Final Reflection Essay

Coming into ENC2135, I had a very minimal understanding of what genres actually were beyond the basic idea I already had from categories in fiction or in music. About six weeks after first being introduced to the deeper concept of genres, rhetorical strategies, and my own writing process, I can confidently say that this course has taught me writing skills that I will carry with me far past when this course comes to a close. 

The most important thing I believe I have learned is what a genre genuinely is. A genre is not just a label, it is a category of a prominent rhetorical situation that comes with its own audience, purpose, and set of conventions. Once I came to understand this, I began to notice genres everywhere in my everyday life. A simple email to a professor letting them know you need some extra help is a genre just as a Instagram reel we watch when we are killing time is a genre. Realizing this changed how I read and consume media day to day. When I scroll through social media now, I can no longer watch passively as I feel as though I have been wired to notice who the content is aimed towards, what it wants to persuade me of, and whether or not it is a successfully crafted genre overall.

One of the projects that helped me the most was Project 2: Multigenre Persuasive Campaign and Rationale, where we had to create three genres as well as a persuasive essay. Although I didn't score as well as I wish I had on this paper, the process as well as the feedback I received from my grader truly benefitted me, showing me what went wrong and how to improve my genres. For Project 2, I created a social media campaign targeted at NCAA college baseball players advocating for the use of wooden bats over metal bats. Building this campaign taught me how important it is to know your audience in an intimate way. It is simply not adequate to say that my audience is just "baseball players," you habe to know what platforms they use, what kind of content catches their attention, what arguments you think they would resonate with, etc. I also found that just "baseball players" isn't a niche enough population to fully persuade. In order to make it easier to persuade a certain group, you have to get really specific with who you are trying to reach. Therefore, I thought that shrinking the population for one of my genres down to NCAA college baseball players who are striving to be in the MLB would help me create content that would reach them as closely as possible.  Framing the argument around player development and professional readiness was way more persuasive to this specific audience than simply showing rules or statistics to the general population of those who consume baseball content online.

As a finance major, I didn't expect a writing course to intrigue me as much as ENC2135 did. I also didn't expect it to be too important for my future career, however I now know how completely wrong I was. Going into finance post-grad means speaking to people all day which requires a masterful set of communication skills. Understanding how to read a rhetorical situation and adapt my composing to match the situation is a skill that I will use throughout my entire life, and I owe it to this course for teaching me these skills.

This course challenged me to think more carefully and deliberately about every piece of writing I compose. I came in thinking that I was already a pretty good writer, having mastered grammar, structure, and language. I am leaving this course knowing it is truly about understanding your audience, your purpose of composing each paper, and the context with which you are writing in. These are the skills that I know will make me a stronger communicator, a more effective professional, and a more intentional writer for the rest of my life.