I started out with a working understanding of rhetoric. Intuitively, I knew how to recognize logical, emotional, and credibility claims, and how to apply them to my life. I'd taken a formal logic class which helped my critical thinking about rhetoric to develop. Despite knowing about rhetoric, I'd never rhetorically analyzed my own work. I'd never written a paper deliberately thinking about the members of my audience and how I want each paragraph and sentence to affect them. My writing skills were even less developed. I dreaded writing.  I always had trouble starting the drafting process, and that trouble led to me halfheartedly writing what the instructor wanted and then moving on. I had no passion for expressing myself through text. For that reason, I dreaded this class. I  thought it might even be subjectively harder than my 400-level computer science classes. While this was true at first, my attitude started to change. I learned techniques for beginning drafting, and for pulling useful pieces from the brainstorming process.