Throughout this semester I was able to achieve most of the Course Learning Objectives with the help of the distributed lessons and assignments. The topic of Language and Literacy greatly influenced my development as a writer and thinker. Some lessons and insights include, appreciating the upfront opinions of the authors used for my readings and papers, learning to connect the evidence provided by multiple authors in the same topic to legitimatize my writing.

Some of the achieved Course Learning Objectives include but are not limited to, “Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations” and “Recognize the role of language attitudes and standards in empowering, oppressing, and hierarchizing languages and their users. After reading a handful of passages from authors such as Robert MacNeil, Walt Wolfram and Rosina Lippi-Green I have a better grasp on the impact and correlation between U.S. society and the roles of unwritten rules of language attitudes and accepted (or rejected) dialects. For the first objective I learned through virtually every passage during this course. I learned of the hierarchizing of Standard English being raised to a pedestal compared to other forms of English. The weekly rhetorical situations homework assignments helped me explore and analyze in their own and other’s writing a variety of genres and rhetorical situations.

I developed strategies for reading, drafting, revising and editing by completing annotations for every assigned reading along with peer edits that helped me revise my drafts for each essay. In-text citations and the works cited pages I completed for each major writing demonstrated the practice of systematic application of citation conventions. I recognized and practiced key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations by completing multiple rhetorical precis’ on various authors. For instance, I completed a rhetorical precis on Walt Wolfram during phase two. “Walt Wolfram, a well-known scholar who specializes in social and ethnic dialects of American English”. (Hersi 1) This strategy gives insight on the author which can help with their readings. Furthermore, I mentioned the use of rhetorical situations and included a section from Wolfram’s. “Wolfram is responding to the narrative of accents being inferior compared to people who don’t have a non-standard English accent”. (Hersi 1) The Cohen library and online library of CCNY allowed me to understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences when looking for credible sources for my writing assignments such as Ogo Okoye-Johnson’s online article “Intangible Heritage of Standard English Learners: The “Invisible” Subgroup in the United States of America? Implications for Closing the Achievement Gap.” For my phase two essay.

All in all, the helpful class materials enabled me to improved my writing and thinking skills for Language and Literacy.

WORKS CITED PAGE

Hersi, Ali, “Wolfram Precis”, Blackboard, New York, 2018

Hersi, Ali, “Rhetorical Situation Worksheet”, Blackboard, New York, 2018

Okoye-Johnson, Ogo. “Intangible Heritage of Standard English Learners: The “Invisible”

Subgroup in the United States of American? Implications for Closing the Achievement Gap.”

SAGE Open, vol. 1, no.1, 2011, pp. 1–7

Wolfram, Walt, “Everyone has an Accent”, Teaching Tolerance, North Carolina, 2000