Brian Ortega
Self-Assessment
Prof. Robert Balun
This course encouraged me to continuously think about my writing and, through practice and regular self-reflection and revision, develop skills that will help me write academically at a college level. During the semester we wrote a literacy narrative, exploratory essay, and a research critical analysis paper. Writing these papers taught me how to express myself through my writing. In the course of writing these papers I achieved a few courses learning outcomes.
The first course learning outcome that I achieved was to explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations. I accomplished this course learning outcome through my Research Critical Analysis paper by beginning with an evaluative annotated bibliography, this helped me analyze the sources that I was using and find out where it belonged in my essay. I encountered many genres of reading while conducting my research; I encountered textbook chapters, scholarly articles, and books. All of this helped me structure my essay, it made my essay as formal and informative as possible.
Another course learning outcome that I achieved was to develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing. To achieve this course learning outcome through my literacy narrative it took many steps. The first step was to read examples of literacy narratives from the NFG in class. Reading these examples allowed me to find the right structure for my own narrative. It also introduced me to the vivid details that should be incorporated in a literacy narrative. Then I brainstormed ideas for potential topics for my narrative. My strategy involved a great deal of planning before I started writing. I thought about the structure carefully before I wrote much, this made my revision easier. I wrote down multiple sentences that could be included in my narrative and thought about where it would best fit. Multiple drafts were necessary for my narrative to be well developed. Every draft helped me improve. When I finished my narrative I read it out loud to myself to make sure everything made sense and was fluent. Then I used the peer review sheet to revise my narrative on my own. This made sure my narrative was a well-told story with an engaging introduction (hook), vivid details, influential characters, a setting, emotions, and a significance. In my Exploratory Essay, the first step was to read examples of exploratory essays in class. Reading these examples allowed me to find the right structure for my own essay. It also introduced me to the details and information that should be incorporated in an exploratory essay. We had an information literacy session in the library classroom, this helped me discover my sources. My strategy involved a great deal of planning before I started writing. I thought about the structure carefully before I wrote much, this made my revision easier. The annotated bibliographies that we wrote helped me draft my paper. Multiple drafts were necessary for my essay to be well developed. Every draft helped me improve. When I finished my essay I read it out loud to myself to make sure everything made sense and was fluent. The next day we did peer review in class which helped me revise my essay by getting a classmates opinion. Then I used the peer review sheet to revise my essay on my own. I followed a similar procedure in creating my research critical analysis. The main difference was the type of annotated bibliographies. My research critical analysis required an evaluative annotated bibliography while for my exploratory essay it was a descriptive annotated bibliography.
I was also able to recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations. I achieved this by researching and acknowledging the counter-argument in my research critical analysis; this made my paper more reliable. This made my paper more credible because it shows that I looked at both sides of the argument before choosing a stance.
I engaged in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes. In class, collaboration played a big role in our writing. We posted our annotated bibliographies on Blackboard, this helped me cite my sources correctly. Even though, our goal was to do as well as possible on the first draft, peer review day helped me get others opinion on my writing. My peer found a few mistakes that I haven’t noticed and we talked about a way to rewrite it and make it clear. I benefited from my peers’ feedback.
I was able to understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences. I achieved this by creating a digital portfolio in CUNY Academic Commons. This helped me keep all the work that I did throughout the semester together. CUNY Academic Commons also made it easier for me to share my work with others. In professor Awal’s class we were required to bring one article on cyber security every week. These articles helped me on my research critical analysis because it was on the same topic (Bitcoin). I used these articles as sources for my research critical analysis.
Another course learning outcome that I achieved was 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. I achieved this course learning outcome by using CCNY databases for research on my exploratory essay and research critical analysis. This helped me find sources that are more reliable than the sources found on the open internet. These sources played a big role in these two papers since it required a lot of research.
In my exploratory essay and my research critical analysis I was able to compose texts that integrate your stance with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation. As a result of writing previous papers, and having greater understanding of cybersecurity, I had a foundation upon which to write more about the topic and have a stronger argument, since I knew what I was talking about and could sound more like an authority. In both papers I used the quote sandwich strategy in order to integrate quotes to my writing in a proper manner.
I practiced systematic applications of citation conventions. This was possible through my exploratory essay and research critical analysis. I achieved this by completing annotated bibliographies and writing in-text citations. The annotated bibliographies played a big role in structuring my essay and the in-text citations made my essay stronger. All of this assisted me on making my writing finer. For my exploratory essay I used the quote sandwich strategy to practice systematic applications of citation conventions. One homework also helped me achieve this course learning outcome, which was to post our citations on blackboard. Through the discussion board I viewed others citations and this helped me improve my own.
In conclusion, during the semester we wrote a literacy narrative, exploratory essay, and a research critical analysis paper. Writing these papers taught me how to express myself through my writing. In the course of writing these papers I achieved a few courses learning outcomes by using many strategies of writing. All of these papers have helped me improve as a writer. I am now able to write papers at a college level.
Footnote:
1. Norton Field Guide
https://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/write/fieldguide/index.asp
2. Literacy Narrative
3. Exploratory Essay
4. Research Critical Analysis
