Of the various Course Learning Outcomes this year, I learned most about the following

• undertanding and using print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences
• locating research sources in the CCNY library’s databases or archives and on the Internet and evaluating them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness and bias
• composing texts that integrate my stance with appropriate sources using various strategies

One of the first assignments of the semester was a source-based essay in which we were tasked to research a topic, gather sources and analyze the sources to come to the conclusion about the topic. Through this process, I learned more about how to find reliable sources and identify what biases the author has. In some scenarios, I found that having it wasn’t necessarily bad to have a bias. In fact, the more biased pieces were sometimes more informative than the neutral ones in that added another perspective to the topic of concern. In understanding each source, the purpose and target audience, I was better able to construct my own essay and analysis. I also found the many academic databases such as OneFile and Gale useful in my research as they made it easy to parse through all the content and filter for certain types of media including academic journals, magazines and newspaper articles. Upon finding all the sources, I learned to assess their credibility by looking into their publication or experience of the authors and well as their tone and target audience. Using the knowledge I gained from the first assignment on gathering sources, I was able to better understand and use such sources to address a range of audiences in both my Inquiry-Based essay and Composition in Two Genres assignment. My chosen topic was somewhat broad in that there were many layers to it and a lot of information to cover in order to get my point across, but I was from various perspectives in order to narrow down my audiences and set a tone for my writing that successfully conveyed my stance on the subject being discussed. Some sources were used in support of my claims and others for counterarguments. In all, my greatest takeaway from this course would have to be learning how to use synthesis to improve my writing and convey my stance on a topic. Through the practice synthesis sessions and implementing what I’d learned from them in final essays, I was able to strengthen my conclusion and structure my writing in a way that better incorporated my sources with my own ideas. Rather than simply restating what my sources said and connecting that to my own thoughts, I started to compare and contrast the sources to one another in order to support or add to my own stance. I think that learning how to identify biases and credibility, the intended audience or situation and strategies to integrate sources to a stance even outside of essay writing can be useful. For example, in writing emails, it’s important to know who the audience or recipient in order to find the proper tone that will best convey the message being written. In verbal situations ranging from casual conversations to debates, the audience plays a role in the language you use to speak to someone and, especially in debates, bringing in credible sources can help to saturate a conversation and add value to the claims being made. Overall, while I learned all of these strategies in a controlled academic setting, I believe that they will be useful beyond the classroom and can help me out in any rhetorical situation I happen to stumble upon.