Henry Harris

English 21003

Professor Zayas

Reflective Self-Assessment

12-14-24

Fall 2024 Semester Reflective Self-Assessment

When it came to presenting my logic both to the class and in peer conversations, rhetorical sensibility was of utmost importance. Some of the language I used in several of my late-semester assignments were focused around quite difficult to understand topics. Formulating my own thoughts using this language was simple once I grew to understand it, however the audience I was sharing to did not have the same understanding as I did. The jargon project—which came early in the semester—primed me to understand how difficult some language can be to follow. Especially with an audience consisting of individuals who may not share English as their primary language, being able to speak in periphrasis was sometimes more useful than speaking directly. Having an audience different from oneself definitely improves my ability to share my own ideas more fluently, as well as challenge my own understanding of my logic.

Part of this challenge overlapped with my process of drafting through the semester. Most of the time when I write, I write like a steam engine without going back and entirely processing what I wrote again. This sometimes makes my logic and reasoning difficult to follow, as it is in my own language rather than a more understandable one. As evident in the drafts I submitted, most of them were simply incomplete finals that were only added upon rather than edited. Revising and drafting is something I have struggled with for a long time as I grow too harsh when revising and often edit it entirely in an all in-or-out approach. Albeit, I do not have an issue with judging my work after the fact and addressing the problems I had in it. Often when graded, I can clearly see where I fell short, which would potentially prime me for revision.

While in the mindset of writing, I find it very difficult to distinguish tones and follow one that is not what I usually use. Sometimes, this makes my work seem redundant where I fall short in utilizing tone. This could be in part of a result of me not understanding a difference in goals between my own and the reader. Audiences do not share the same thoughts as me, nor do they have the same reason for reading what I have wrote. In my research paper, I demonstrated a likely much greater fascination with string theory than any reader would, and thus portions that I found intriguing may have been boring for the audience. I hope that in creating presentations to share my work, I turned that information into a much more digestible medium for the audience.

I believe collaboration may have been the biggest struggle for me this semester. Many of the previous problems I mentioned make it difficult for me to work alongside others. I have no problem reading others’ works and helping them edit; however, I worry when evaluated by others that they will not perceive the ideas I had while writing, and thus feel the tone come across as bland. In the course of the semester, I felt that simply presenting my work with explanation—such as presenting my flow of logic as a dragt is reviewed by my peers—mended this issue.

I believe in our three presentations this semester, I was able to effectively utilize multimodality. Since these presentations had the expectation to include diagrams and text alongside minutes of speech, utilizing all features of communication were required to actively convey my thoughts. In our first presentation, presenting to an intended audience of younger children confined me to working with a more attracting genre despite the original text intended for a much different audience.

Stance and thesis is something I believe I do not struggle with in my writing. It wasn’t until later in the semester on the research paper that we worked more with defendable arguments, however I feel like I am still able to efficiently write argumentatively.

Before this semester, I had some previous experience working with resources and databases—such as JSTOR and InternetArchive—however many of the intricacies to finding accurate information online were not prominent to me until now. In my research paper, the primary 4 sources were easier to develop, as we spent a lot of time in class searching and discussing proper sources; however, including more in my writing became difficult until I reached points were I required them. Reliance on finding sources for evidence creates a weak paper, and I feel that this semester thoroughly prepared me with understanding the importance of gathering sources prior to writing. Being able to understand a source—including the author’s stance, knowledge, etc.—completely before harbors a much more congruent flow of ideas.

However, these ideas can only be properly integrated with effective integrating and citing of sources. I struggled lightly with adjusting to APA as I have never cited in the style before, however I believe I am strong in properly utilizing sources in my writing.

Overall, I believe this semester has given me practice. Most of my capabilities were present going in, however they were nonetheless improved by the final assignment. This does not mean my skills are perfect, and many of them are lackluster when compared to my peers abilities—like my social evaluating skills; however, exposure and practice builds where I fall short.