Self-Assessment Essay
Nurlan Samgar ENGL11000
Throughout the Fall semester in the class ENGL 110, I drastically improved my writing skills, which was the main objective for me, personally, from the beginning. From the beginning I thought I lacked in the vocabulary stance in writing and also in the structure of the writings. However, after many attempts, I see that I actually improved those parts of my writing, not forgetting about analyzing and exploring any topic I was writing about. Everything came from practice, which we had a lot, and everytime I can see the results of my writings and the progress I have made. The most important skill I improved was the analytical skill that came from class-work. Mostly everytime we read something new, we tried, as a class, to analyze the piece and to find what strategies were the authors using in order to make them more appealing to the audience, what rhetorical strategies they used in order to strengthen their work. And when we analyzed it and saw first-hand how the great piece of writing is made, we tried to implement those strategies in our own writings, which I think was very beneficial. And the most unexpected way I improved, surprisingly for me, was that I started to type faster, on average 15 words faster.
Through analyzing the personal essays such as, Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue”, Jordan’s “Nobody Mean More to Me Than You” and others we came to the conclusion that English is not only one standard language, moreover it has more ways of speaking than many other languages and it is normal. Because we could relate to that central topic too, we could understand what messages those essays had, that language oppression is common in America. This one was also relatable because most of our parents don’t speak English well so we first-hand experienced how it is. Also there were many other personal experiences shown in the readings we analyzed. However on the other hand we saw that it also creates other type of culture around that ‘broken’ language that unites people.
After every essay we read, there was usually homework to fill in the rhetorical situation worksheet. In my opinion this was the most beneficial part, because we analyzed who the writer is, the history surrounding the writing, the audience it was responding to and in general what stood behind the writing itself. So when completing the worksheet we understood why the essay is written the way it was written. What is more important is understanding the purpose of the writing, because without any purpose it wouldn’t have been written in the first place. So all these factors, I think, helped me to understand what stands behind the great piece of writing.
Then the next practice we usually have is peer review, or collaboration. We usually worked in groups analyzing each other’s writing which gave me the perspective of other people, the audience, to think about. Of course it is important what I think, but the audience is the other major part of writing. So getting feedback not only from professors but my peers helped me to improve my writing to become more engaged with the audience I was writing for. Also seeing how my peers write and what strategies they use to enhance their writings helped me to realize what I personally could use in my writing. In this way my writing stepped into the next level and now was not only an expression of my thought, but also now has a direct message to the audience.
In my opinion the part of the course we discussed was one of the most beneficial in this course. Not only it completely changed the way I analyze the sources for my research, but also how to express it in my essay. Rhetorical-Precis changed the way I summarize the source I use in my essay and Rhetorical synthesis changed the way I connect the two sources I use in my essay. This way my essay becomes more professional, which in my opinion is beneficial when I write any research papers.
Overall, during this course I learned many ways to enhance my writing, I learned ways how to make my essays more professional, how to connect different sources for my essay, and in general how to structure it so that the audience I am writing for finds it more appealing to them. Throughout this course we went over many strategies on how to improve my writing, and I think it gave me an opportunity to practice it, not once many several times, and I am sure that the experience I gained will definitely help me in the future.
