Learning Outcome 1: Nancy Sommer’s first learning outcome regards revision and being able to not only revise the surface, but adjust revisions globally. I excelled on the revision process in my American Values essay, even though it was the most challenging essay I had written so far in the course. As I started writing draft one, I wanted to focus on the perplexing ideas behind the importance of superior animals. However, as I continued to form my paper, my vision changed on the entire paper. In draft 2, I decided to focus on the ignorance of Americans as a whole, and focused in on certain ideas that helped form a sophisticated essay. The final draft focused on the addition of new ideas, and finally doing surface level revisions. Sommer states, “Details are added, dropped, substituted, or reordered according to their sense of what the essay needs for emphasis and proportion.” This learning strategy is something I have really grasped over the length of this course. When I began this course, I focused on rewording and changing weak words to make them strong. At the end of this course, my philosophy has evolved. I focus on global changes and try to enhance my knowledge about the subject I’m writing about. Instead of reaching for a thesaurus, I dive into my subconscious and decide what ideas I can add to my paper. I think about details I can add to strengthen my argument. As Sommer verifies, “Experienced writers describe their primary objective when revising as finding the form or shape of their argument.” I have successfully moved from standard revision to experienced revision.

Learning Outcome 2: In my American Values essay, I was required to integrate 2-3 different sources to back up David Foster Wallace’s quote, “There are limits to what even interested persons can ask of each other.” I chose to use Hal Herzog’s essay, Animals Like Us, Michael Pollan’s essay, The Meal, and David Foster Wallace’s essay, Consider the Lobster. For my essay, I had to provide these quotes to support my thesis. For example, in my first paragraph I used Herzog to support my opinion on the treatment of animals. I used the quote, “; “Snakes don’t eat carrots and asparagus. Given Sam’s need for meat, was it ethical to keep a boa constrictor for a pet? Is having a pet that gets its daily ration of meat from a can of cat food morally preferable to living with a snake? And are there circumstances in which feeding kittens to boa constrictors might actually be morally acceptable,” to describe the troubling morality debate between killing different animals.