Welcome, I’m excited to have you here getting a little insight on my growth thus far in my journey. This was definitely a challenge and I had a great time creating it, much like all the writing prompts/ assignments you will see posted here. Each assignment was a different writing style from my Narrative to my Annotated Bibliography to my Argumentative Essay, these assignments brought out a different side of me as a writer, they required a great deal of effort and I learned and grew with each one.

Self Assessment

Have I grown as a writer? Yes! I have grown in various areas as a writer since the beginning of this course. I have learned practices that I thought I already knew, and I became better at things I thought I was great at. The course was informative, it challenged me was a writer, and it helped me to adapt to writing in different styles and formats. I am still working on perfecting my knowledge of MLA format and citations, however I have more knowledge now than when I began the course. In writing my Self-Assessment I aim to show my growth through my own work, error and correction. I will include evidence to support my growth. It is hope that in reading my assessment that you will notice my improvement.

(Read and listen critically and analytically in a variety of genres and rhetorical situations.)

Throughout the course of this semester, we were constantly analyzing texts. We started by analyzing the target audience, tone, and settings. We have analyzed ads, essays, articles and etc. this helped familiarize us with different genres. Reading different media helped me in identifying these things no matter the style of writing. When I began the course, I didn’t know what a rhetorical situation was or what to look for when reading a text. 

This is an ad that we read while learning to analyze, we were told to identify the target audience for this 7-up ad. I was able to identify that the target audience were parents, seemingly targeting moms. Through the process of identifying the target audience I was looking for rhetorical situations and devices that may appeal to a certain demographic of people or even pertain to a singular person. In this article there are several, even beginning with the image of the baby drinking the soda, and the ad further goes on to say that the pictured baby isn’t even their youngest customer and also includes a recipe on how to incorporate baby formula, suggesting to moms that this product is safe for their entire family. This is one of the examples that I observed provable growth with this expected outcome.

(Adapt to and compose in a variety of genres.)

This course has been especially challenging in reference to this question. You will see in my reflections I mentioned having never done a photo essay prior to this class, and this wasn’t just a random photo essay. The assignment was to create a photo essay using the narrative that we had written. I had to assemble photos from 10 years ago to coincide with my essay and make it appealing to the audience while invoking the same emotion throughout the narrative with photos. The following assignment was a Reflective annotated bibliography, which is a totally different genre of writing, the formatting is different, so I learned how to move from style to style with little to no confusion. The following is a sample of the first assignment which was a narrative in essay form and the second assignment the photo essay I created of my narrative. There will be a link to my portfolio at the bottom of the page, which has the completed assignments.

(Use research as a process of inquiry and engagement with multiple perspectives.)

When I began my research on my Annotated Bibliography, I started at the Ursula C. Scherwin library. I was able to download several sources to incorporate in my assignment. During the semester we had an entire class dedicated to learning how to utilize the library website and the library as a resource while doing our research. During the course on research, we were asked to use the library website to provide sources supporting our topics as an assignment. I have attached my response below. The first reference was used in the final submission.

(Use reflection and other metacognitive processes to revise prior assumptions about reading and writing and transfer acquired knowledge into new writing situations.)

During each assignment we were asked to write reflections, as well as provided feedback by our peers and Prof. Metenko. I didn’t come into this course thinking I knew everything, the fact that I had taken 10 years off from school I already knew that I would have to work harder than anyone to even get to the starting point.  I took every critique and every piece of feedback as an opportunity to improve myself and learn all I could in a small window of time. Below are just a few examples of some of the reflections I worked on this year. I usually try to talk about the process I used with each assignment and what I feel I could work on.

(Demonstrate the social and ethical responsibilities and consequences of writing.)

This expectation proved to be more challenging for me. In each assignment I incorrectly used MLA citations/format in many different ways. Throughout the semester I have gained knowledge of how my citations should be written and to alphabetize them always. Though I have grown in this area, my knowledge of the topic may not be as proficient as expected. The fact that I can identify that I still need more help suggests growth. I know that there are times when MLA called for in text citations and I inserted footnotes. After receiving feedback, I later revised that, the revision step became one of the most developing parts of my writing process. Each time, I was able see where I went wrong and gain a better understanding of writing and its standards. I’ve inserted a visual just for context of the unintentional errors I would make and learn from.

(Compose in 21st Century Environments.)

Working on my website was very fun and informative. It gave me a chance to create a digital e-portfolio which is so fitting for the generation we live in. It is important that we develop these skills now, seeing as realistically no matter what field we choose everyone will have to use technology. The assignment I have been working on was a little tricky, having design an e portfolio, making sure it was easy to navigate, essentially tailoring for my audience similar to writing. Also, including imagery and making sure that the theme was consistent for each webpage. I aimed to make the website fun to be on and interesting. It was different but the same in many ways you are still speaking to an audience, it has to be cohesive and draw in the viewers. There was a difference in the formatting that needed to be done for the website, a lot of converting images and documents from pdf to jpg to properly fit on the website. All in all, this assignment taught me how to be creative and create a digital portfolio of my work. The following is the link to my E-Portfolio, I hope you enjoy. https://scotttionna.commons.gc.cuny.edu

As I come to the close of this first semester and I reflect on my journey. I have learned so much about writing, and about myself as a writer. There were times that I thought writing was just putting your thoughts on paper and that’s it. I improved on creating my thesis, creating a compelling intro, detailing background information, creating a cohesive transition, making sure I’m meeting audience needs and making my tone throughout the assignments clear. I’ve attached several examples for you to see my development.  I am proud of the growth that has occurred during this semester, I am grateful for the professor that I had, and the knowledge and tools he was able to pass along. Thank you for allowing me to be myself and develop at my own pace.