English 400

Fulfilled: Honors Course

In English 400 I was able to improve my writing skills, but more importantly, I was able to improve my communication skills. By studying different aspects of rhetoric, I was able to tailor my message from delivery to format to word choice. This allowed me to not only reach but speak to my audience and connect them to my message. The topic of apologies was a perfect fit, as we all make mistakes and saying the right words after doing the wrong thing can be difficult. It is an area in my life where I wanted to improve and now I know that no matter how badly I blunder, I have tools in my pocket that will help me make things right again.

Once I felt confident in my skills, I was overjoyed to share that knowledge with others. In my experience, having knowledge and understanding something is pointless unless you use and share it with the world. Thankfully, I was able to contribute to the video project my group created that was shown at a panel during research day. I was also lucky enough to sit on the panel and speak to the topics more in-depth. It was highly rewarding to learn how I can better connect with others and is something I hope to pass on to my future students. Knowing that I can show them a video I helped create makes it even better as I can help lead by example showing my students that they can improve themselves and are capable of bringing their unique knowledge to the table.

Rhetoric of Apology: On the Road to Forgiveness is a guide to the art of apology publically shared November 30th, 2018. It is the public presentation and transmission of the lessons I and my fellow classmates learned in the class.