Ali Hersi
Professor Steegmann
English 210
19, May 2019
Self-Assessment Essay
I entered this class feeling secure about my writing, especially my ability to write quality papers after a semester of seasoning in college and years of high school work. However, the lessons from the pink workbook and feedback from my papers in this class proved otherwise. Unnecessary words were littered in my work, my punctuation was spotty, and I did a bad job of constantly switching back and forth between present and past tense. There were past instances where I day-dreamed about improving my writing and displaying a sophisticated tone in my work. Thanks to the pink workbook and verbal lessons in class I now have the map I’ve long searched for to enhance my writing. This class helped me develop good habits such as submitting my assignments the day before or the morning of the deadline as opposed to waiting until the last minute to improvise and submit my work. The course learning objectives provided a series of checkpoints to keep track of in terms of learning in this class and finding my perception of writing and defining what writing is.
When it comes to achieving the course learning objectives, some were met more than others. For instance, I enhanced strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing and self-assessment to a large extent. The constant announcements from Professor Steegmann to edit and revise my work greatly influenced this learning outcome. Now editing, drafting and revising my work has become a staple thanks to the repeated reminders. Negotiating my own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium and rhetorical situation was somewhat met because my writing audience is usually based on the prompt and what point I am trying to get across. Some of my writing is flexible to the audience in terms of understanding my work but sometimes I neglect certain audience members with my writing style. I did a good job of developing and engaging in the social and collaborative aspects of writing processes by way of my field study. The required interview and observation formulated my writing. Formulating and articulating a stance through and in my writing was successful by picking a side in my writing and sticking with it despite the temptation to include the other side. Furthermore, I accomplished using various library resources, online databases, and the internet to locate sources appropriate to my writing projects with the CCNY online library for my field study. I used that website to find sources that supported my music field study. I also strengthened my source use by citing the sources from the online library into my field study. Also, as stated above my observation, interview and notes for my field study allowed me to practice field research strategies. Unfortunately, I did not accomplish engaging in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond and acknowledging the linguistic differences of myself and others as resources and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility.
Prior to taking this class my perception of writing was mixed. I think of people writing papers in school and journals/diaries at home. I haven’t written much unless it’s required but I plan to write more to get my thoughts out and to improve my writing so to that it translates to my schoolwork. Writing to me is a therapeutic activity and skill developed over time with repetition. When your writing is not required via submission your thoughts can freely float around and there isn’t a clock or deadline to worry about. For instance, I remember a writing assignment or two in class that allowed us to free write. The only problem was the 15-minute deadline but activities such as that enables students to express themselves without caution, especially when we’re not required to share our writing. My perception of writing evolved throughout this class by writing based on how I’m feeling as opposed to feeling contained and writing through a rubric.
This semester has enabled me to think critically in terms of reading and define what makes writing unique and useful. The field study greatly influenced the extent of achieving the course learning objectives, but I still have a few to accomplish. All in all, I’ve learned a lot and hope to learn more.
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