This semester has been very difficult for me. I was basically hanging on to my good grades by a thread in every class I took. It was indeed an educational and unique learning experience unlike any other that I have experienced. Having to juggle my academics with my social and work life has become a strenuous task of its own. I would consistently think to myself “wow… college really is different”. However, this English class has been, by far, the most instructional. Just by looking back at my first and last paper, I could clearly see how much I have grown as a writer. My vocabulary has become better, my writing became more coherent and understanding, my grammar is much more comprehensible, and I even learned how to perfect MLA format with citations. The assignments that had helped me was my literacy narrative, exploratory essay and my critical analysis. These writing assignments have helped me grow in terms of writing and analyzing texts. It also helped to use references to the rhetorical situation in our writings such as genre, audience, purpose, stance, and exigence.
When beginning to write my first Essay, the literacy narrative, it had crossed my mind that the opportunity to showcase my abilities in writing has alas came to my grasp. I was very eager to write my ‘first essay in college’. It was quite a big deal to me. The prompt was to write about a specific event that had greatly impacted my literacy development. I than chose to focus on a negative interaction that impacted my writing development and how that one experience stands out from all the rest. I was so confident in my writing during the beginning of the semester where this assignment was taking place that it even brought me to think that there could be no flaws, and that I am exceptionally well at writing on my own. Our teacher had taught us the basics of writing and how to address the audience and our purpose of the text as well as our stance on the overall matter being communicated through my writing. I had conditioned myself to think that help was the last thing I needed and that I was better off on my own. When the day came for our class to participate in peer review discussions, I was ecstatic to represent my work and my experience of such work to my classmates. I had printed out three copies of my literacy narrative to address the range of audience that I was administering it to. After being able to engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes I had realized that my work could always be improved. My conceitedness and cockiness had sunken to a level so low for the better. I have not only learned from such a transaction but also was able to aid others in the process; and for that I am thankful.
Being as I am now, with everything I have gotten myself to grasp and take notes on, reading my literacy narrative over again has brought me to realize how much my essay could have improved on. In terms of the rhetorical situation being addressed, which was my negative experience of writing that had impacted me, my stance and purpose was pretty clear. I believe that my purpose, stance and transitions within the text were a few of my strong suits in this paper. For example, my purpose and stance regarding the topic becomes clear to the reader within the lines that states, “I started encouraging myself to take her words as a guiding tool to aid me in making improvements to myself as a writer…I wholly believe, that if it weren’t for her, I would not be where I am now as a writer.” Not only do I make it clear to my audience that I have learned from the experience, but I also make my purpose clear which is that sometimes a little nudge, good or bad, is all you need to reach your greatest peak.
There were some points of my Literacy Narrative that needed great improvement on regarding some grammar mistakes and the lack of explaining in great detail how I have grown from this experience; or what actions did I take to learn and grow from it. During peer- review I was able to get feedback regarding my weak points of this essay. For example, my classmate, Julie, was able to point out a mistake I had made in the last line of the second to last paragraph. I said, “could be better” and she advised me to instead write “could’ve been better”. She also added words here and there that helped me emphasize the points within my writing that I was attempting to make. Lastly, my teacher advised me to explain, in more depth, how my writing changed for the better after that encounter I had with my teacher. I also believe that I could have improved on some of the ways I went about with using my vocabulary. For instance, in the line that states “…it rained upon me that not everyone has the same liking towards writing and, in a sense, that consoled me” I sound a bit confusing. Now looking back at this I start thinking to myself that maybe I could have added “as me” so that I could make it clearer that I was emphasizing on only myself. I would have also taken out the part that says “in a sense” so that my piece could be read much more smoothly and less confusingly. All in all, writing this Literacy Narrative has brought to my attention that my writing could always be improved, and the feedback given to me by my teacher and peers had helped me realize the minor flaws and imperfections of my writing. I have learned and made use of the rhetorical situation such as audience, purpose, and stance. By using their tips and suggestions, I was able to incorporate more solidity into my paper and make it increasingly “unique to my own experience”.
The next writing assessment that followed the literacy narrative that was given to us to complete was an exploratory essay. This was a bit more advanced than the literacy narrative and was where all the difficulties, that I would have to begin to face in this course, had risen. The topic I had chosen, after a very long discussion with myself, was lovesickness. I was able to think about, explore and analyze a variety of genres and my rhetorical situation for each of them before returning to lovesickness as my best option. I had to report on the historical view that unconsummated, unreturned, or otherwise failed love could produce an illness. When writing this essay, I had a hard time on a multitude of tedious things that summed up all together and ‘ganged up on me’ in the end towards my final potential grade.
These minor mistakes in my exploratory essay grew more profound the more I was writing. For example, instead of just providing information that would support my overall topic, like an exploratory essay should be, I began analyzing the text and was trying to prove a point. However, there was no need to prove a point; for I had no argument to do so. It was difficult for me to overcome such an obstacle and serves to be one of my greatest weaknesses of the essay. Although I tried to fix it, I still had some examples that lingered on in my writing. Now that I am reading it over, it is clear to me that I was too hooked on reaching the word count that I tried using text examples to just make it less difficult for me. As I stated in my essay, “…in the story “Nevsky Prospect”, the main character ,Piskarev, finds out that the woman he is pursuing is actually living in what he describes as a “depravity” (Gogol 257) or otherwise a poor-looking, worn-down home. After seeing her in such a state, Piskarev couldn’t bear the thought that this woman, who he pictured to be perfect in every aspect, was in fact not what he had expected her to be”. Looking at it now, I would try to incorporate more of the aspects of lovesickness that I have learned into this part of my paper instead of going on and on summarizing a book. For example, I could instead have said that, “The idea of pensive sadness, melancholy, could result in the body growing more and more weak due to depression or a lack of appetite and could even lead to a fever. According to Hippocrates and his theory of humors, treatments for such an illness (which he described as excessive Black Bile) would be Phlebotomy which is the act of draining one’s blood of a tormenting sickness in hopes of rebalancing the humors.” Another one of my weaknesses was the difficulty of citing my sources on the work cited page. It was difficult and confusing for me at first. However, once I took my Professor’s advice and visited Purdue Online for help regarding citations, I was able to perfect my application of citation conventions. It was hard at first. I kept forgetting on leaving an indent and even forgot to write the publisher on a few of them. However, with great practice, I was able to do it on my own without any mistakes!
Strengths that I believe I have in my exploratory essay is my secondary sources and the way I was able to present them. It was easy for me to find these peer-reviewed journal articles on the libraries databases. I was able to evaluate each of them for validity and credibility before I even allowed myself to incorporate them into my writing. By doing this I was able to learn the basics of accuracy and the dangers that a bias could play in an essay in which you maintain a neutral, informative perspective. With these sources I was able to interpret and summarize its meanings with my own thoughts and how it portrays itself within the primary texts as well. While writing this essay I was also able to develop writing strategies for reading and drafting. I started writing my ideas, perfect or imperfect, without worrying for its grammar, validity, or spelling. It was a great way for me to express my ideas more freely without worrying about ‘writers block’ or stopping to fix an error. As for reading, I would just paraphrase each chapter and sometimes each paragraph I had read to better understand the text.
Lastly in our final essay we did a critical analysis writing assessment. Within this essay we were advised to continue our last essay on whatever topic we chose and to make an argument. I was excited about this essay because I felt as if I knew almost everything I needed to know regarding lovesickness. That being said, my argument was “…the psychological profile of one who is most susceptible to lovesickness are those who are impressionable to the idea and are shown reading unrealistic novels about love, making them compelled with the idea of finding ‘true love’ rather than love itself.” One of my strengths within this essay that I am very proud of was my ability to analyze the text and how the aspects of the text supported my argument. Using strategies such as synthesis and argumentation helped me support my idea in a clear and cohesive manner. Another one of my strengths was my ability to cite much easily now. Unlike the exploratory essay, I had little to no difficulty creating my work cited page and I even had twice as many sources on it this time around. I was able to pursue my assignment in greater depth and follow the outline completely.
Weaknesses that portray itself within my critical analysis paper is mostly due to its overall content. This was one of the most difficult problems I faced while writing this essay. By this, I mean that I didn’t particularly know how to prolong my essay at a certain point without me sounding repetitive or boring. I went about trying to solve this problem by ‘thinking outside the box’. Instead of limiting myself to only one perspective of the topic, I added counterarguments that one might bring themselves to dispute about. In the end it really helped in making my writing assessment more captivating to the reader. While researching, I also took my Ms. Shmidt’s advice on locating research sources. They gifted us with several links to databases and online libraries that would serve to be useful in searching for secondary sources. However, when it came to drafting and organizing my essay, I looked to Ms. Cohl for help. I use her advice and essay rubrics to guide me in my writing because she has given me such great pointers on my writing habits throughout the course so I feel that I could confide in her with such help.
All in all, this English course has influenced me as a student and molded me into a better writer. Compared to all my other classes, I feel that this class has impacted me the most. Not only was I able to witness my own growth as a writer, but I was also able to take new ideas and principles with me as well. I was able to learn MLA format citations, rhetorical situations, locate research sources, engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes, develop strategies for reading and drafting, explore and analyze a variety of genres, etc. As I am bringing myself to complete this self- assessment, I am happy to say that this class and all it has had to offer has served me a great deal of benefits in my future in writing.
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