final self assessment

Looking back at my earlier works in the Beginning of the semester I’ve definitely have improved in my writing skills. In this class I’ve written 3 major papers, the first was a literacy narrative, which was about a personal experience with writing, reading, or speaking. In my essay I’ve discussed my experience with reading in particular my experience finding a reason to read. In the second essay which was the expletory essay I had to pick a topic to introduce and talk about, my topic for this paper was gun control. This was a controversial topic since its connected to many issues that go on in our society. And in the third essay, the critical analysis. In this paper I’ve focused on a specific aspect of the topic I choose in the second paper; in the critical analysis paper I’ve focused on the things that are overlooked that cause mass shootings and violent crimes in the first place. Such issues like mental health and bulling are some of the leading causes of these mass shootings however they are overlooked for issues like gun control which are not effective. In writing these papers I’ve outlined the eight course learning outcomes. One of the course learning outcomes that was utilized in the three papers is Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing. this was one of the well-used strategies in all the three papers. I had to write a first draft then we had to evaluate each other’s work in class and using the reviewer’s comments i had to write the final draft fixing and revising the first draft. Another major course learning outcome that was utilized extensively 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. In both the critical analysis and the exploratory essay this course learning outcome was used to find research material and articles to use in writing the papers. Also, these sources had to be evaluated for bias and accuracy since the topic of my papers is such a controversial topic that there won’t be room for bias in the evidence. Also, I had to learn to use the literary database to find these sources that were appropriate and relevant to my topic. One of the course learning outcomes that I’ve come to understand more with each paper is Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations. In all my paper I’ve fulfilled this course learning outcome since I was assigned a variate of genres that I used in my papers, I’ve come to understand that this course learning acts as the fundamental building blocks for the well organized and complete flow of a paper. Course learning outcome Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences. The cuny commons system was a way to bring my writing to outside audience using digital technologies since all the papers were uploaded to the system. Another course that I believe I’ve exceled in is Compose texts that integrate your stance with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation. This was a major course learning outcome for the critical analysis paper since I had to focus more on a specific part of topic I choose, present and argument and take a stance with it. I did this in the paper since my stance was against gun control and, I’ve used counter argument to strengthen my stance. Practice systemic application of citation conventions is one of the course learning outcomes that I’ve used and mastered throughout this semester. With the exploratory essay and the critical analysis paper I had to use MLA format and include citations for my evidence that I used. In the course learning outcome Engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes, I engaged in peer review of my classmates papers and left commentary on their work, also on different occasion I was part of a small group that worked on an assignment tighter were we engage in discussion to accomplish the writing processes. One course learning outcome that I didn’t do my best on is Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations. It didn’t come natural to me to include rhetorical terms in my writing. It was hard for me to include these terms in my papers since I wasn’t sure how they functioned and their value to my work.  With all that being said I’ve covered all the course learning outcomes in my writing this semester, although some were stronger and more apparent in my writing but I still made sure to work on those that I didn’t quite understand their function in later works