In the beginning of the semester, I believed my writing to be average, but I was wrong. My writing was a mess and it continued to be until I took this class. This class has given me so much insight on my writing and taught me improvements that I did not think could be so beneficial. Comparing my writing and thinking process from the beginning of the semester to now I can gladly say that I have applied many changes.  

In my past writings I would simply just answer the prompt and that was it. I would not question my piece of writing and would only write what my teachers wanted to read. This class made me question the genre of my writing, the purpose, audience, and stance. For example, in the exploratory essay assignment we were tasked was to explore, analyze, and research. At first, I did not use the rhetorical devices which made my writing process extremely difficult. I did not know where to start or what to research, analyze, or explore. This made my writing process difficult and challenging. It took me a couple of days to really figure out how I wanted to organize it, I did not know what questions to ask myself. Then eventually I started writing any thoughts or ideas I had on paper. I did not know where to locate sources or if the sources were good enough evidence for my topic. I took me a while to critically analyze my topic and the sources I planned to use. My analysis did not add much to the quotes I was using to further expand my thoughts. What was even more complicated was how to arrange my paragraphs and texts. I was not sure how to start my essay, for instance if I should use a broad statement or if I should just explicitly state my thesis. I faced difficulty transitioning from one point to another. Once I got to writing my essay my flow slowly started to come. Before I would add more information in my essay, I would write it on paper and try to relate it back to the topic of my essay with sources which made my process even messier because my notes were all over the place. This was because I was not asking myself the correct questions. However, in my writing today I can further understand my task. If I were tasked with this essay now then I could further expand on my ideas, my task, and my writing. I now know how to start organizing my essay and thought process. Today I could say that that the genre of my exploratory essay was a research paper, my purpose was to explore the gender roles stereotypes, specifically passive vs active characters, in the fairy tale “Sun, Moon, and Talia,” and my audience was targeted towards woman. Furthermore, I can now see that in my paper I had grammatical errors, overrun sentences, repetition, and organization errors. For instance, in the essay my summaries were exceedingly long, and my analysis seemed to be repetitions of the same idea. Additionally, my MLA format and citing needed improvement, such as adding indents and paragraph alignments. Lastly, I did not use much of the feedback my peer review partner gave me.  

I learned from my writing mistakes and applied it to my research critical analysis assignment. At first it was complicated since I had never written such a long paper and could not tell what I wanted to write about. Then I started questioning the genre, purpose, and audience of my paper. The genre was more of an argumentative essay. The purpose of my paper was to argue that fairy tales degrade and undermine women by enabling their passivity, emphasizing their perfection, and sexualizing them. My audience was targeted towards women and younger generations that can make changes to these old and traditional ideas of women given in fairy tales. Once I was able to answer these questions, I was able to start my research. Finding the sources, I needed was struggle, but I was able to reach out to my professors and classmates for help and advice on my sources, for example how to use the CCNY database or if my source was reliable or not. In this assignment, compared to the exploratory essay, I was able to shorten my summaries and only highlight the plot points of the story. Also, I used multiple sources as evidence instead of my own words. As for my conclusion I added more information instead of repeating what I already stated in my essay, which was something I used to always do in my writing. I made sure to fix as many grammar mistakes as I could. During the peer review process, I took my partners feedback seriously and adjusted my essay. This was the first assignment where I was able to perfect my MLA format. I fixed my layout which made my paper look much more professional.  

Do not get me wrong my research critical analysis paper was not perfect or golden. I received a B on my paper despite my goal of aiming for an A. I still had analysis problems, repetition, and some grammatical mistakes. However, I was able to apply many of course learning outcomes through my writing process. I was able to explore and analysis my paper to the best of my ability, even though might not be perfect it was definitely an improvement compared to my past writing. I was able to locate sources online and on the CCNY database, I learned to engage with my peer review partner for constructive criticism, I learned how to organize my paper and use digital technology to my own benefit, I practiced and perfected my citations for MLA style, and developed strategies for drafting my essay by using rhetorical devices. Course outcomes I must practice and improve on is to compose texts that integrate my stance by using critical analysis and interpretation and evaluating sources on their credibility. 

This class also made me realize that I do much better on personal assignments, such as the literacy narrative. I believe the reason for it is because I am able to apply my own emotions into my writing. As for my writing journey overall, it has not ended. In my literacy narrative I stated, “All I can wish for is that with the classes I am taking now that I can improve as a writer.” The course outcomes for this class helped me improve as a writer. My writing has changed drastically, and the learning outcomes will continue to help me in any future piece of writing. I understand that I still need to practice many strategies and improve on my analysis, repetition, and grammar, but I am proud of how far I have come in my writing journey. My wish for this class has finally become a reality.