Self-Assessment
It is fair for me to say that English class this semester was filled with challenges, which in the end, tremendously helped to improve my overall writing skills. In the beginning of the year, we were given specific Course Learning Outcomes, such as being able to explore rhetorical situations in multiple genres, drafting, revising, editing and being able to locate research sources. Throughout the course, all of these Course Learning Outcomes were met over the different activities and assignments conducted.
Throughout the semester, we had several major assignments due, the Literacy Narrative, Annotated Bibliography, Researched Critical Analysis and lastly, the Self Reflection paper. Each of these assignments challenged me in their own way as I had to continuously reread, edit and perfect the work to my best ability. I had to make sure the assignments were meeting the requirements expected by my Professor, while ensuring the fact that I was proud of the work I was producing. For the Literacy Narrative assignment, we explored different non-fiction works and analyzed the rhetorical situation depicted, in order to provide us with an example or template we can use in order to complete our own literacy narrative. The texts provided benefited me significantly as I was able to take into account on how to place past or present tense verbs, how to set up a flashback and how to properly explain the emotions I felt during that time with the use of descriptive language.
Also, throughout the paper I had to take into consideration all of the rhetorical strategies. For example, I had to take into consideration the audience I was writing to. The audience may consist of people who are unaware of the literary text I was referring to, so in order to provide those readers with sufficient information, I had to use specific examples from the book in order to support my perspective on how the text personally benefited me. Another rhetorical device that significantly helped me complete many of the assignments is the purpose. Once I declared the purpose and main argument for a paper, I am then able to formulate a proper thesis statement which encompasses all of the components that will be discussed in the essay. The Literacy Narrative assignment allowed me to practice key rhetorical terms and strategies in order to complete a writing assignment, which is a Course Learning Outcome.
Another assignment was the Annotated Bibliography, which followed a strict format. Following the Norton Field Guide chapter on Annotated Bibliographies, I was able to complete the assignment by summarizing and annotating the scholarly journals I found from the CUNY library database. I was able to use rhetorical devices in order to determine the author’s stance and position to see whether or not they supported or opposed the argument I was making. When writing the Annotated Bibliography, I had to find ways to paraphrase certain ideas stated in the article in order to capture the journals intentions and standpoint. In addition, I was able to achieve the Course Learning Outcome of having to locate research sources and evaluate them for their credibility, bias and accuracy. Another Course Learning Outcome achieved while completing the Annotated Bibliography is practicing systematic applications of citation conventions, meaning I was able to learn the format for citations of different platforms and how to collect appropriate information needed to cite them.
Leading from the Annotated Bibliography is the Researched Critical Analysis assignment. For this assignment, a lot of revising and editing went into producing the most accurate argumentative essay, which depicts my perspective, but takes into consideration the opposing position as well. The first Course Learning Outcome achieved by this assignment was developing strategies for revising, drafting, collaborating and editing. For the research assignment, the class was able to break into groups in order to collaborate with peers in order to edit each other’s work. Peer editing benefited me the most in this class because I was able to receive feedback on multiple essays. I was able to receive essential advice particularly, guidance that would overall improve my work. Some of the feedback I got back surrounded the idea that unnecessary information was present in the essay or there was a lack of explanation that made my argument inadequate. While receiving feedback, I was also able to give feedback to fellow peers through constructive criticism.
By being able to read other students work, it allowed me to observe and examine their technique of writing and their use of descriptive language. I gained more knowledge on how to enhance the structure of my work, by using theirs as an inspiration. Additionally, the research paper highlighted another Course Learning Outcome, to compose a text by integrating your stance using appropriate sources to support it along with using different strategies such as argumentation and critical analysis. Both of these strategies were massively used throughout the essay as I had to analyze the media I used, a Black Mirror episode, in order to create an argumentation around it. Multiple sources were used throughout the research paper, some supporting my argument and others opposing my viewpoint, which in the end I refuted in order to make my stance stronger and superior to the other.
We had smaller assignments among these three required essays for the course. These assignments include discussion posts, a poetic response and journal entries which were conducted every class. All of these factors contributed into the development of the writer I am today due to their consistency and requirement to analyze a topic or text from a different perspective or point of view. The discussion posts allowed me to read several excerpts and compare writing styles or techniques, the use of descriptive language and discuss what specific factors symbolize in the text. Furthermore, the consistency of completing journal entries each day in class allowed me to explore my own creativity. The journal entries were an individual assignment and were not frequently shared with others, thus allowing me each time to add my own perspective or variation in order to express how I personally feel about that specific topic. Lastly, the poetic response assignment was quite difficult for me because I do not regularly write poems or have an inspiration to explore poetry in general, so creating my own poetic work took time to outline and create. I repeatedly doubted my abilities, but in the end, I realized that as long as you are able to express how you truly feel with the use of descriptive diction, any poetic work can come to life and have a flow on its own. With this in mind, I became proud of the work I produced for that assignment.
To conclude, I believe I developed as a writer from the amount of feedback I got from the Professor and classmates. I became more open to editing and revising my work, because I realized how effective it is in producing an improved version of the essay. Some areas I still need to work on includes, keeping my verb tense uniform throughout a paragraph or statement. I realized this was problem throughout several assignments which were peer reviewed for me. Another aspect I need to continue to work on is creating specific thesis statements which encompasses multiple components being explored in the essay, while also being able to be argued from two opposing viewpoints.
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