Welcome to my page!

This is my Self Assessment, and my writing experience

I am someone who has had the privilege of learning two languages from a young age. Even though I have mostly conversed in my native language, English has always been a part of my methods of communication. Almost all the media I have consumed growing up have been in English, so I grew up with the notion that I am confident in using English for communication until I had to do so. When applying for City College, I had to write college essays, emails, and talk to the faculty, and that sudden wave of shifting to this was overwhelming. I decided that I wanted to improve my writing in every way possible, and the class I picked about Fairy Tales was the perfect opportunity.

When I started to first go through the textbooks and attending the first few classes, I already started to learn terms, names, and concepts of writing that I have never even heard before. Discussing how to write for a specific audience, and learning how to write in a genre to cater to that audience is one of many things that I learned from my time with this class. If I start from the beginning the first thing that I learned was identifying where I was as a writer on my personal essay, I highlighted my history with writing to get a better grip of how I progressed as a writer then, so that I can reflect and learn how to grow as a writer now. Understanding where you stand as a writer is important, and by writing about what parts I am weak at as someone who speaks English as a second language, I could pinpoint exactly where I could move forward. I also went in-depth talking about how I struggle to speak what I write, and how that has affected how I communicate in general. I was still rusty in my writing when I started the semester, what made me help get back into the flow of writing was the summaries of different fairy tales.

The project that I most learned from is the researched critical analysis, where it required the culmination of research, annotation, argumentative writing, and analysis of sources. When I usually research a topic, I would just search it on google and use the first link to learn whatever that website might have, with the Research Critical Analysis I changed drastically how I research a topic. What I first learned was the importance of having a peer-reviewed, scholarly article that presents informed theses and arguments. For every article, combing through the writings of scholars sometimes changed my perspectives on a topic that I was thinking about, and they played a role beyond just an added quote to support my argument. Finding these articles is also a process, using different databases on the CCNY library was an essential part of finding the right article, to confirm the credibility of them. After I had found the right articles, it was time to incorporate my research and bolster my arguments, something that I have done very little in academic writing. I would have never otherwise thought about using research in that specific manner in my writing. Using the research, identifying my core audience, and establishing a sincere argument shaped my researched critical analysis.

Aside from the classes themselves, the most helpful tool I found were the peer reviews. Often when I write something, I seem to overlook even the most obvious of flaws and kinks in my writing, by getting someone else’s input, I could pinpoint exactly where I can improve what I already wrote. Vice versa, when I got to read my partner’s draft, I could gauge how someone else is tackling their paper. I find and note the similarities and the differences so that I can improve my strategy. This back and forth collaboration went a long way to improve my writing, especially since we are all separated by COVID. Lastly, the reflections after every project was essential in making sure I knew exactly what I did right or wrong with the piece.

Getting back into writing has been a very insightful journey for me, where reflecting and improving the way I write has helped me improve the way I process information and formulate opinions. Understanding different genres and audiences will aid me in understanding the way people think, discuss and write about not just fairy tales, but any topic.