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Bryan Carrion 

Professor Balun  

Dec 2018  

Self-Reflection 

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         When it comes to writing there are many factors that comes to it. There are more components than just writing a respond to a topic. There are techniques that were made to make a person writing become better because as easy it may seem to just form words together and make sentences and keeping a coherent flow of ideas throughout a long paper or essay is rather difficult. There is many techniques such as using other people as sources to support your own claim or what your trying to convince the reader. This is rather known as evidence. There is also peer reviews. It is known that when we read our own work especially a paper, we tend to skip a few words as we read our work in our head. This is because our head automatically adds it even if it is not on our paper. Peer reviews uses other people to read your own work because they would probably catch the mistakes that you as the writer probably could not find. These are just one of the many useful and techniques that makes a paper great and that are used on almost all type of writings. While there is a tremendous amount of ways that would makes a paper great, I would include of few more things that I did throughout my writing my three crucial papers that I did during my FIQWS English composition class. 

One of the Course Learning Outcomes was Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations. This was rather a easier learning outcome then most that I had to do. I was able to achieve this learning outcome was by doing different readings such as using and reading newspaper and online articles. This learning outcome was mostly heavily used on the literacy Narrative essay. The different types of writing had a great impact on my view on the literacy world. This was also affective during the exploratory and the Research Critical Analysis (RCA) essay. Articles and online research were needed to properly do these essays. With that essay it was mostly about being able to recall a specific moment in a person life where they believe had a strong stance toward that. Mostly by reading and researching for information and getting outside sources helped me achieve this learning outcome. Most of my research came from the CUNY database. 

Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing is one of the most basic and crucial things needed on a essay because without it then the paper being written would be just a draft. No paper is perfect, by having different eyes view the paper, it makes the paper better than what it was before. Having peer reviews and having to write drafts before the final was handed in has been so helpful in my writing process. As having English as my second language, learning and writing in the language has being rather difficult. On top of that there was the grammar and how well my sentences connect with each other to make the whole paper sound like I knew what I was talking about. The peer reviews and having other classmates give me feedbacks was a big help on all the essays that was due for this class. If I had to choose which of the three essays that had the most impact out of all would have been the last two, the exploratory and the RCA essay because we had to add other outside information that we collected from the internet. It was less needed for the literacy narrative which my may concern and worry was the grammar. 

Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations was a learning outcome that I had some difficulty mastering. I was able to eventually able to achieve this learning outcome by reading the Norton Field Guide. By reading this book it helped me by telling me the different types of rhetorical terms and how to use them on the exploratory and the RCA essay. Most of rhetorical are use in different occasions and by using the Norton Field Guide, I was able to use it specifically and accurately for the Critical Analysis essay. I did not really used it that much on the literary narrative even though I was able to. It was useful because I was able to use words to convey and provoke emotions and persuade my audience to the claims that I was making. This goes back to the techniques of using what people say and “paraphrase” it into my own paper. By using these techniques, I was able to make the reader think of what I was trying to illustrate. However, I am not as confident on using these techniques easily. Therefore, I barely use techniques unless I find them that they are essential in my specific writing assignment or is a requirement.  

Engaging in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes was one of the learning outcomes. With the peer review and the online discussion, I was able to see the different topics that my classmates have come up with. Not only does it helped me understand what I didn’t know but it also helped me find and include information for my own topics. Especially for the last two essay which required me to look for evidence to support what exactly I was talking about in the essay. By having my peers review my essays I was able to improve my own work and make it better. This was a good learning target that has helped me throughout all three essays. Since my writing could be somewhat sloppy and hard to follow, having other people who has different writing techniques helps me a lot especially now in this college course. There is a new view of my paper. Having specifically to post discussion on blackboard also has its advantages towards this learning target and helping me overall in the class. 

Another learning outcome was to Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences. I was able to achieve this learning outcome focusing on one specific essay rather than rush it to get a grade in it. Honestly this learning outcome was one that I should have taken more advantage of, I did not so much. As a college student, grades and time management are essential to doing good academically. Before the exploratory essay I would wait until the day before to write and do whatever assignment or homework that was due the day after. It was a habit that I carried with myself throughout high school. By focusing on one essay at a time I can focus on specific areas that I could be lacking in and improve it to make it better. By doing this, I can just do well by taking my time on each essay. Also, working and stressing all essay at the same time causes for my quality in writing and convention to crappy which also ends up getting a bad grade in all the essays. There is also the time that I take on each essay. With a focus on one essay at a time I can find information rather when I’m rushed then the essay probably contains information that might not be totally true.  

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 was able to achieve this learning outcome by using the CCNY databased. By using the school database, I was able to find real and accurate information that I needed for my essay. I needed to find sources especially for the exploratory essay and the RCA essay. These essays required me to include the information that I have collected, and have it flow into my essay without having sound like the information was forced in. This also connects to another learning target which was the citation convention. Using the database from the CCNY or any of the CUNY database is helpful because I know that the information that I am reading is correct and that is it is not some biased information. It is not biased because the information being presented is coming from an institute. Mostly all information that I have collected for my essay has come from an institute or from a government agency. There is also information from articles.

The learning outcome of Compose texts that integrate your stance with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation was a little difficult compare to the other learning outcomes. But I was still able to achieve this learning outcome by having my peers edit my essay and using the Norton Field Guide. Sometimes I could probably not see the mistakes that I make when writing even after checking a few times. Having my classmates peer review was not enough for me to do better than what I wanted so I decided to see what the Norton Field Guide had to offer. The Norton Field Guide gave me some tips on how to write better and what to keep an eye for when I write certain papers which came to be helpful when I was writing the essays. When I wrote the last essay the RCA, I tried to apply all the techniques that the book had to offer. Not that it probably happens because my writing still has a long way to go to being college level decent.  

Practice systematic application of citation conventions was the last learning outcome. It was one of the learning targets that I was able to do without problem.  was able to achieve this learning outcome with the using different websites that specify specifically in the citation and making it convenient for the people. Different websites such as Easybib helps the person generate the citation. If the URL which is the website does not provide every detail needed for the citation to be generated, then it would ask you to fill it out manually.  Some websites even let the person generate the citation on their page usually if they know that the people would have to cite that information since it is important. Having a citation and a citation page is very important because it makes your paper and whatever the person is talking about sound believable. Having and writing papers such as a research and critical analysis paper then the citation validates what it is being said on the paper is accurate and not some incorrect information that was gotten from some fake source or it was what the person personally thought to be correct. 

 

Throughout the whole semester I was able to learn new things when it comes to writing. New things such as writing in new formats that I have not never used before such as IEEE format. Although I did not use this format in the English composition class, I did get helped on how to use that format and get information for the paper used in that format.  

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