This self-assessment will focus on my progress in writing and reading during the English course semester. decided to take a Freshman English Composition class as a challenge to myself. I’ve already written three important essays by the end of the semester to see my growth in the end. I have progressed, but I know I still have room to grow. The research paper, the exploratory essay, and the literacy narrative are the three main types of essays.

No writing is perfect but through time and revision any work is able to improve than what you started with. My first phase 1 essay was the  Literacy Narrative essay. The objective was to reflect on the reading, writing, and language experiences that shape a part of who I am today to narrate these experiences. To start this assignment, I choose a particular moment in my life that stands out to me and how I use language and literacy. I wrote about my experiences with my educational experiences of having IEP and how that has impacted my journey with speaking Spanish and learning English. Writing this essay I was able to open to the reader in a sense where I could write about how I felt and how I overcame the challenge of learning a new language I wasn’t familiar with. For this essay I didn’t find it incredibly difficult but it certainly did challenge the moments where I had to rethink challenging moments in my life to connect to what I was talking about. The error I made while writing my story didn’t revise my work, which made it challenging for readers to understand the point I was trying to make. Rhetorical situations helped when writing  my phase 1 essay Because I was able to learn the different ways to connect with a reader. Pathos connects to the audience because emotions are shown like empathy. Ethos is the way the audience can be persuaded by the writer. Kairos is how the writer delivers the message, and logos is a way of logical reasoning. These rhetorical situations helped me with this assignment.  When I had a classmate reread my story my classmate told me “ I like how you let the reader know more about you and the struggles you went through and how you  took that struggle and made it a lesson to yourself , but I think a way to improve is to reread and fix some points because certain sentences could be more clarify”. When I write and talk I understand the idea I’m getting at, but not everyone will understand that it is important to take a couple of minutes to review my paper and that is what I did before turning it in. A sentence I say in the end is “Till this day I am not perfect. I will always make mistakes and that is okay. My goal is to just to improve everyday” This quote reminds me how making mistakes in my life is okay whether it’s writing, school related or in general, because if I wouldn’t make mistakes how would I grow from something I already master? This essay was my favorite because the feedback was the reminder I needed to always reread so things that don’t make sense do. 

The second assignment prompt was an exploratory essay prompt. In the first part of the assignment, I had to  create a rhetorical analysis of a secondary source (article, essay, book) of my choice . The main important element of writing this assignment was choosing the language and other rhetorical strategies that I think would best appeal to my audience. To start this essay I needed to know what rhetorical strategies are, so what I learned from my phase 1 assignment helped me know that it’s a tool to communicate. For this assignment I compared two different versions of “Little Mermaid” . I used the version by Hans Christian Anderson and the Disney version live action. I was able to use rhetorical strategies by using the tone/mood I was going to use to affect the way the reader listens to my writing. For example “This stands out to me because it’s much different from the original “Little Mermaid”. Overall, I didn’t want to provide a summary; instead, I wanted to engage the reader with my tone, which is why I’ve explained what shocked me about the two versions.  My professor gave me  feedback that rather than being an analysis of my work, it was more of an opinion piece and that my assignment was more of two summaries. This assignment helped me discover something about myself that I like to seek feedback when I don’t understand why. This is a crucial lesson to remember because receiving guidance for progress in education goes beyond just receiving a grade. 

The third assignment was the research critical analysis. For this assignment I had to reference a primary source. I chose “The Little Mermaid” because I already worked on this fairy before and I am familiar with the themes found in this story . The goal was to have three sources in total. The theme that I focused on was sacrifice and showing how Anderson explores that theme. An example I wrote was how Ariel didn’t think twice about putting and risking herself into danger to recuse the prince. For this essay , I was required to use two database sources CUNY Onesearch has helped me to use my resources Phase 3 was stressful. I remember knowing what I was going to write about, which was “Sleeping Beauty” and at the last minute, I changed it and wrote about “The Little Mermaid”. As a writer Phase 3 taught me that anything can happen while writing. It’s okay to start over. For this essay, I decided to try something new and go to the writing center. I got lost on my way there but I made it. I’ve always struggled to ask for help because I felt shy and felt as if I was incapable of doing things on my own. I was able to get the help I needed to complete this assignment. I learned how to find data-based sources by using  sources that provide well researched information. With my phase 3 essay, I learned to step out of my comfort zone. At some point in class I didn’t understand why we kept revising and editing peer reviews, but I learned that there is always a way to improve which is why feedback is needed. There won’t always be glows but that’s okay, because there is always room to grow on my writing. . Feedback helped me review my work and fix it. In the end, no writing is perfect and I was able to take feedback from my peers and my professor to do better. Credibility is very important, sometimes I find myself forgetting to cite my sources. MLA format helped me remember there will always be biased newspapers and information. I didn’t know what data based information as I never learned it in high school, but before this semester ends I’m able to leave this class with new information I gained that I will carry throughout college. Writing isn’t easy, it takes time, practice and overall improvement along the way.