INTRODUCTION
As my Composition for WGI History and Culture FIQWS class comes to an end, I have realized how much I have transformed and as a writer. In this essay, I am going to explain what I realized my strengths and weaknesses are as a writer and how they have manifested themselves throughout the quarter. I’m also going to explore how I got accustomed to new writing and reading skills due to self and peer critique. I was skeptical at first coming into this class, just like most, I felt this class would either weigh my grade down due to the requirements or it would lead me to a stressful state. Shortly into he class I realize it takes formidable work and dedication and it was a learning field to prepare me and my peers for future work positions we wanted to attain. I remember our very first lecture, my class professor said something along the lines of, taking every single thing we do in college as a work field, he alluded the professors were our bosses and we were employers; this made me view every learning experience I had differently, and as a freshmen that allusion was a perfect way to make me understand college as a whole even much better. I am very proud of the progress I have made. We completed a great deal of work throughout the quarter; from grammar exercises, creative writings, and three challenging essays. Throughout the quarter I found myself improving in each category. As a writer, my skills and confidence have developed into more clarity and thought, something I have always wanted to be, as a result of a well constructed class that led to a superb educational experience.
SELF ASSESSMENT
Based on the giving resources provided by my professor, I have been able to and analyze in writing and reading a variety of genres and rhetorical situations. To explore the different diversions and genre binding aspect of reading and writing, we read nd analyzed some articles in newspapers, other students creative pieces, creating our own creative pieces like poems that exuberate sensory details, with pathos and logos, and also constructing narrative based essays and then later summarize it to analyze strong hitting points in the essay with a research article or evidence, also we’ve gone through the strategize of breaking down text, to note use of Pathos, Logos and Ethos to help us understand every piece we read and analyze with great structure. One piece we went over to understand every rhetorical situation was “Desnudas”; we had to make an outline and note use of Pathos and Ethos, as well as the reason for those things in each spot as well as the sources used for each spot, to help us better understand this article and every single article we come across. With the aid of my professor I also got to learn how to develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing by writing autobiographical essay focusing on an important or memorable experience in which my own childhood experience my anthropological context and view became clear and understanding. In the Narrative we include a well-told story using vivid details and setting with sensory details and an indication of why the event or events that took place are significant to me. Then, we brought in a “second lens.” to give a new perspective and understanding not just for a reader but for myself. My second lens was an outside text that putted my experience in a sociological context. One method that helped me achieve finding a sociological context for my essay was due to the “DDC” structure which was introduced by my professor, which helped me compose each paragraph with good description and development that integrated my stance, with critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation provided by my “second lens”. With the workshop created by my professor ahead of every essay that was due, I was able to engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes, and also it gave me an edge to critique my colleagues or peers using the criteria explained by the class professor. I have always battled with grading or critiquing others work, because I don’t want to come off as harsh and aggressive, but workshopping in this class is helping each other to expand on our analysis, synthesis rhetorical thinking and techniques as well as our creative pieces. One critique a found really helpful was from a colleague named Erick Martinez, and he ushered me to add an adequate evidence in my research paper that illustrates marriage in today’s society and what people got through in looking for a partner in today’s society. I thought his contribution really did help me elaborate more on my topic of discussion in my research paper. One thing I failed to take for granted was how to 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. If I could turn back time I wish I had using the given resource by my professor to find and locate evidence, rather than using self provided resources, it would have definitely helped me beef up my strong hitting points with better research. These sources weren’t great, and in other places you made statement that, though probably true, weren’t backed up by anything you presented. Remember too to introduce your sources properly in your papers moving forward. I was able to do away my high school MLA citation format with an updated version which gave in detail on the sources that were cited in my essays. One thing that took me a long time to adjust, was introducing a paragraph in my research essay with pathos, I always use to start a paragraph with factual based sentences, which could be deemed as logos, but reading my peers paper in our workshop made me realize that leading with pathos draws a reader’s interest to read more due to their emotional connection to the piece. Leading with pathos is like a hook, once caught on there is no letting go.
