Throughout the semester I have been able to achieve a decent amount of the course learning outcomes. Writing the memo, technical description, proposal, and lab report as changed my perception of the English writing. I learned just how important it is to take your time to properly revise/edit the text carefully to catch all the errors improving the quality of your writing. It was all because the peer review and the carefully revision that I was able to grow as a writer this semester.
The first course learning outcome “Acknowledge your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility”. I was able to use the feedback I got from my peers and my professor to improve my writing. I was able to identify the places in need for improvement with the help of my peer and especially my professor that marked out the thing I needed to fix. My final drafts show how much I have improved along with my willingness to receive constructive criticism to improve myself.
Figure 1: A picture of the constructive criticism from my professor:
The second course learning outcome “Enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment”. I improved in this with the help of the class, by this I mean with the help of the peer review sessions receiving the feedback of my classmates helped me see my writing in a different perspective, helping me to better my writing. I was able to complete multiple drafts due to the help I got from the peer review and was able to see myself get better after every revision for each assignment.
Figure 2: feedback I got for my technical description:
The third course learning outcome “Negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation”. For each assignment we had to do something different because of which I had to adapted my writing to meet a different audience. For example, the technical description required me to describe the process of how something worked which is informative, while for the proposal I had to persuade someone that my research was worth the investment therefore having to adapt my writing to for different purposes/audiences.
Figure 3: proposal where I had to use a persuasive tone:
The fourth course learning outcome “Develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes”. During the class I was able to collaborate with the other students like I said previously for the peer review giving each other feedback for the assignments and the portfolio, while also forming groups for the proposal and lab report carrying out the experiment with my teammates and presenting our experiment to the other students.
Figure 4: A picture of the presentation me and my teammates made:
The fifth course learning outcome “Engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond”. For the technical description I went over all the samples uploaded by the prof of technical description from previous years. After reading the sample I then used what I learnt from the samples to write my technical description. The assignments that I wrote were not only for paper but also for the portfolio and a video presentation (for the presentation me and my team used the lab report).
Figure 5: A picture of my portfolio where i have added the assignments I wrote:
The sixth course learning outcome “Formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing”. In two of my assignments, I had to persuade the reader in the memorandum and the proposal. In the memo I had to persuade the president of city college of why the issue with the paper towel dispenser was sever enough to require immediate action, while for the proposal like mentioned before I had to persuade the reader why my research is important enough to be worth the investment.
Figure 6: picture of my memo where I am trying to persuade the president:
The seventh course learning outcome “Practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects”. I used the CCNY library database to find sources for my proposal using the academic search one database in the CCNY library. To find the sources related to my topic I had to use key terms related to my topic such as “search engine” and “search terms”. I was able to identify whether the source was credible or not by searching up the author due to which me and my team were able to find scholarly articles that proved very helpful in writing our proposal and performing our experiment.
Figure 7: picture of the database used to find sources:
The last course learning outcome “Strengthen your source use practices (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analysing, and citing sources)”. In the lab report we had to use about 6 sources where 3 were supposed to be scholarly while the other sources were not. Therefor for those sources we did not use the database but instead just searched google and then used the parts from the sources that matched with our topic by either quoting them or just paraphrasing them. We citied the sources we used in the text and made a work cited/ bibliography page at the end of the lab report to add all the sources we used.
Figure 8: picture of the sources we used:
Conclusion:
I have learned many things since the start of the semester, but there are still areas in my writing that need improvement. One such area is meeting the expectations of my audience more effectively. By applying the skills and knowledge I have gained from this course, I aim to refine my ability to tailor my writing to the needs and preferences of different audiences. Additionally, I recognize the importance of further honing my research and citation skills to incorporate outside sources seamlessly into my writing. Moving forward, I will continue to practice and apply the techniques learned in this course to enhance the quality and clarity of my writing in various contexts.
