Abstract

It demonstrates how I have improved as a writer over the course of the semester in my Self-Assessment Essay. This is accomplished by listing the many assignments I have completed along with the experiences I had while writing them. Because there are many parts of writing that I may still encounter throughout my life, the experiences I have had in this class have helped me to realize that I can still progress as a writer. The course learning goals that I was successful in achieving were:

1. Acknowledge your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources, and draw on those resources to develop a rhetorical sensibility
2. Enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment
3. Negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation
4. Develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes
5. engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond
6. Formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing
7. Practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects
8. Strengthen your source use practices (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources)

 

Self-Assessment Essay

Maria De la Cruz

The City College of New York

Writing for Engineering: ENGL 21007

Professor Jacobson

May 22, 2023

           Everyone has a distinctive writing style in addition to a distinctive speaking voice. I could tell myself apart from other people since City College students come from a variety of backgrounds. When I got the chance to converse with my classmates, I was able to see that some of my pupils were more articulate and outgoing while others tended to be a little bit shyer. As I talked to students, some of whom had accents, I became more aware of how diverse City College is and how unique we are from one another. After having the opportunity to collaborate on the engineering proposal with my classmates, I was able to identify the distinct writing styles of my group members. When drafting the proposal, for instance, one of my group members chose to list the materials we utilized, but I wanted to write about them in paragraph style. I was able to recognize how much more successful using a list was after writing this piece, though. In addition to the various writing styles, the proposal had several problems that had an impact on how we produced the piece. We also used several writing techniques, which helped me to adjust to how the other members of my group wanted to write and to see how my approach is different from theirs. I have the chance to recognize my own and my classmates’ language peculiarities because of this course.

          Working on projects made me better my writing since I had to speed up the writing process. I was able to produce a first draft of the lab report analysis and technical description before being pushed to write in a different way. I usually compose a draft till I have completed the job. I had to conduct research and make a strategy for how I would structure my first draft, though, because these projects call for a greater degree of comprehension. I had the chance to get input from my teachers and classmates after writing my initial versions. I was appreciative to get comments on my work and the chance to modify it because the writing tasks for my prior classes did not receive peer evaluation. Nevertheless, I was hesitant to implement several of the adjustments after hearing from my colleagues that they were not necessary. Even though I disagreed with some of the criticism, I was able to see that I should write for my readers rather than for myself. This gave me the chance to reflect more deeply on the criticism I had received, which helped me to understand how I should always take my peers’ criticism into account and, where feasible, incorporate it into my work.  In addition, I completed a self-reflection for each work I completed. Given that I do not often write about myself, it gave me the opportunity to discuss both the positive aspects and the challenges of the writing I did. I have the chance to develop my writing techniques and style while taking this course.

             The writer should have a purpose in mind when writing since it will assist them communicate with their audience. A purpose provides authors with a cause to deliver knowledge to the audience, whether it is known or not. Writing using rhetoric was beneficial since it persuaded the reader. Being persuasive was essential for the engineering proposal since my groupmates and I needed to come up with a concept that people would use. To do this, we considered what the buyer would like to buy as well as the reasons and techniques by which our product is superior to rival items. This course has also helped me have a better knowledge of various technical writing styles. When I was writing my lab report analysis, technical description, and engineering proposal, I was able to get knowledge of many technical elements. Because these tasks covered diverse parts of technical writing, I was forced to adapt to show the audience that I understood my writing and can communicate effectively. This training not only helped me reach my aim of expressing my writing, but it also helped the audience grasp what I was attempting to say.

          We had the opportunity to produce initial drafts and obtain comments from my classmates throughout the semester. I was able to use feedback throughout the semester and will continue to do so throughout my college experience. I was anxious when I received feedback for the lab report analysis, which was the first assignment in the course that I received because I was not sure what my classmates would think. However, the comments we offered each other were quite valuable because they included both constructive criticism and positive aspects of our compositions. Also, I was able to examine how my peers wrote their essays and compare how they differed and what I could do to better my writing even more. Because I worked on the engineering proposal with three of my peers, teamwork was also essential. Although it was challenging at first, we were able to successfully communicate with one another, stating what we believed worked well and what needed to be modified in the piece. Despite some disagreements, my peers comprehended and interpreted the input as helpful criticism. There were also class tasks in which my classmates and I were divided into groups and assigned to write a paragraph or two about the topic at hand. Although I had many silent groups, most of my group mate were able to communicate well and ask questions as necessary. This course has given me the opportunity to improve the collaborative and social parts of my writing process.

            We had three main writing tasks throughout the semester, which helped us to obtain a better idea of what technical writing is like. Prior to writing this post, I needed to examine and discover new facts while researching for my lab report analysis. Also, due to the length of the lab reports, I was confused about how to critique the work because there was a lot of material that I thought was significant but did not include. Although lab reports were not new to me, I was able to comprehend the concept of how to examine one as well as the customary format. I believe that exposure to different types of writing benefits my writing since it makes it easier for me to both learn new information quickly and assess it. I considered the lectures to be helpful since they provided me with guidance on how to approach specific assignments. The ability to reduce things such that it was understandable and something I could write about by annotating was another thing I found to be beneficial. Many of the assignments given to me earlier this semester I was not familiar with. But as the semester went on, I was able to comprehend several literary subgenres and broaden my writing exploration.

         The engineering proposal was a significant project that gave my group members and I the chance to explain why our invention is necessary. I thought the actual smart wallet was something that may be beneficial when considering the security of users’ stuff when my group mates and I chose to take that route. Since expressing too many of our thoughts would not encourage others to utilize our invention, we concluded that we would need to be informed when writing this post. Being more informed, in combination with the study we performed on the product’s manufacturing process, I feel, contributed to persuading the reader to use our product rather than competing ones.

         I had the chance to use the CUNY students’ access to the internet database before this class. But since it helped me brush up on my memory, it was wonderful to hear a lesson on how to use the database. I had to choose two labs for my lab report analysis that were distinct from one another and linked to my selected major. I had a hard time finding two lab reports that connected to my major and had to scroll for several hours before discovering the lab reports required for the project, even though accessing the websites was not too difficult. Finding the lab reports took longer than expected since several of the ones I did discover were too challenging to comprehend. I had to use the internet to look for sources for both the technical description and engineering proposal, which, in my opinion, was far simpler than looking up sources on the database. I have had to use the internet to research sources throughout my time as a student, which made it simple to get the right data. I was able to practice using a variety of sources for writing assignments in this course, which helped me write better and more accurately.

          We had to reference the sources we utilized in our work, paraphrase them, and evaluate them during the semester. This, in my opinion, is always advantageous because trustworthy sources always improve any written work. I often incorporated outside knowledge when writing three of the key tasks for this course. For instance, in the technical description assignment, I was confused about the precise components of the invention I was writing about even though I was aware of its existence. I was able to conduct some studies on the invention and provide the data required to describe how it operates. To help the audience grasp the information and demonstrate my understanding of the material I investigated, I not only acknowledged sources but also summarized and analyzed them in the lab report analysis.