Dear English110 students and CCNY English Department, 

When I first entered English 11000, it wasn’t at all what I expected it to be. Filled with nerves on the first day of class, I never thought I would come out as strong as I have. I was very scared throughout the semester because of the fact that English was never my strong suit. Throughout high school, everything I ever wrote was always based on what my teachers wanted me to write about. It was never fun but very boring because I was never interested in the topic being taught. Now, having the liberty to finally choose what I wanted to write about, motivated me to actually want to try. 

Throughout this course, I was very challenged because each assignment that was given to me where I had to write anything, I would always get writer’s block and never know how to start nor to end. We had 3 major assignments this semester which were the Literacy Narrative, Annotated Bibliography, the Expository Essay, and the Argumentative Essay. Where I explored how the genres differ from each other and pushed me into writing my own works with those genres based on what I was taught. Although I spent a lot of time in all of them, compared to the amount of time it took me to write my Literacy Narrative does even compared to the Argumentative Essay. In its simplicity, the Literacy Narrative took me longer to write than both the Expository and Argumentative Essay. I was shocked and excited because each assignment took me less time to write which showed that I was improving and understanding what I was being taught.

When I used to write essays before this class, I never once thought about rhetorical elements. I would just write because I want to get a good grade, there was no exigence behind my writing. To be completely honest with you, I didn’t even know what rhetorical elements were before I took this course. I wouldn’t consider myself to be a bad writer when I entered this course but it definitely helped me build my writing and put into perspective that when I write I should always keep rhetorical terms in mind. The thing I enjoyed the most from this course was that I was able to work with my classmates and get their input on my writing. Getting information from the audience allowed me as a writer, what to keep in mind and showed me that there is always room for improvement. It was like a life revelation because it made me realize that no matter how good I may do something I could always do better.

Throughout this website, I hope you could see that because of this course I have successfully learned what rhetorical elements are and meet the Course Learning Objectives and how much I have grown as a writer. Being that this is my first year in college, I am overjoyed knowing that something good came out of this very hectic year. I am not gonna say that this course changed my life, but it opened my eyes and allowed me to experience new things getting closer to my final goal, which is, being the best version of myself I can possibly be. So thank you for taking your time and going through my website and experiencing my journey in becoming a better writer.

Sincerely, 

Jorge Andrade