Self-Assessment Essay

As a student in the Writing for the Sciences (ENGL 21003) class, I have acquired numerous writing and researching skills. Not only have I grown as a writer this semester, but I have had the opportunity to do both, help other classmates and learn from them. Throughout the course, there were six major assignments that I had to complete: a New York Times article summary/evaluation, a scholarly article analysis, a general audience paper, a lab report and poster, an annotated bibliography, and a literature review. Each of these assignments helped me further expand my reading comprehension and my analyzing, summarizing, and evaluating techniques. I also had the opportunity to learn more about the IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion) format and understand how crucial it is for communicating scientific research information.

The first written assignment for this class was the New York Times article summary and evaluation. The main objective of this paper was to choose a New York Times article that referred to another scholarly research article and summarize and evaluate the journalistic writing. While the most challenging part was adhering to the word limit (narrowing down my summary and evaluation from 700 to 500 words), this assignment allowed me to be more concise and improve my summarizing skills. I also learned how science should be presented to a general audience (i.e., avoid using specific terminology). Writing this essay helped me acknowledge mine and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility.

The second written assignment for this class was the scholarly article analysis. This paper consisted in finding the scholarly article on which the New York Times article was based and analyzing how it was written. For example, I had to examine how the IMRAD format was implemented and consider whether the authors used passive/active voice, verb tenses, and hedging or non-hedging verbs. Writing this essay was a little challenging because I was still adjusting to the IMRAD format. In other words, it was difficult for me to summarize the information and understand the structure of the scholarly article. The main takeaway from this assignment was engaging in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts.

The third written assignment for this class was the general audience paper. The purpose of this assignment was to find a peer-reviewed, scholarly, research article written in the IMRAD format and summarize it for a general audience. Asides from creating a presentation for the class, I had to consider background information and utilize the wonder or application appeal. This assignment was somewhat challenging for me as the topic that I chose required me to do a lot of research. My paper was about an oceanic bacterium that absorbs light and in the long run creates as much energy as chlorophyl-based organisms that reside in the ocean. The essay helped me expand on my summarizing and researching abilities and the presentation helped me improve my public speaking skills. One major takeaway was understanding how important it is to paint a picture to my audience because many scientific papers use jargony and lack explanations of certain trends shown in their study. However, one aspect of this assignment that I need further assistance with is my ability to have a flow between my paragraphs and have connecting terms to make the transition smoother. All in all, the course learning objective achieved by writing this paper was negotiating my own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation.

The fourth assignment (a group project) included a lab report and a poster based on a problem or challenge that CCNY students faced. For the poster, we had to present our findings to the class and answer any questions that our classmates came up with. For this assignment, I developed and engaged in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes. Additionally, I had the chance to conduct research, analyze results, present and synthesize information to an audience, and collaborate with other students. One major takeaway from this assignment was effectively incorporating a scholarly article into a lab report and becoming more familiar with the IMRAD format.

The fifth and sixth assignments for this class were the annotated bibliography and the literature review. The main scope of these two assignments was to choose a specific topic and develop a literature review about it. The annotated bibliography consisted in summarizing and evaluating three scholarly, peer-reviewed, articles that focused on the chosen topic. For the literature review, I had to synthesize the information found in the articles and use in-text citations in correct CSE name-year style. By completing these written assignments, I was able strengthen my source use practices. In other words, I practiced using library resources and online databases such as Google Scholar, Jstor, and other academic journals.

For each of these assignments (except the lab report and poster), I had to write a first and final draft. For the first drafts, I received feedback from my classmates and had the chance to improve my essays. This can be seen in the peer-editing worksheets attached with each written assignment. Not only did I collaborate with other students and helped them achieve the assignment goals, but I .

In conclusion, I have achieved most of the course learning objectives, however I feel like I have yet to acomplish formulating and articulating a stance through and in my writing. Moreover, my perceptions on what writing is and does definitely evolved this semester. Asides from becoming familiar with multiple ways to address an audience and communicate my ideas, I realized how useful it is to codify information, to use the IMRAD format and read/write literature reviews before starting my own research. The skills that I have acquired throughout the semester will definitely help me in the future. For example, they will be critical for my future job, not only because clear writing leads to clear understanding, but because techniques such as effectively informing an audience will help me deliver my ideas more clearly.