My name is Charla Faulkner and I am a Longwood University student studying Criminal Justice with a minor in Psychology and Sociology. I have been attending the university for three years and will be graduating in May 2019. During my time at Longwood, I have had the opportunity to complete an internship with Bull Run ASAP and volunteer with the Immigration Centers of America located near the university. While working at Bull Run ASAP and volunteering at the immigration center, I had the ability to build relationships with many people from different backgrounds who shared their experiences with me. I love learning new things from different people. One of my passions is using American Sign Language to communicate with deaf individuals and learning about deaf culture. Overall, I am a hardworking individual that strives for excellence in all that I do.
The purpose of my ePortfolio is to demonstrate my improvement and understanding of the goals and learning outcomes of English 400. Throughout this course, I have worked on multiple assignments that have allowed me to accomplish these objectives. My course journal entries have influenced me to practice active citizenship writing in that they provided a better understanding of the material I had read so that I was able to apply my new knowledge to common situations in everyday life. The rhetorical analysis, one of our formal projects, allowed me to improve my techniques of analyzing an argument. This also provided me with the opportunity of learning how to make a persuasive argument using the rhetorical tools presented in class. Finally, the Common Good Project showed me that a problem can be addressed in various ways and in doing so, you can reach multiple audiences so that improvements can be made. With these assignments and course content, I have improved my writing by using the rhetorical tools presented in class so that my audience may take action after reading through my pieces of writing.
Course Learning Outcomes
1. Engage in the process of citizen leadership by investigating multiple perspectives on important public issues;
2. Understand the nature of public discourse/debate as determined by purpose, audience, and context;
3. Choose appropriate formats in writing for a variety of purposes;
4. Analyze the effectiveness of their own texts and processes for specific rhetorical situations;
5. Understand how the knowledge, skills, and values learned in general education are interwoven and interrelated, and how they can contribute to the process of citizen leadership.