Self-Assessment Essay 

The process of writing the papers for Phases 1 to 3 was an emotional roller coaster since there were ups and downs in each respected phase. Phase 1’s essay was called Language and Literacy Essay, Phase 2’s essay was called Critical Analysis Essay, and Phase 3’s essay was called a Researched Exploratory Essay. The process of writing each of these essays taught me something new about writing and helped me to demonstrate the extent to which I’ve met the course learning objectives and developed my understanding of writing topics such as these. From analyzing a text/situation to a final paper with a cover letter, along with peer review, these steps played an important role in my development as a writer. I found out that throughout the class thus far, there have been times where I knew where to go with my essay but struggled on how to start. And after 3 phases of going through this, I still struggled with this. However, I did achieve most of the learning outcomes this semester. Each respected phase taught me something different, which in turn aided me in achieving different learning goals in each phase. Sadly though, there were some learning goals that I was not able to achieve despite all this. With this in mind, in this final essay of mine, I will revisit my writing in each phase and take a closer look at the improvements I’ve made. I will also talk about the course learning objectives I was able to best achieve in each phase as well.

In Phase 1, we were supposed to talk about a moment in our lives where we had faced a struggle with language and literacy. So what I did in my narrative was that I talked about the struggles my parents and I faced when coming to this “new world”. I mentioned how the difficulties my parents had to face-shaped me to become the person I am today, and that was a key point in my narrative. Throughout writing this assignment, I was able to achieve some of the Course Learning Outcomes. With best-being number 1, “Recognize the role of language attitudes and standards in empowering, oppressing, and hierarchical languages and their users, and be open to communicating across different languages and cultures.” In my narrative, I discussed the struggles I faced when learning a new language, and how that made me different from others. Because of my lack of English, others thought they were better and more capable than me, and as I talked about in my piece, people also took advantage of my parents. So after writing out my story, I realized how much power lies in the hands of how you use language. From the way you say it to the attitude you put it out with, it determines much of whether it empowers or oppresses its users. Another main CLO that I achieved was number 3, “Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing.” Throughout the process of writing this narrative, there were multiple steps I had to do that led to this final piece. I had to read my fellow peer’s papers, write multiple drafts, collaborate with my peers on our papers, and revise/edit those drafts I did. By doing these steps, it helped to ensure that whatever I wrote was the best it could be. It made me realize my mistakes, and from there on I knew what to do to improve my narrative and gained the skill to do so for next time. Lastly, I was also able to achieve outcome number 5, “Engaging in collaborative and social aspects of the writing process”, mostly for the same reason as number 3. This CLO meant working with others to improve my work as well as helping peers improve their work. I essentially did this when I was peer-reviewing their papers and they were reviewing mine. After completing this assignment I realized how much I changed from the person I was back then. Not only from a writing perspective, but as a person. I went from a person who once needed help with their language and literacy to be the person that aided others. I became a person who overcame their struggle to improve themselves, and I think that is the purpose of this assignment: to realize how far we have gotten from that person we once were.

In Phase 2, we were supposed to select a story of our choice and analyze it to the best of our abilities, that of which we were supposed to come up with conclusions based on our rhetorical analysis of the text. While writing this piece, I kept in mind my intended audience, which in this case were people who sought a further understanding of “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, specifically focusing on the rhetorical elements. Throughout my paper, I elaborated on how Tan uses rhetorical situations, mainly focused on her purpose, evidence, and audience, to subconsciously make her argument persuasive. I learned that sometimes a lot more is revealed when the focus is not on what the author says, but rather on what the author does and how they get their message across while backing up their argument. Furthermore, this phase helped me to achieve multiple course learning outcomes, but the main being number 2 and 4. Course Learning Outcome 2 was to “Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations.” I achieved this Learning Outcome when in my paper I talked about the rhetorical strategies used by Tan. I mentioned how Tan wanted to educate her readers to know that people from different backgrounds should not be treated differently just because their English is not deemed “proper” by appealing to ethos, pathos, and logos. I recognized that when Tan used these strategies in her writing, it was to appeal to her audience and to help get her message across, which is something that I also did. Course Learning Outcome 4 is to “Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations”. This phase helped me achieve this LCO because it taught me how to read between the lines in a text and how to understand the message the author is trying to get across. It showed me how much using ethos, pathos, and logos to appeal to one’s audience can bring a story out there. And after taking the time to learn them and see them used in this text, I have changed my writing habits to include them when it would help me to prove my argument to the audience next time. In conclusion, this phase made me recognize how often rhetorical appeal strategies are used, whether it’s with someone you speak with or simply in a text, like “Mother Tongue”.

In Phase 3, we were supposed to select a topic of our choice and research it to the best of our abilities, followed by finding evidence to support our claim based on the research of our sources. While writing this paper, I kept in mind my intended audience, which in this case were people who wanted to learn more about the ways we can reduce the effects of air pollution. I intended to make sure my audience understood what goes on in the world in terms of air pollution. Essentially, in this phase, I gained the knowledge of knowing the importance of how much coordination between your evidence and analysis matters. I now know how prominent and useful it is, which showed me that when writing a paper, I should remember this to prove my argument in the most effective way possible. As a result, this phase’s assignment has helped me to achieve multiple course learning outcomes, but the best-being numbers 7 and 8. Course Learning Outcome 7 is 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 feel I achieved this CLO because at first, I had trouble finding online sources that supplied the specific evidence I needed, but after doing this multiple times, I feel like I now know what to do to make this process quicker next time. I learned that what and where you look for your sources matters tremendously, as it’s also a factor in the quality of evidence you have. Course Learning Outcome 8 is to “Compose texts that integrate your stance with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation.” I achieved this CLO because this was basically what this whole phase was about: writing a paper that follows my stance using the evidence I collected and my analysis/synthesis of those pieces of evidence. A research essay is essentially portioned off by half of it being evidence from different sources, and the other half is the author analyzing those evidence. Due to this, merely listing evidence would not be sufficient to prove my claim. I learned that there is a lot more to uncover underneath these pieces of evidence, and it was my job to explain using interpretations to further support my stance. In conclusion, I became more effective in analyzing evidence, as I now have a better strategy to analyze evidence. All of these factors helped contribute to making my paper stronger and sound more credible and knowledgeable. And in the end, I hoped that those who read my paper could understand just how big of a problem air pollution is and that they need to combine their judgments based on the evidence. 

Conclusively, the Language and Literacy Essay, Critical Analysis Essay, and the Researched Exploratory Essay without a doubt helped me to grow as a writer. Each essay had a significant impact in helping me to achieve the new Course Learning Outcomes. It gave me the familiarity and knowledge that would help me write other essays that may be in these same formats. Furthermore, the class lectures, homework, peer reviews, and charting worksheets also played an important role in my development. Overall, after completing these 3 phases, it demonstrated the extent to which I’ve met the course learning objectives and developed my understanding of writing as a whole. However, as mentioned earlier, not all the Course Learning Outcomes were effectively achieved. I felt that CLO numbers 6 and 9 were not emphasized as much and thereby were not fully grasped to the same level as the rest. CLO 6 was to “Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences.” I still don’t have a clue as to what this means. Therefore, I don’t know if I achieved it or not, as it was never clear in my development of this course. CLO 9 was to “Practice systematic application of citation conventions.” Contrary to CLO 6, I understood what this Learning Outcome meant, but not much emphasis was put on it. Essentially, what this CLO means is that we had to utilize citing our sources to a specific format until we improved. Although there was a part, specifically in phase 3, where we had to incorporate this, it was more so something we just had to do and not practice for. Nonetheless, besides the lack of these two Course Learning Outcomes, this course helped me to understand not just how to write more effectively, but also taught me the importance of language and the different kinds of Englishes.