Griselda Lucero

ENG 21002

Joseph Furlong

May 27, 2019

Self-Assessment Reflection

My experience within this class has been great because of the ability to communicate with students and the professor. The in-class assignments were extremely fair and also enjoyable for me personally. As a small class, the professor made the environment warm and inviting for me to express my thoughts and writing skills.  

I believe I participated a good amount of time during the class and tried to make myself present. I felt invited to participate but was also called out to participate, but I felt comfortable with both. I did lack bringing in certain assignments but tried to bring many of them such as, reading reflections, vocabulary words, observation assignment. I believe I became well informed about what “social science” means within this class. As society we encounter many cultures and communities which have their own establishment within society, us as a society, try to understand and learn from these cultures and communities. We do this through experience, research and communication.     

As a student I appreciated the “letter of introduction” paper our professor assigned us. I have taken many English classes but very few of these classes do the professors try to understand or give interest in knowing their students. I was able to write the letter of introduction which detailed how I was as a writer but also gave very personal information of myself. As a first assignment I believed it to be the most important and most impactful to the students. The essay set the tone for the professor and student which was, to give the students trust and confidence in their writing for the classroom.

 As a writer, I have grown to dominate this area in which I once lacked. My structural framework for my writing essays has become academically well over time. This class has increased the ability of creating pieces that are personal but that are also academically. I was able to intake a new way of creating an ethnography paper, such as becoming and observer and interviewer. In my past ethnography papers I was not as detailed in the community I was observing or the idea I was getting across. I believe that in this class I became a good observer and very detailed. I was able to notice this skill in my observation assignment, when I had to write an essay about a CUNY class I had observed. I thought “How in the world was I going to write an essay” but my observation gave great detail and was able to write the essay in a small time frame.

            My personal favorite piece would have to be the research paper and ethnography, they both went hand in hand which is why I couldn’t just pick one. I have had experience writing both type of papers but I was never given the opportunity to pick a topic on my own. Giving the students the ability to pick their own topics is very effective in creating a good writing piece. I was able to write about a subject in which I had some knowledge of but I also got to learn about a specific group of people and a specific type of sport. In my research paper I was very dedicated but also moved about the subject I was regarding to. I was able to relate to the topic which made me gain a lot of interest to the paper. But even though I was able to complete the draft properly and on time, my weakness for any writing class would be that I procrastinate. I believe I work my best under pressure and with short timing but I would say this is a very bad tendency. Usually my work has good ideas and good framework but lack grammar and punctual corrections. These errors are usually made because I create many of my pieces last minute and under pressure.

            My first perception of the class was that it was going to be an essay class to by-pass. But as the semester continued, the professor created a lot of small assignments and many essays. I felt I was motivated to complete as much work as I possibly could and even though my essays were completed late I was able to complete most assignments. As a writer I must stop completing my work last minute and give it in late. This impacts my grade drastically and that is a major issue I have with my writing pieces. Another issue I have as a writer is that I lack a good vocab to make my arguments/statements stronger. I personally feel creating vocab words was not effect for myself, I have been told to read more to increase my vocabulary.

            I believe every writing piece was essential to the course learning because they built up our final assignment. Each essay had the purpose of being incorporated into our final essay, in order to complete our final piece, we had to distinguish our personal opinion to the fact, partake in an interview and provide research to back our observation/ claim of the subgroup. Although our final piece was very long it was easily written because of the previous assignments given to us. My overall perception about the class and assignment was that it made a better writer because I was able to intake new information. I was able to learn how to formally conduct an interview, in many English classes conducting interviews is not required or taught. Another main technique I learned from this class was to assure I did not give my personal opinion when it came to writing a research paper, my opinion would not be able to be backed with formal facts.

            I appreciate the time and dedication my professor gave to me and my former classmates. He made my learning experience fun and effective in social science. My professor was able to correct my mistakes and assure to read all my essays to help improve my skills as a writer.