abstract
In this essay, I was able to incorporate all the course learning outcomes while giving examples of how I achieved them. I used phases one, two, and three to help with my essay by using different strategies and reflecting on my progress from August. I have used examples from readings to establish what I have learned in this course while connecting to my essays. For the most part, this course allowed me to see different perspectives on language and literacy in a different light.
Self-assessment essay
Reflection:
As the end of the semester closes in, I able to retain various skills from reading passages to working on techniques to further develop my writings in this course. Many of the readings like “English Belongs to Everyone” by Robert MacNeil hit close to home when it came to the language, especially on the English language. This semester I have witnessed a change within my writing and learned to achieve many of the Course Learning Outcomes using different reading and writing strategies.
When I was doing a phase 2 essay, I went in-depth on how bilinguals were treated differently based on speaking two languages by the dominant group who imposed the idea of speaking two languages. I tried my best on elaborating more on the issue by connecting it to assimilation and suppression that reduced bilinguals into speaking only English. In the phase 3 essay, I had a similar theme on how secondary languages are not safe in public or workplaces due to being judged and how some have very different attitudes negatively. The two essays helped me on being able to “recognize the role of language attitudes and standards in empowering, oppressing, and hierarchizing languages and the users.” After I have gotten my draft, I received feedback from Ms. Miller on my phase 2 essay. I did my best on reading some of the statements and revising some of the wording. I did have some issues with grammar and how I lacked introducing the author as you can see from the image. However, the feedback, helped me use the rhetorical precis handout for introduction in general and “developed strategies for reading, drafting, revising, and editing.”
During Ms. Miller’s class, I learned about annotations and using the rhetorical situation worksheet to help dive deeper into the author’s intent and purpose. I was able to use it for readings like ‘How to Tame A Wild Tongue’ by Gloria Anzaldua which helped me dissect the reading even further through the uses of the purpose, intent, audience, context, etc. What was the most helpful from the rhetorical worksheet was the purpose because it was easy for me to comprehend and utilize for most of my essays. I used the rhetorical situation worksheet through all three of my essays using the author’s purpose, intent, and audience. It helped me learn more about the authors and the readings as well as how it ties in together especially when it came to language on how different some of the readings are from each other through perspectives. Ms. Miller would assign homework on readings to annotate while using the rhetorical worksheet on understanding the author like Gloria who elaborates on discrimination and various types of oppression for people that speaks Spanish in America. From this example, I was able to “recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations” and “explore and analyze in their own and other’s writing a variety of genres and rhetorical situations.” You can look at the example from the image below.
In Ms. Nagales’s class, my classmates and I posted a revised version of our research explanatory essay and gotten feedback from our peers by responding to the discussion boards. We first read the essays and gotten a handout for typing in the feedback for us to improve our essay which was helpful for me. At first, I didn’t understand the feedback sheet or how to respond to it in a useful way but in the end, I was able to fix up my essay by adding details. Based on this example I achieved “developing and engaging in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.” Furthermore, within the research explanatory essay I used many sources from scholarly journals, articles, and course texts eventually I cited them within the work cited page. For the citations I did it alphabetically and used the citation machine that was in the content section, it helped me with setting up citations in order. The sources like the scholarly journals were hard to find because some of the sources didn’t have peer viewed tag when I was using onesearch. The whole process was new to me in the beginning, but gradually I was able to pull through. I successfully achieved “locating 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, and bias.” This also goes along with “practicing the systematic application of citation conventions.” Finally, I integrated my images for the digital portfolio and have obtained the “understanding and using print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences.”
The image below shows the work cited page and the onesearch engine that I used for the digital portfolio.
In conclusion, in this final essay, I learned from my mistakes as well as being open to criticism. It benefited me in learning from my mistakes and grow from them while being open to new challenges within my writing. I have used many useful tools from this course like dissecting words and being able to comprehend them. Also, I was fortunate enough on obtaining new skills and concepts for my writing which will help in the future as well as providing a sense of certainty for any future classes. Overall, I did well on all my essays and prepared for an upcoming class.
