ENGL 301

Welcome to my ePortfolio for English 301.

Class Information:
Professor: Amina Ezzeddine
Section: 6
Class Time: M/W/F 1:10pm-2:00pm


English 301 Portfolio Cover Letter

Within the pages of this document are two papers written in my fall 2007 English 301 course taught by Amina Ben Ezzeddine.  The class, as well as the paper, had to do primarily with English rhetoric, however I learned much more than simple verse over the course of this semester.  During this class we had many interesting discussions, with many (and I emphasize many) different opinions being brought to the table by my fellow classmates.  These discussions dramatically enhanced the average text book discussion of rhetoric, as the only real way you can learn about a communicative skill is to in fact, communicate.

The papers within this portfolio are both on topics that I find very interesting and important to our society.  The first is an exploratory paper based on the pros and cons of becoming an armed nation, or maintaining prowess as an armed nation.  I personally believe that many people may disagree with my views on this subject (as I'm pro armament), which is one of the reasons I actually had a lot of fun writing this paper.  In this time of general government distrust, I believe people need to define the difference between fixing a problem (like pulling out of Iraq), and overcorrecting a problem (not funding out military personnel).  It makes for a good read, and the topic is very real world relevant.  The second paper is based on the Toulmin Model of rhetoric, and applies this model to a recent advertisement by Intel for the Core 2 Extreme line of processors.  This topic is both fun and interesting to me, because I never realized how much the advertisement says to me as a gamer (who is the target audience), but would not say to a non gamer.  It was not until I realized that this ad is only for gamers, that I realized how effective this advertisement actually was.  While I already knew quite a lot about both these topics, they were both a blast to write.  The only way you stay sharp on a subject is to keep working with it, so I'm glad I had the opportunity to do a few open ended topics this year, as opposed to the general structure of "write this essay" and "read this chapter."

Overall, I would say all pieces included in this portfolio are "A" quality work.  I put much effort in to each essay within, and am proud of the outcome on both of them.  In general I believe this class gave me a few new perspectives on a variety of different topics.  I'm not sure if my mind has been changed on any of them, but as we discussed in class even with a strong rhetoric that is sometimes impossible.  I will say for sure that these new perspectives have opened my eyes to potential middle grounds on subjects like foreign policy, environmentalism, and a few others.  I had a blast, and hope to have another class like this in the future!

Rob Larsen