• Exploratory Essay:

This segment had assignments that led up to the drafting and finalization of the Exploratory paper. When I first heard the word exploratory essay I thought of it as an argumentative essay, which one of the problems I encountered during the development of this paper. There were assignments that led to a better understanding of what’s expected and later on we had to develop a draft. Being this the first time I was going to write an exploratory paper I was a little confused, and mostly the reason was because I used to writing argumentative papers.

This Essay started off as being redundant and I wasn’t addressing the rhetorical situation whatsoever. After some revisions here and there I submitted my first draft. I was missing many points from the grading rubric, which my peers and Professor highlighted for me. After receiving my peers comments along with my professor’s comments, I was ready to finalize my paper and decide to change and cut a big chunk of it out. I was missing a crucial aspect, which was the outline. I decided to have an outline in the beginning of the paper to make everything more understandable. I wanted to stay as neutral as possible, and I tried, but I was a little more towards the positive side in the conclusion. Following other revisions such as changing certain sources and revising and proof reading my paper a couple of times I arrived at my final piece, which I was proud of because it sounded a lot better than the first draft. I feel like I lost points here and there that could have been prevented but I’m happy with my writing, and I would most likely say that this was one of my most enjoyable writing experience throughout the period of the course.

• Documents:

1. Exploratory Essay First draft with Professor’s comments
2. Exploratory Essay Final Submission
3. Professor’s comments on final submission

• Learning Goals:

1. Learning Goal #1: Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations.
2. Learning Goal #2: Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing.
3.  Learning Goal #3: Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations.
4. Learning Goal #4: Engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.
5. Learning Goal #6: Locate/evaluate research sources in the library’s databases or archives
6. Learning Goal #8: Practice systematic application of citation conventions.