Self-assessment essay
Rafiq Alim
ENG 202 202A
Prof. Pamela Stemberg
Over the course of the semester, I’ve been writing multiple assignments that has challenge me and evolve my way of writing. when I first started learned about technical writing my knowledge of it was small, many parts were confusing to and when it was too challenging, I had to take a step backwards. But those challenges helped me improved my skills and take notice place that have neglected and places that needed work in my writing. While doing assignments in the course, I’ve done some good in achieving some of the course learning objectives, while other I still need work with. With each assignment I will go it and how they have helped me the course learning objectives.
The technical description was about giving a detailed explanation of an item of our choosing, the items function, its history, the parts, and where is it now. My choice was a swingline stapler, it wasn’t just the stapler itself I was task with, also had to go into the swingline company itself. This assignment helped me achieve the second and fifth course learning objective. When I think of which assignment where the peer review was more influential it would be this one, when a student gave me their insight on my draft, not only did they like it they gave idea on what to add. Here’s the peer review:
Author: Crystal Sanchez Date: Thursday, March 10, 2022, 8:47:31 AM EST Subject: RE: draft
Hey, I liked that you gave a history of the Stapler by date that gave me an idea of what to add on to mine. A cover page is a perfect way to start as well as making your technical paper look good, I will also love to see pictures of the stapler as well what the first stapler ever looked like. Good way to Start!
Thanks to this person that that I add more images of the item and what it looks like when the company published it. Was already pleased with what I had at the time, but it was reassuring to know I was on the right track. The technical description helps develop my skills with the fifth learning objective, had to make sure the sources I choose was legitimate. When doing the assignment, I had to make sure I had the right info for the swingline stapler, mainly used google for the searching but had to check the websites I used, so thanks to this assignment I have a fair understanding of the fifth learn objective. The technical description was a good learning experience to develop my writing and search skills.
For the rhetorical analysis, we had to pick two similar lab reports and evaluate them. The two lab reports I choose were both based on method of water filtration, had compare each report to the other and see if they meet the aspects of a lab report. The learn objectives that I had learn through this assignment were the seventh and eighth. For this task had to use hostos database, different from how I usually research, but was a better was to find specific articles, plus it’s more assuring that the search grid gives or credible sources. This assignment really helped me understand what to look for when looking for sources and what search grid to use, which helped me achieved the seventh and eighth learning objective.
The infographic was a change of pace compared to the other assignments, for this we had to make an infographic that display a topic that we want to get out to the audience we want to be aware of. My topic was the rise of homelessness in NYC, it had the causes, an event that is tied to it, and some solutions too. We had to give a presentation about our infographic, explain the topic and explain who our directed audience is. The third and sixth learning objective played a role in this assignment. When writing my infographic, I had to consider what my audience would want to know, questions they might have, and what they might think of the situation. While most of the stuff I was planning to write wasn’t really change before considering the audience, there were rewrites towards what I had written down and changes to the background. This part helped improve my skills with the third learning objective. My stance on homelessness played a role in choosing to present that, it a major problem that we have that is being sideline. There were many places that were closed with people losing their livelihood, I put in how I saw the homeless problem and how it needed to take priority, this helped my understanding of the sixth learning objective. The infographic gave me insight and evolve on considering both me and my audience.
While I did learn a lot over the course, I had trouble learning the other learning objectives: the first and fourth learning objective. This due to fact that we barely worked together during the course, each assignment was done on our own, while we did have peer review that was done online and separate. So, there was little opportunity to work as a group and as a result we couldn’t use the spoken learning objective to good use.
My understand of how I should not just for but those who are reading what I write prior to this course while wasn’t impressive, still was average. This course had improved my skills as writer, taught me things to consider when writing. Taught me what mechanics to use for specific projects, and so much more. I can say I achieved most of the course learning objectives, six to be precise, but sadly two of them aren’t so easy as our opportunity to use them were limited. I will try to improve on working with other people as I go on. But all and all I’ve learned a lot in this course. I will use these skills that as farther my writing and I’ll have this course to be grateful for.
