Self Assessment Essay

I’ve never felt  that I was good at writing. From all my English classes throughout school, I can always see my grades being lower than 80, having bad grammar, spelling mistakes or sentence structure being wrong, it never seemed important to me to learn how to write in standard English, or what I thought was regular English. But throughout this class, I learned of the diversity of English, the linguistic differences between them and how more important they can be than the standard English we are taught. In this class, we learned about our uniqueness, our differences, but that we are also all alike, facing many hardships and differences to get where we are today. Throughout this course, I faced many writing challenges that allowed me to grow more as a writer, and actually let me enjoy writing. 

I was able to “recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations”, by using different ways of hooking the reader into the story, making them more interested. I did this in many ways such as adding my own personal experiences into my writing such as when I started learning my family’s native language so I can one day make a full conversation in the native language, and not being insecure that I couldn’t understand or speak it, especially to my grandparents who barely know any english. I wrote about a moment when I was  sitting in the car with my dad and “I would always hear one of dad’s favorite songs playing, and it’s a chinese song that I could never understand, but I like the music so i focus really hard on trying to see if there’s one word i can recognize but I can’t”. Adding this moment into my writing allowed me to be more open and vulnerable to the reader, letting them feel the emotions I was feeling in the moment. 

I enjoyed writing my research paper, not only because I chose a topic I was excited and interested to know about, but because of the articles I found by “locating research sources (including academic journal articles, magazines and newspaper articles) in the library’s databases or archives and on the internet and evaluate them fro credibility, accuracy timelines and bias” but also “compose texts and integrate a stance with appropriate sources, using strategies such as summary, analysis, synthesis and argumentation”. Through the CCNY library database and the use of google scholars, I found articles and websites that helped strengthen my purpose in the research paper. To inform and educate on Chinese immigrants and their struggle with the process of learning English, knowing English, and not knowing English. Studying and learning deeply into this topic allowed me to be more understanding of my parents, who learned English so we could thrive and live better. I also achieved “Practice systematic application of citation conventions” through this assignment. Which (by using google) is when we used the MLA format to design this paper. I’ve never fully grasped the format for using MLA, especially when citing sources, but this assignment helped me alot, because I really used it a lot. Using the different strategies we learned, synthesis worked best for me when introducing my sources because it allowed for both background information and introduction of both the author and the articles I found and wanted to use, such as when mentioning both Amy Tan and Professor Clarena Larotta on how “Tan argues that the standard English language isn’t the main language and we should be allowed to use our own languages, as the U.S comprises a large diverse system of languages, and Clarena supports Tan by using the history of discrimination against immigrants”. Doing this I feel that it strengthened my essay by providing sources that are in depth with what I wanted to talk about, and helped me go more in depth with what I wanted to inform about, by first introducing the sources and authors I want to cite.  

Doing the second assignment, I  “examine how attitudes towards linguistic standards empower and oppress language users” when reading my partner, Ruty, essay. Through his experience after immigrating from Haiti, he struggled with learning English and the new environment in the U.S. He gave the feeling of being oppressed for not knowing English by his family, and the eagerness to adjust in order to progress in his new life. Throughout the assignments, I was able to “develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising and editing” through each of the essays, explaining the ways that I can make my writing better and more engaging to the readers, while getting my point across. Such as through the peer reviews from Phase 2, I was able to get feedback from my classmates, further developing my essay. 

Overall, I believe I learned all these five course objective goals this semester throughout the writing and reading we did. I will probably forget most of these by the end of winter break, but I can always go back to these strategies and essays I have to help me write better in the future.