Self-Assessment

            This semester has been a very productive one filled with new material that I’ve learned about writing, reading, and even myself. It’s different from any of the previous English or writing courses I’ve taken in high school or even in college, mostly because it gave me the freedom to explore. Almost all my other assignments in other English courses were very limited; I had to argue about a specific point from a specific book or story and defend that argument, which was very hard to do considering I rarely cared about the argument. In this course, I cared about every assignment and felt like what I was writing was important and that it mattered. With that being said, throughout all my assignments in this course, I accomplished multiple learning objectives, but I also lacked behind in some others as well.

            One learning objective I didn’t accomplish as well as I’d hoped is acknowledging my and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources and drawing on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility. Throughout my assignments, I focused mostly on the content aspect, and failed to recognize the linguistic diversity of my peers. I realize now that some of my writing may have been overly complicated, or without necessary explanations to those whose first language isn’t English, and so it is something that I most definitely need to work on and address in future works.

            I did, however, succeed in developing better drafting and revising strategies. It’s something that I’m still getting used to, considering I never did drafts in high school, so it’s a continuous work in progress. For example, in my engineering proposal, my first draft wasn’t even complete. However, it contained the basic information I needed to complete my final draft and do revision based on the feedback I received.

            Another learning objective I believe I achieved was negotiating my own writing goals and audience expectations. This was something I was able to achieve in all 4 major assignments in this course, as I had the freedom to explore topics that interested me, and topics I believed everyone should be knowledgeable in. For example, my memo and engineering proposal assignments, although they were about different topic, contained information that I believed everyone should be familiar with and my goal was to provide people with this information and potentially incite change.

I also succeeded in developing and engaging in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes. Between the discussion posts every Tuesday and Thursday and the feedback on every major assignment, this class contained the most collaborative and social aspects of writing out of any of my previous English classes. I went through most of my academic career as a lone wolf and would rather do it that way so that I don’t have to rely on others for my own success. But after receiving feedback from my peers and working together on the memo project, I realized that having partners and collaborators helps a lot more than working alone. Watching my discussion posts become more detailed and engaging as the semester continued is evidence enough of my improvement in the collaboration aspect of writing.

One aspect I believe I could’ve improved upon a lot was the use of multimodal composing to get my ideas across to the reader. I had a lot of potential to use pictures and graphics in my writing because it was mostly engineering based, so having an image would always help. However, I only used them in my technical description, and to be fair I only included them because it was a requirement. Even then, the images I chose weren’t as helpful in understanding the topics, nor were they cited properly. Reading through some of my pieces, especially the lab report and engineering proposal, where my topics were a lot more complex, having an image would’ve really helped my audience understand the material I was discussing. In future works, having graphics to support my essays is something I aim to do in every assignment, so that my audience can get a better picture of what I’m explaining.

The ability to formulate a stance is something I’ve been particularly strong at throughout my academic career, but this course exemplified that. Given the freedom to take a stance on topics that interest me have made my stances and arguments more powerful and meaningful. This was demonstrated the most in my engineering proposal and memo, as I was able to create a sense of urgency for these engineering advancements to be made and was able to articulate the reasons for these advancements very well. As I continue to explore more topics in my field of interest, my stance and arguments will become more powerful, and I will be able to have stronger impacts on my audiences.

Using a variety of academic and regular sources is something I could’ve improved upon. I didn’t use any online databases for any of my sources, which would’ve helped tremendously, especially with assignments such as the lab report and engineering proposal. I got most of my sources from scientific journals or even blogs sometimes, which can be less informative than sources acquired from a database. Moving forward, as my writing assignments become more involved, I will be using databases, such as the CCNY database, for research and information.

One area that I believe I improved in the most was my use of sources. My ability to cite sources and even graphics was very poor in the beginning of the semester, as evident with my technical description. I didn’t use any in-text citations nor did I properly cite my images. However, by the end of the semester, I had in-text citations on every quote and piece of information I gathered that wasn’t my own and was able to properly integrate this information with my own knowledge to synthesize new ideas and proposals, such as in the lab report and engineering proposal. I also used more advanced sources from trustworthy scientific journals and government websites, to ensure that all my information was accurate and without errors.

This semester taught me a lot, but what it taught me the most is what writing really is. Prior to this course, writing, to me, was just another course I needed to take to get a degree. It had no real value in today’s world, and my perception was like this mostly because all my writing was about old literature that is mostly irrelevant today. Now I realize writing is a lot more than that. The main objective of writing an engineering proposal or a memo is to get information across to the audience. Instead of having to meet with someone to explain your ideas every time they’re interested in what you have to say, you can publish a paper explaining all your ideas and so it serves as the best method of communication, especially in an engineering-based environment. Writing also allows one to convey information in a way that they never could when speaking in person, as it allows for the addition of images, diagrams, links, and other outside sources to get their information across. I’m grateful mostly because of this newfound perception of writing, as now moving forward, I understand why I each assignment exists, and what my role is as the author of each paper. Being able to communicate ideas is a very powerful skill, both academically and in the workforce, and so it is my goal to continuously improve that skill so that I may lead a more successful future.