Self-Assessment Essay

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November / 23 / 2021

 

Self-Assessment Essay   

 

    Writing in English is a very difficult task for a person who didn’t develop this language as its first. Reading, speaking, and analyzing are also very difficult to achieve. However, classes like this one can improve your language skills in just a couple of weeks. I can say that my writing skills have improved and also my way to identify and analyze different texts about science. Online classes have been difficult for a lot of us, whether we are a student or a teacher. Online classes can motivate you or make it more difficult for you to focus or even care about school, but there was a saying that my uncle used to tell me when I was little that said: “The world is going to keep changing, either you change with it, or you get left behind”. I personally know that my English is not the best there is. I am not a straight-A student, I have never been, but for the past 4 years that I have lived in this country, I tried really hard to get where I am right now and honestly I feel very proud of myself. This class of FIQWS 10111 that correlates with the science major that I want to pursue was really helpful. In the 3 phases, we covered I learned different techniques and tools to improve my writing and reading skills. 

    Phase #1 was a personal narrative. This phase helped me a lot in confidence with talking about myself. The way that the teacher makes us write things about ourselves like personal conflicts, memories not mattering if they were good or bad. I think this is a perfect way to start because It made me feel confident about my writing. It was my story and the way I wanted to make it and write it. I could choose my audience and story mode as I pleased. In this phase, we were also introduced to readings that we had to analyze every class. Some of the readings were really interesting and I developed more techniques of understanding and analyzing for the consistency of these ones. The use of photos, artwork, music, etc. as forms of evidence is a good way to support our experience.

In phase number 2 we analyze a text or an article to make a rhetorical situation essay. First I am horrible at English subjects and reading and writing essays,  but this topic, in particular, was very interesting because we could analyze texts that we decided on and that captures our attention the most. I chose Global Warming which is something that catches my attention due to its importance and the lack of care from humans. The audience I tried to catch with this paper is mostly my classmates and students from my college. Mostly because this kind of people can make a big change in this being the “future” of the world and we are the ones that are going to suffer the most of these consequences. If this paper could make an influence at least one person, that is something. One of the most meaningful things about this phase is that I even changed my mind corresponding to global warming. I am going to start recycling by now and doing the most that I can to stop it. Regarding the writing, I can say that now I know the format of writing a rhetorical essay that I didn’t know before. Like I said writing is not my best skill, but I know I have to use it in the future and write a lot of this kind of essay due to my biology major. I understood Pathos, Ethos, and Logos ( that I knew nothing about because I didn’t pay attention to my high school English class). I know I still have a lot to learn but I am putting effort into this and I know I can get it perfect. I learn more about the term rhetorical which means the study of writing with the purpose of communication to a specific or general public. I understood that for a specific kind of public you have to use a specific kind of writing and that you will say it’s obvious but a lot of people do not understand. For example, I wrote a paper for college students and peers of mine. Maybe the normal public will not understand some words that I am writing or a specific topic because they did not have enough knowledge about it. So in contrast I would use some more simple vocabulary and explain more about the topic that is being written about. It is also interesting how can you write a paper about somebody that writes about a paper. Even though it feels confusing, it is very useful when the language is not very clear or easy to digest for some people, so you could make it easier for them to understand the subject and summarize it. I would say that this phase really helped me in learning how to analyze a paper and find rhetorical situations as well as understanding the range of audience writing can offer.  For example, for what kind of audience was directed to? What was the purpose of this article? Who wrote it and why this person is qualified to write it? I looked at the paper and analyze these exact questions. For example, (Fierros, Edwin, Analysis 130 degrees)“The author uses descriptive language to produce an emotional impact on the reader. McKibben utilizes different scenarios like catastrophes that may happen in a very short time from we are right now”. This sentence makes reference to a rhetorical analysis of pathos that focuses on the emotional side using strong words that makes the audience feel empathy. 

After that, there was phase #3. Personally one of my favorites, but the one I had the least amount of time to do myself. In this phase, we went more into the biological analysis of papers. This was a research paper. I chose to keep analyzing the paper 130 degrees that talks about global warming around other papers that focuses on the same topic. I got information from every single aspect of the resources and articles that I found to try to explain it to my audience. My Audience was the general population, which means I had to use simple and clear language to make them understand the situation. I also emphasize a lot about the political side of global warming and what are leaders of the world doing to prevent this catastrophic end for the human race. I believe this paper was the most straightforward but also very difficult for me. I know I need to start practicing myself with these kinds of essays because they will be the one most of my science classes. Reading articles, doing research, and answering questions is something I am very passionate about. Is interesting how you can find a lot of information from the internet in a very short period of time. I am honestly not convinced or happy with this part of the class. I was distracted and having personal problems. That is also another lesson that I need to get over. The world will still go on even if you don’t. That does not mean that you should not take care of yourself, but be aware that if you get behind, no one will wait for you. 

This class honestly became one of the most important and stressful I have taken. In high school, I took English class as a joke. I loved learning the language but reading and writing have never been my forces. This class made me take it seriously. I know this class and professor have made me better as a writer, but also as a person. Who learned not only something about grammar and writing techniques but also as a person and life.