As this class comes to an end, I have come to realize that I have learned and grown quite a bit throughout my time in ENC 2135.  My skills as a writer are now more polished and developed—not to mention, I have a better grasp on my own identity as a writer.  I learned how to work with others and provide feedback, despite being entrapped on zoom.  Skills like these are incredibly valuable, and I think they will serve me well as I move into the rest of my college career.  Through my initial interviews for my investigative field essay, I learned how to communicate with professionals within my field.  My rhetorical analysis taught be how to truly examine a work and look at all of the tiny details.  Lastly, my multigenre campaign taught me how to compose a persuasive piece that exists on multiple platforms.

            In my first project, the investigative field essay, I must admit that I felt slightly overwhelmed.  Although I had been an editor on my newspaper staff in high school, most of my work was surrounded the design process with me occasionally choosing to write opinion pieces—i.e. no interviews involved.  I chose to write my paper around the English discourse community, going on to discuss whether a career in journalism or one in teaching would better suit my English pursuits.  I had three interviews: an English Professor at FSU, a high-school English and Journalism teacher, and a News Editor for the Omaha World Herald Newspaper.  It was in communicating with professionals such as Dr. Caputi (an English professor at FSU) that forced me to view myself in a more professional manner which I believe allowed me to write a more cohesive and polished paper.  In that way, the first project elevated my writing by first allowing me to elevate my identity as a writer.

            My second project—the rhetorical analysis—felt slightly more within my wheelhouse.  After all, I had been doing rhetorical analysis throughout all of high school in my more advanced classes.  Nevertheless, I still feel I learned a great deal from writing this piece.  My paper surrounded the newspaper industry and how print media is dying—looking at a variety of sources including statistics as well as a personal account.  It was examining the issue from not only a subjective but also an objective view that allowed me to elevate my rhetorical analysis skills.  It forced me to look more closely at the details, recognizing that even the colors on the graphs play a role in persuading the audience.  Overall, the second project expanded my view of how in-depth my analysis should go which I definitely believe will benefit me in the future as I purse my path of an English major.

            Lastly, my multigenre campaign taught me many things and forced me to look beyond the basic definition of a genre.  In extending my English skills to platforms such as Twitter, a website, etc.  This project changed my definition of what English is and expanded my view.  Until this class, my perspective on English class had been limited to that of high school: that our English projects should seemingly be limited to papers and analysis.  It was nice to break from that mold.  Learning to work on a multigenre campaign with many platforms allowed me to expand my skills as a writer and think outside the box.

            As a freshman at FSU, I very much appreciate what this class has done for me.  ENC 2135 has prepared me to write in my future collegiate career and pushed me outside of my comfort zone, getting me to write a variety of styles of papers.  I am now a better and more confident writer going into the future.