Intermediate Composition - ENGL2089
Welcome to my Intermediate Composition Honors Seminar page! Here, you will learn about my experience exploring how people communicate across various media to form and maintain discourse communities. This coursework gave me the opportunity to better understand how a group's shared language reflects its priorities, values, and identity, allowing me to specifically research and analyze the global soccer community firsthand. Along the way, I gained new perspectives on rhetorical strategies, utilized structured templates to organize complex ideas, and became more intentional in how I tailor my writing for specific audiences. I am excited to share what I learned and how this experience contributed to my growth as an effective communicator in both academic and professional settings.
My Experience
Intermediate Composition Honors allowed me to fulfill a university English requirement while completing an Honors Experience. Taking this course asynchronously over the summer, I explored how people acquire literacy and use various media to form discourse communities. The coursework involved drafting a literacy narrative, conducting a genre analysis, and completing an ethnographic study.
One of my biggest takeaways was learning to apply structured, analytical thinking to written communication. As a Mechanical Engineering student, I discovered that utilizing established templates helped me effectively organize complex ideas. By studying the global soccer community for my ethnography and reviewing a peer's essay on the pre-med community, I gained a deeper understanding of how a group’s shared language and values shape its identity.
This experience significantly impacted how I approach communication as a Global Citizen Scholar. I now recognize that whether in a global community, a local setting, or a technical engineering environment, understanding a group's specific discourse is essential for meaningful collaboration. The skills I developed in analyzing genres and understanding audience needs have made me a more deliberate and reflective communicator. Moving forward, I am better equipped to navigate diverse professional and social environments by recognizing how intentional communication choices foster stronger connections and understanding.
Selected Work: Genre Analysis Essay on Formula 1 Digital Journalism
I selected this essay because it perfectly captures my primary goal from the assignment's planning stages: to explore how writers take "heavy, complicated information and break it down so that everyday readers can understand it." As a mechanical engineering student fascinated by vehicle dynamics, I am accustomed to consuming dense technical data. However, this assignment challenged me to step back and analyze how journalists use varying rhetorical strategies, multimedia, and specific formats to translate complex engineering realities for a massive, diverse global fanbase. This piece best exemplifies my learning because it connects technical communication to the core values of a Global Citizen Scholar. By analyzing how digital barriers like paywalls and ad bloat restrict knowledge, I developed a much stronger awareness of how the medium and genre of our communication dictate who is included in a conversation. Ultimately, this essay demonstrates my growth in recognizing that being an effective global citizen means intentionally bridging the gap between highly technical fields and the broader public to make information accessible to everyone.
