Engl 21007

PROF Julia Brown

12.14.2024

                                                  Self Assessment essay

Throughout this course, I’ve acquired important abilities that have enhanced my writing and communication in general. Reflecting on my achievement, I will prioritize three specific goals: (1) improving techniques for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-evaluation; (2) growing and participating in collaborative and social parts of the writing process; and (3) strengthening source usage practices such as paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, and citing sources. By evaluating my progress in these areas, I am going to demonstrate how this course influenced my writing development.

At the very beginning of this course, my writing technique was linear, with an emphasis on completing a draft instead of reviewing and modifying it. However, I’ve come to understand the significance of each stage in the writing process. For example, while writing the lab report my topic was “What gas preserves foods the best?”  and there were so many foods and different types of gases being used in that video that I felt overwhelmed. So in that case I tried to combine different food items and compare how different gasses will have an impact on each and every one of them and combined them in the results section to give the audience a better view.  Here in that lab report I concentrated on pre-writing tactics like brainstorming and outlining to assist me arrange my thoughts effectively. In the process of drafting, peer evaluations provided me with feedback that assisted me in identifying areas for improvement, such as phrase clarity and the building of stronger paragraph transitions. In the process of drafting, peer evaluations and self-assessments provided me with feedback that assisted me in identifying areas for improvement, such as phrase clarity and the building of stronger paragraph transitions. One specific example is the reflective essay that I have changed several times because at first it was a lot of information and kind of overwhelming to read as an audience. After getting the feedback from my instructor such as bolding or highlighting the paragraphs or while writing another paragraph starting from a different page helped me rearrange my lab report quite effectively. 

Another goal I think I have achieved in this course is Developing and Engaging in the Collaborative and Social Aspects of the Writing Process. Teamwork has been an important aspect of this training. The peer review sessions, in particular, taught me how to deliver and receive constructive feedback.For example, when our group was doing the engineering project proposal and working with my classmates taught me to see writing as a collaborative process in which varied points of view and concepts benefited the end result. Another example would be while I was writing the technical description of my airpods I was just talking about it briefly and didn’t actually get into the depth of it. I was thinking that it was just an airpods and what other ways I can just make my writing stand out. So then, my peers pointed out the gaps in my writing. Their recommendations inspired me to go deeper into my research to enhance my writing. At the same time, providing feedback  to others showed me how to critically assess writing, which led to advances in my own work. 

Another goal that I have achieved in this course is strengthening source use practices. Prior to this session, I struggled with properly citing sources. I either quoted excessively or failed to explain why the source was relevant. This semester, I sought to improve it.I learnt how to effectively paraphrase and summarize such that the sources complemented my arguments rather than dominating the article. I also made certain to properly quote everything, which I used to find puzzling. This work gave me more confidence in conducting research and using sources in a way that strengthened my writing. 

To summarize, my experience in this course has been revolutionary. I’ve grown as a writer and communicator by improving my writing abilities, interacting more, and strengthening my source use practices. These abilities will undoubtedly benefit me in future academic and career endeavors. Writing is an ongoing process, but this class has given me the tools and confidence to handle it successfully.