Self-Assessment 

For this class, as freshman the main goal was to be able to know how to write and read as college students. This was done through multiple means like having multiple texts to read, and having an assortment of writing assignments, which taught useful writing tools and techniques. While writing was our main focus. We also learned how to read critically as college students, by reading and analyzing an assortment of texts, and also analyzing our own writing. We learned how to write as college students through our autoethnography project. We learned how to conduct primary and secondary research, we learned how to write autobiographies, research papers, and how to write and adapt to certain audiences using rhetoric. Secondly we also learned how to write autobiographies, and lastly  we learned how to give and take from peer review, which in my case was important, because a lot of my peer review was positive feedback, and didn’t give any help to the person I reviewed. While writing is not everybody’s cup of tea, writing about a subgroup that you might be part of, or will be, it’s what makes an autoethnography interesting. 

Writing the autobiography was definitely the easiest for me and funnest. There was no background work to do, it was a collective of experiences that occurred during my life. In this essay one of the main course goals was encountered. “Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations.” By writing about specific events more personally, the reader understands the purpose of the essay. It was also my personal favorite because while I did talk about my connection to the subgroup, I was able to be more free about my diction and was able to have more control about what I wanted to express. While yes, there was creativity, what we wrote had a profound effect on the essay. This essay taught me how to write toward certain audiences. 

For essay 2, while I did know some of the basics to writing a successful argumentative research paper. The class helped me learn how to conduct research better from reliable sources such as databases, and how to find evidence for your essay in those databases. It also helped me to write rhetoric for a research paper. In your writing you have to be careful with your diction because it can easily be mistaken for another thing, and in research you have to balance that thin line. In my essay I found that writing with numbers and studies made more sense, because my readers can really understand the impact of the subject. When comparing the first and second draft, there were a few citation issues and some sentences needed clarifying. One major issue in all my essays is the fact they have grammar mistakes. 

While writing my autoethnography I learned I used everything I have been taught in this class. Including how to use primary and secondary research in order to prove my writing by providing evidence to back up my writing “When investigating events, it was hard to find events to connect to other women . The event I attended took a while searching for”. I also used narrative writing which requires using rhetoric and precise diction in order to convey a certain message. This essay helped me culminate all the things I’ve learned into one essay 

This class really helped me become a better writer in the sense that it made me understand writing more as an equation, because in order to have a successful essay or paper, you must be aware of all the parts that go into it. Who is your audience? How do you write toward them? What must be included? How do you elevate your writing? All these things have been taught  throughout the writing of these essays.