Before taking this class, I hadn’t thought a lot about what effect language can have on the world. The assignments I did this year taught me a lot about the effect that language can have on people. Whether it’s an accent, or speaking a second language, people can share similar experiences with language and the struggle they had with language.

The language narrative analysis helped me to achieve learning goal number one, “recognize the role of language attitudes and standards in empowering, oppressing, and hierarchizing languages and their users, and be open to communicating across different languages and cultures.” Analyzing my peers’ narratives on their experiences with language gave me a better understanding of the experiences different people can have due to language. The rhetorical analysis essay helped me to achieve learning goal number two, “explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations”, because it made me analyze the texts we read more, and the message the authors were giving.

The I-search essay helped me to achieve learning goal number three, “develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing.” Prior to this essay, I hadn’t really annotated texts before. The Rhetorical Analysis  Essay also helped me to achieve learning goal number four, “recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations.” It made me recognize the rhetorical strategies authors were using in their texts. The peer-review assignment helped me to achieve learning goal number five, “engage in the

collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.” Hearing my professor’s and peers’ opinions on my work helped me to improve it. The class facilitation helped me to achieve learning goal number six, “understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences.” It made me think of questions I had for my peers. The i-search project helped me to achieve learning goal number seven, “locate research sources (including academic journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles) in the library’s databases or archives and on the Internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias.” It made me learn more about where to find sources and information for my assignments.

The rhetorical analysis helped me to achieve learning goal number eight, “compose texts that integrate your stance with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation.” It taught me how to better analyze a text. The i-search project helped me to achieve learning goal number nine, “practice systematic application of citation conventions.” I had a lot of sources to cite and it made me get comfortable with citing different sources.

In conclusion, this class has helped me to understand language on a deeper level, and the drastic effect that it has on us, And initially I didn’t realize how big this effect actually was. I enjoyed it more than I expected to, and there were a lot of concepts and experiences we talked about that I could relate to on a personal level.

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