, but then it all changed when senior year rolled around. I personally knew my English teacher (Mrs. Cooke) and her daughter swam on the same swim team as me so I always saw her around and I could always go to her for help. She was the one that I actually learned a thing or two about writing and reading. She taught me how to properly use MLA and APA format, how to conduct a research paper, and most importantly time management. From then on I improved on my papers and reading quizzes and mainly earning A’s or high B’s on these assignments and then finished strong with an A in the class. Which was my first ever A in an English class. ERH 101 has completely challenged my knowledge about writing by teaching me how to write rhetorically. Which was a knew start because I never had to write this way in the past. I didn’t have to use ethos, pathos, or logos, or about Swales’ characteristics and Gee’s theories about a discourse community. I still learned the material and have applied it in three essays so far. Which take me forever to write because my thought process takes a while to click. But I am still not the greatest writer.  Now I still struggle with writing just because it is just not in my nature. I still struggle with grammar, how to make a thesis, introductions and conclusions, and distinguishing from a summary to an analysis. While I still need more development in writing and reading, my high school to college experience has changed by learning how to write an intro and conclusion, constructing a thesis, and being able to know the difference between an analysis and a summery.

My junior year was not the greatest for actually learning English. I came in their not really doing well and always getting a C in the class. It didn’t really help that I had a teacher that just graduated and started teaching. One would think that would be a great thing because she is fresh with knowledge but not her. She couldn’t teach well and for an honors class she made it feel like it was even easier than a regular class. “Past experiences with learning literacy…play a role in…people’s future attitudes toward reading and writing” (Petersen 197).

I am using this quote because I had an experience in my English class that affected the way I thought about writing and reading. I remember the first paper that she gave us. It was on something that we kind of learned in class but very briefly. And I thought I completely bombed the essay but it turned out that I got an A. Don’t ask me how it happened but somehow it did. I struggled with doing the intros and conclusions on the essays but still received good grades. Her unhelpful teaching didn’t help me develop anything more that I didn’t already know about writing and reading. But since I was only a junior and seventeen I didn’t really care I just was thrilled to be getting good grades for once and accepted the A. And it made my parents happy because it boosted my GPA so it made me happy too. Which looking back, it didn’t help me at all in the future but this all changed come my senior year.

My senior year English class was great, helpful, and so much more useful than my previous years. I personally knew the teacher through my swim team as well as through my summer pool. Being able to know the teacher helped tremendously by enabling me to get in touch with her whenever I needed it. Another writing technique I needed a lot of help with was constructing a thesis. I could never grasp the concept of how to make one. Mrs. Cooke (my English teacher) worked her magic on me and showed me the ways of how to construct one. “Past experiences with learning literacy…play a role in…people’s future attitudes toward reading and writing” (Petersen 197). This quote is significant because I had a change in the way I felt towards writing essays. It was around December when we had our first paper that was a proper college research paper. I was freaking out like I did on the first ERH 101-03 paper that we did. We spent weeks on researching and drafting this essay. It took most of my fellow classmates and I to figure out what we were even supposed to do. Question after question I became better at developing my thesis and eventually had my paper finished. It turned out that I got an A on it! (93). After that huge paper I felt more confident doing the rest of the papers in the class and got great grades one after the other. My senior English class helped me immensely with writing and reading and I still use the same skills for the papers that I have done for ERH 101-03, and am sure that it will help me in my career field that I decide to do when I am older.

Next thing I know I am already taking my first college English class (ERH 101-03).

Coming into the class I was a little skeptical on how this class was going to go. Even though I had what I learned from Mrs. Cooke under my belt, it is still a college class so I already knew it was going to be a challenge. “Past experiences with learning literacy…play a role in…people’s future attitudes toward reading and writing” (Petersen 197). This quote is useful to me because my first college class will always have a lasting impact on me and the way I write and read throughout college and my future career. When the professor said everything we learned in high school won’t help us in ERH 101 absolutely got my heart pumping. As well as getting an essay prompt on the first day didn’t help my case either. Which turned out that all four papers over the course are analysis papers that are not my strong suit at all. “You stop your paper at summary. You summarize the policies and then tack a sentence…” (Maj. Garriott feedback). I always had a difficulty identifying a summary from an analysis ever since high school. On my first paper I clearly kept making it a summary and not actually stopping at the summary itself. Doing this and not knowing the difference between the two definitely showed how I need more help on this situation by getting a D on the paper. From then though I took the initiative to better myself and get the help I needed to get better grades on the next three. Over all I have improved on all of these issues and have kept improving on each essay every time. I know ERH 101 will have taught me all of the parts that I had difficulty on and develop me into a more knowledgeable and successful writer and reader.

Throughout my years as a high schooler I have struggled through multiple different structures in writing. Whether its figuring how to figure out my intro and conclusion, constructing the thesis, etc… Over these past few years I have slowly progressed through writing and reading and becoming more knowledgeable of them so I can perform better each time. Throughout the knowledgeable that I have acquired I feel more confident that I can benefit these skills for when I commission and have to communicate to fellow officers or enlisted men and women.

Works Cited

Wardle, Elizabeth and Doug Downs. Writing About Writing. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014. Print

 

 

 

 

 

Question 2:

I did unfortunately had a literacy sponsor that did withhold me. My junior year my English teacher wasn’t good at all with her teaching skills and made the honors class feel like a regulars class. So the class was as an easy A but it didn’t teach me or help me with the things that I needed for the future. Yes my school system did ban certain books but none of those books affected or affiliated with my English class at all. And then every year we had a list of books for the summer that we had to read two books and then when we would come back we had to do a project on each of them. I did find other sponsors that were positive but it didn’t arrive until senior year with my phenomenal English teacher when I actually started learning.

Question 3:

Some of the literacy sponsors that Malcolm X uses are: Bimbi, the dictionary, the Norfolk Prison Colony’s library, Mr. Muhammad, Wonders of the World, Mr. Woodson’s Negro History, and more.The sponsors that were most influential was the Negro History, the dictionary, and Mr. Muhammad. He taught himself how to read through the dictionary by writing a page a day and then memorizing it, the Negro History because Malcolm X is an African American so it inspired and motivated him the most, and then Mr. Muhammad that his ideas and teachings spread across the country. Their motivations was to educate African Americans and to gain civil rights.

Question 4:

I don’t believe that Malcolm X misused his literacy sponsors. If anything it made his own beliefs and ideas well supported and made his writing very strong and meaningful. And made a great connection to his own personal life.

Disciplinary Awareness: talks about what she will be researching and talking about

Interdisciplinary Awareness: Did not get to finish

Question 1: The “academic” and “personal” can intermingle with one another in different ways. I believe that the majority of time that this happens is during ones history class or english class. For history, someone could be from a different country and have relatives that fought and died in wars or was an unfortunate casualty. But then the teacher/professor goes over that event and doesn’t go into depth about it and misses out on key event. Then that person would have that personal connection due to their affiliation with their family members that were in that event. For english class one could easily have a personal connection within the class. If there was assigned a paper that the class had to reflect on there life or a certain part of their life, what if someone had a very depressing and emotional background? What if they had a deep, meaningful but also a very inspiring story? That is when “personal” and “academics” can become one. My school work hasn’t really been personal just yet but this next essay is suppose to reflect back and touch up on your personal side.

I am an athlete. I swam in a competitive year round swim team called SEVA. This is where my journey starts. I started swimming my sophomore year in high school which is when I was struggling in my English class. I never really had the greatest teachers and never spent enough time on reading and writing. I was always swimming right after school and weight lifting and then when I would get home I would be to tired to do school work. I would just eat a lot for dinner and then watch tv or play xbox and relax before bed. Reading and writing never really clicked for me. I never wanted to do it and if you saw me doing it then the only reason why would be because it was due and was a grade. That was how my sophomore and junior year went, but then it all changed when senior year rolled around. I personally knew my english teacher (Mrs. Cooke) and her daughter swam on the same swim team as me so I always saw her around and I could always go to her for help. She was the one that I actually learned a thing or two about writing and reading. She taught me how to properly use MLA and APA format, how to conduct a research paper, and most importantly time management. From then on I improved on my papers and reading quizzes and mainly earning A’s or high B’s on these assignment and then finished strong with an A in the class. Which was my first ever A in an english class. ERH 101 has completely challenged my knowledge about writing by teaching me how to write rhetorically. Which was a knew start because I never had to write this way in the past. I didn’t have to use ethos, pathos, or logos, or about Swales’ characteristics and Gee’s theories about a discourse community. I still learned the material and have applied it in three essays so far. Which take me forever to write because my thought process takes awhile to click But I am still not the greatest writer.  Now I still struggle with writing just because it is just not in my nature. I still struggle with grammar, how to make a thesis, introductions and conclusions, and distinguishing from a summary to an analysis.

Thesis: My education has developed my capability by…

Niko Nemceff

Maj. Garriott

ERH 101-03: Writing and Rhetoric

22 July 2016

Help Received:

Cameron Nagle NN

Jack Neenan NN

Writing Center NN

Taylor McGregor NN

Micheal McNamara NN

Griffen Murray NN

Word count: 1030

Multimodal Communication Analysis

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) was founded in 1852 by twelve civil engineers in New York City. Now the ASCE has thousands of members and are scattered all over the world (ASCE). The ASCE designs and constructs many different structural projects, while doing so they always protect and restore the environment around them that they have disturbed (ASCE). This organization is the biggest provider for civil engineering technical and professional meetings, as well as furthering the education of engineers (ASCE). This discourse community learns more about the expertise side of technology through the nine different institutes that the ASCE has (ASCE). A few ways that the ASCE reaches their mission is by: advocating infrastructure and environmental protection, developing new technology, and to create civil engineer leaders (ASCE). The ASCE website asserts an educational affiliation with civil engineering by providing a participatory mechanism to enable information about the discourse community, educating members to increase knowledge, as well as having benefits of being a member of the ASCE. I will be using Swales’ third characteristic and Gee’s secondary Discourse to analyze the ASCE website.

This website is to inform people that are interested in becoming a civil engineer and for those that are already civil engineers. Becoming a member of ASCE one will have the opportunity to numerous benefits. For instance, one could continue their education by being trained from experts, even get to earn PDHs (ASCE). Another way someone can further their learning is by going to one out of the nine institutes that the ASCE offers to their members (ASCE). Which allows one to learn a certain type of skill set, like architecture, transportation, engineering that deals with water, etc… (ASCE). The ASCE also offers mentoring events that experts go to teach and share tips to novice students of the same discourse. The ASCE also teaches the younger members so that they can become a successful engineer in their specific discourse community (ASCE).  This article is significant by providing information about the American Society of Civil Engineers and the different benefits of being a member of the community.

A discourse community is a group of people that uses a meeting, or in this case a website (mechanism) to give information within the community or for people that are wanting to join it (Swales 220). In my discourse community, civil engineering, the main professional organization is the American Society of Civil Engineers. The ASCE has a main website which is their form of a mechanism which is used to provide an abundance of information to its members and rising members (the future engineers). The information that this website has is about the different opportunities one could take. For instance, becoming a member of the ASCE and the benefits that comes with it, members can participate in training and classes to further their education, even be able to volunteer for events (ASCE). By using a website, it makes it easier to search and find different topics about the organization or civil engineering conveniently all in one place.

Secondary Discourse is when someone goes to a public society, like an institution, to learn a skill within one or more Discourses after the inner social community at home (Gee par 10). For this discourse, an engineer can become an expert at a certain skill set by enrolling in one out of nine institutions that the ASCE offers. Other expert to novice opportunity that one could join is becoming a mentor (ASCE). Which is a mechanism that ASCE members gather and learn and share their skills and ideas (ASCE). It is also a way for experts to talk to one another as well as to apprentices to show leadership and communication skills (ASCE). Another way that the organization creates the connection between novice and expert is through finding the younger members and then help them to make connections with other expert members so that they can be successful within in their career path (ASCE). This website is useful by engaging its members and informing them about the different options and opportunities that they are able to do so that they can get a higher education and become an expert in a specific discourse community.

Dominant Discourse is a secondary Discourse at which at any moment will bring the possibility of social “goods” or “benefits” (Gee par 11). Some of these social “goods” are money and one’s status in the Discourse community (Gee par 11). Being a member of the ASCE comes with multiple benefits. Some of these include discounts on on-demand webinar, eLearning webinars, books, e-books, etc…(ASCE). A member can also earn five free PDHs a year, which means a professional development hour that one can get after passing the tests after the sessions (ASCE). When one becomes an expert the status and expectations increase. Due to becoming leaders and having to teach and mentor the younger and novice engineers. By posting these benefits on the organizations website it can influence a person to become a member of the ASCE. By having the benefits easier to search and then learning about all of them. As well as the different educational benefits that they are exposed to that will make them experts in one or more Discourses.

The ASCE website is a great way of introducing the organization. The use of a website as a mechanism is an educational way to inform civil engineers and future engineers.  It is effective by having information about what the discourse community learns, the nine institutions it offers that one can become an expert in one or more discourses, to become more knowledgeable and to refine your skill set, as well as the benefits that you are eligible for when becoming a member of ASCE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work Cited

ASCE (2015): n. pag. Web.

Gee, James P. “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction.” Journal of Education 171.1 (1989): 5-17. Print.

Wardle, Elizabeth and Doug Downs. Writing About Writing. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014. Print

 

Presentation1

The advice that we need to remember about the paper of the next 10 hours are: you have sufficient evidence to support your thesis, making sure your thesis is narrow and not too long, as well as making sure you have the correct form for citations.