This page talks about my experience in Jarret Morans Engl 11o00 class for the spring semester in the city college of New York and talks about my evolution as a writer in this short time.
Andres Zacarias
Engl 11000
Professor Moran
May 10th-2023
Self-assessment essay
During the entirety of ENGL 110, in every stage of the course, the majority of the learning objectives have remained pertinent, and upon completing the entire curriculum, they have bolstered my grasp of reading and writing as an integrated field of study. Each objective holds immense importance in fostering the fundamental abilities required for adept writing, which will undoubtedly serve me well in all my future writing.
A course learning objective that I have been able to master is “Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations.” The final assignment for phase 2 was the one that I enjoyed the most in doing out of all the other phase assignments. It really helped me understand and learn how to use rhetorical strategies in my writing. The focus of this course’s learning objective pertains primarily to the purpose conveyed in a written work. As I delved into the study of rhetorical elements and incorporated them into my own writing, the central concept that consistently arose was purpose. Whenever I contemplated rhetorical elements, I frequently found myself pondering questions such as, “What motivated the author to adopt this particular writing style?” or “In what manner and for what reasons should I employ this rhetorical approach in my own composition? Will it enhance my writing or am I merely utilizing it for the sake of using it?” Asking myself those questions helped me managed to improve my writing as well as help me grow. For example when I was doing my phase 2, one of the parts consisted of me creating my own piece to which I have chosen the option into writing a poem. The poem itself was about purpose and life connecting it to me making sure the reader how I speak my voice.
Another course learning objective that I have learned is “Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing.” Throughout the three major assessments, we organized peer review sessions where we actively implemented each of these steps emphasized in the course’s learning objective. If I’m being honest i feel writing the first draft of any assignment is the longest part because you must think of what you’re going to write about and what sources/readings u want to include in your writing for details. I have discovered that revising and editing require somewhat a little effort on my part. This is due to how I know what I would want to write. However, even though I may consider my writing good from my own perspective, there are instances where I can overlook certain aspects because of me being the author. The process of revising and editing often requires an external viewpoint to identify opportunities for improvement in a piece. A specific situation where this concept proved highly advantageous was during the initial phase of the WLLN. In the beginning, I had produced a text that simply fulfilled the basic requirements without much depth. During the peer review session, while reading someone else’s writing, I noticed that they had also created a piece lacking significant meaning. Recognizing this, I assisted my peer in determining where and why they should incorporate meaning into their work. Upon reflecting on my own writing, I realized that I had fallen into the same trap, but my personal involvement as the writer had prevented me from recognizing it.
A third and fourth learn course objective is “Locate research sources (including academic journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles) in the library’s databases or archives and on the internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias” and “Compose texts that integrate a stance with appropriate sources, using strategies such as summary, analysis, synthesis, and argumentation. Both course learning objectives are interconnected because one focuses on the skill of sourcing while the other emphasizes the skill of utilizing sources. These objectives directly align with the research essay in phase 3. During this phase, when seeking sources, I conducted searches online, but selecting the appropriate sources for the research essay required understanding how they would be incorporated beforehand. Without this knowledge, using the sources effectively would be considerably more challenging. However, once I determined how and where to utilize the sources, I could then identify and extract relevant portions to incorporate into my essay. For instance, when preparing my research essay, I created an outline beforehand, enabling me to determine precisely what information I would require from each source.
I successfully achieved the final learning objective of the course, which is to comprehend and utilize both print and digital technologies to address diverse audiences. I acquired this skill throughout phase 1 and phase 2 of the course. In both phases, it was crucial to identify the specific audience I was writing for. The intended audience of any written work can greatly influence the manner in which it should be crafted, it is essential to align the writing style with the target audience. In my WLLN project, I aimed to reach individuals who also were coming from a background of speaking two languages and not being able to feel comfortability in the environment and people around them. Considering this, I made the deliberate decision to structure my WLLN as a personal narrative, recounting specific moments from my own life where these language experiences occurred. By using this approach, I aimed to create a compelling and engaging piece of writing that would resonate with my intended audience who also can relate to me or understand what it was like.
