Self Assessment
Jeremy Agosto on I love writing and it’s one of my favorite subjects. However, Writing for the Sciences is a class that showed me a new perspective to writing, a challenging one. However, that is not a bad thing. The class was extremely easy to digest and allowed me to use everything I learned to have more functional writing skills that make me feel prepared for the real world. It has emboldened me and taught me to be clear and concise. Many of my writing goals have been fulfilled and I can truly say I am able to put my ideas onto paper better. I can use more sophisticated literature tools, connect with the audience, surpass linguistic differences, cite accurately, gather my sources from reliable locations, etc. There is no doubt I have fallen in love with writing even more and my growth is substantial.
We had to begin the semester writing our resume and cover letter, a task I viewed as tedious in the beginning. I wrote it in ten minutes. However, my ego got the best of me because the errors were infinite. One important thing I had to do was acknowledge my and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility because this would allow me to display information better in my resume. The student sample allowed me to dive into analysis mode and find key differences and similarities to find my own errors and use the best traits to be able to further develop my writing skills and linguistic sensibility. When compiling my information, it had to be very clear and organized, something that took me several tries. The resume had to be readable to any reader, especially one trying to hire me. I had my resume reviewed by my professor and classmate, those revisions helped me do my final version. That version was really the encapsulation of the class.
The Rhetorical Analysis paper was the assignment that was most relevant to me and so I was pretty hard on myself. I wanted it to be impactful and found something that meant something to me: home. I like political satire and sarcasm and what not better than an ad that was meant to be filled with rhetoric meant to passively convey its message. In watching the ad and analyzing its script, I formed and articulated the stance on the overall message that Americans are clueless about the American government’s actions, but also how that was conveyed in this particular instance. Therefore, I can stay. I developed better abilities to formulate a stance and also allow it to develop through my writing. Something challenging was having to negotiate my writing goals and audience expectations regarding the rhetorical situation because I had to achieve my writing goals, and simultaneously ensure I reached the objective of the assignment whilst also reinforcing the rhetorical analysis throughout the paper. I think I did a great job in growing in these aspects, and presenting my ideas, through writing, to the audience.
The Literature Review paper this semester pushed me to really learn how to gather my sources and from where. It’s important to be able to navigate the tools in which you’re using to accurately present information in your writing, and also cite it correctly. In this instance, I used library sources and online databases to grow and expand my source use practices. Something that I learned was to correctly and accurately source in APA format. APA format is critical in certain subjects to make sure that the reader knows where you got your source and also adds credibility to your writing. The CCNY Library Database was something new I had to navigate and was useful for almost all my assignments too, it even shows you how to cite! It was extremely useful and exposed me to different things.
The Collaborative Research Project was one of the most challenging projects I’ve done in a while because it was the intermingling of everyone’s ideas and it was us engaging in a collaborative and social aspect through this writing process. We had to make sure that we drafted and revised our work. But also bounce off each other’s ideas and make sure it was inclusive that the book reflected a group contribution of all our writing strategies and linguistic differences.
In conclusion, I can truly say that this class pushed me to be a better writer. A writer is more analytic, understands linguistic differences, and is able to really relate with the reader in a way that enhances how the information or stance being conveyed is digested. It has been a delightful experience and something I would do again.
