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Throughout the course, the weekly discussions were certainly my favorite part. I typically am worried about any classes that have anything to do with English, because my track record with English has not been the greatest. However, I promised myself I would put my best effort into this class and try to get the most out of it. When I put the effort into fully understanding the readings and replying with complete thoughts regarding the topics, I, to no one's surprise, actually learned about the topics and really enjoyed them. The discussions that had to do with Anne Lamott's "Shitty First Drafts" were extremely helpful with my anxiety surrounding English. It made me feel less like every single thing I submitted had to be perfect, and I found myself remembering that article often.

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I feel like my biggest takeaway from the course, was simply learning the general importance of writing. Whether that be about a specific topic, personal history/ideas, or in response to other people's opinions. When we first started the discourse community discussions and project, I was confused as to why it was so important to spend four weeks on the definition of one thing. However, throughout the process, I realized it may be less about discussing the textbook definition of a word and more about what it really means to be a part of a discourse community and the importance of written language in communities in general.

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As explained in "New Ideas, to me," identifying the importance of some of the topics was a challenge prior to putting the effort into really understanding them. But after reading through the articles and taking the time to think on them rather than just taking the words on the page at face value, they were easily understood. I also had difficulties with the personal narrative, I think this is because I was looking at it as telling the story simply as I recalled it rather than using choice words and phrases to build it up into a story with a full rising action, climax, and resolution.

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Prior to this class, my writing was very basic. I would have a very rudimentary understanding of the topics and use that to create work with whatever first came to mind without thinking it through. I believe that the repetitive involvement in discussions about different topics as well as being able to compare my work to others and having to fully think through another person's thought process taught me how to think through my own ideas and how to best represent them without over-sharing, under-sharing, or just putting words that sounds like they fit on a piece of paper. I am most proud of my Discourse Community Project Prezi. I feel like it really shows my increased ability to efficiently and effectively get my thoughts down.

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I believe three of the course objectives I displayed very well are the following:

1. Analyze rhetorical situations as they relate to discourse communities

2. Demonstrate engagement with intellectually complex writing situations, accounting for multiple perspectives via readings, visual media, and other texts.

3. Create texts, including essays, in print and/or digital formats that respond to varied rhetorical situations

My Discourse Community Assignments show all of these. In the Discourse Community Key Concepts slides, as well as the Discourse Community Profile I analyzed the NAFC, National Association for Free and Charitable Clinics. I feel I did a great job of determining the different portions of the rhetoric and discourse used by this organization.  However, outside of just determining what the rhetoric was, the audience, and the purpose, I analyzed the effectiveness of their discourse in many of its different forms. For example, I felt as though the media they had was aimed more at the people who would give money to run the clinics than the people who needed the clinic. This wasn't to say they care more about money, this was just to point out that much of their media used large amounts of statistics and policy rather than showing what they could give to people in need and how those people should go about getting care. This still met the goals of that discourse community, but not as effectively as I would have hoped.

Then in my Discourse Community Project, I was able to determine my definition of a Discourse community in response to many other authors' and linguists' opinions on the matter. While I did agree with the primary definition from Swales, I felt some things needed to be made clearer or expanded upon to include some of the ideas some of the other authors had, as well as to express the importance of some of the points over the others.

Finally, I did want to mention that for objective three, labeled above, not only did the Discourse Community Project respond to varied rhetorical situations, but throughout the course each discussion post was in response to a different rhetorical situation as well.

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I feel I spent a lot of time on this course. At least more than I have for any other English course I have taken. I think that reflected highly in my work, as most of my assignments were very well thought through. I read some of the readings repeatedly to make sure I understood them, especially the heavier reads like Swales' writing. I then collected my feelings and reading together and reflected on those. I do wish I had looked for outside help with the personal narrative assignments. I have always had difficulty with structure when it comes to more creative writing rather than very organized research. I wish I had identified that sooner so that I could get help from the writing commons or other tutors to ensure my writing was structured properly with a rising action, climax, and resolution.