Welcome to my final e-portfolio! I’m glad to have you here.

As you go through the portfolio, I hope you can see the significant growth I underwent under the wings of the class of Writing for Engineering.

And what better way than to start with none other than the Self-assessment essay to prove this.

Below, is the essay itself, which is my personal opinion and reflection on my growth; But before that, I would like to add the assignment details in order to prove instructions were followed:

“The Self-Assessment Essay :

The Self-Assessment Essay is a kind of research paper. Your development as a writer is the subject and the writing itself is your evidence. As you write your Self-Assessment Essay, you’ll be referring to the works you’ve included in your Portfolio. This essay answers two questions: To what extent have I achieved the course learning objectives? In what ways have my perceptions on what writing is and does evolved this semester? This essay will thus provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate how you’ve developed as a writer this semester and will serve as an introduction to your Portfolio.

Here are the Course Learning Objectives: Over the course of the semester, you will:

Acknowledge your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources, and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility
Enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment
Negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation
Develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes
engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond
Formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing
Practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects
Strengthen your source use practices (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources)
The Self-Assessment Essay and Portfolio will not be evaluated on whether or not you have achieved the goals, but on how well you demonstrate your understanding of the goals that you have achieved and your thoughts about the goals that you have not achieved. It will be up to you how to incorporate your response to how your perceptions have evolved regarding the question, “What is writing?” You might want to devote a section of your Self-Assessment Essay to this subject alone, or you might want to weave this discussion into other parts.”

Now here’s the essay itself, happy readings:

“From: aespino012@citymail.cuny.edu

To: sjacobson1@ccny.cuny.edu

March 16, 2024

Subject: Self-Assessment Essay

My journey in words

Coming to understand that I have progressed as a writer marks my thoughts as I look

back on my writing journey during this semester, and therefore, I would like to share it with

others, just so they can see how growth is not something that we should be scared or afraid of not

reaching, because it’s very much possible. Reflectively, this is an essay of self-appraisal on the

learning objectives of the course and how I have either achieved and understood or just simply

failed to see eye to eye with them over time. Consequently, by reflecting on my own work

through introspection and analysis, I hope that some light might be shed on how well these goals

have been met, as well as showing just what I have become from the person I was once on

August 2023.

Here’s a list of the learning outcomes from Writing for Engineering ENGL 21007, in which I

would be speaking about individually and how I personally tackled it during my academic

Marathon:

“1. Acknowledge your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources and draw on those

resources to develop rhetorical sensibility.

2. Enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment.

3. Negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre,

medium, and rhetorical situation.

4. Develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.

5. Engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across

disciplinary contexts and beyond.

6. Formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing.

7. Practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources

appropriate to your writing projects.

8. Strengthen your source use practices (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing,

summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources).”

Let’s begin;

To Acknowledge Linguistic Differences and Rhetorical Sensibility

So as we know, one key goal of this class was recognizing linguistic differences and

tactically using them while writing. Because we must understand that one main aspect of

acknowledging linguistic differences is understanding that language is not static but rather

dynamic and constantly evolving. And at first, I didn’t understand this point well enough, since

my understanding of writing was limited to a narrow range of linguistic norms and conventions.

However, with time amid various writing assignments, and texts from different cultural, social,

and historical contexts, I realized how rich language diversity was and its impact on rhetorical

expediency. For example, it was from examining technical descriptions and laboratory reports

that I learned about language choice’s influence on audience understanding and interpretation. By

accepting these differences in language use, my writing style has become more refined allowing

me to modify my words and the tone in relation to different rhetorical situations.

Improving Writing Strategies and Self-Assessment

Another very important course requirement was improving reading strategies while at the

same time developing self-assessment techniques. Initially, much emphasis was put on the

drafting and revision process which made me overlook the essence of this thorough self-

assessment that is so helpful during writing. For instance, before working on this assignment I

always used to rush when writing down responses until the last minute but now I normally take

my time to proofread through several times before submitting anything important with the help

of some peer reviews. Additionally, while focused on enhancing writing strategies, I also

adopted a more systematic approach to reading, drafting, revising, and editing. Instead of

approaching assignments as isolated tasks, I have learned to engage in thorough prewriting

activities, including brainstorming, outlining, and research as well as annotations, such as the lab

analysis, where I was assigned to take notes of the certain report I was focusing on. And plus, I

have realized now areas where I am good at as well as my weak points, which tends to help me a

vast amount during this newfound process.

Negotiating Writing Goals and Audience Expectations

Additionally, this semester has taught me the importance of negotiating writing goals

against audience expectations within genres, media, and rhetorical situations. I used to do

assignments based only on instructions given without even trying to understand what was needed

in that particular context. However, as I delved deeper into genre analysis and multimodal

composing of writing in general, I began to see how genre conventions interplayed with the

knowledge of the audience. Though I would say it’s still something I’m working on perfecting

and refining, because this includes that rather than assuming a one-size-fits-all approach to

writing, I must consider the unique characteristics, preferences, and expectations of different

audiences when crafting my message, examples are factors such as audience knowledge, cultural

background, language proficiency, and rhetorical context, among others, which is something that

takes time and plenty of motivation to learn. However, with this class, it’s safe to say that I have

developed a greater appreciation for the collaborative and social aspects of writing, recognizing

the value of seeking feedback and input from my fellow classmates and instructors throughout

the writing process. By actively engaging in things like peer reviews, group discussions, and

writing workshops, I was able to gain valuable insights into alternative perspectives, diverse

writing styles, and effective communication strategies which improved my writing practice and

expanded my overall knowledge of writing techniques and strategies, thereby helping me with

my issues on this topic. And actually, fun fact, questioning about the different writing tasks has

helped me to learn how to write in a way that will satisfy specific readers and genres, especially

during the engineering proposal assignment, where at first, I didn’t really know how to approach

this piece of work, but after carefully reading the instructions, and making questions for myself

to answer; I was writing before I knew it.

Working Together with Other Writers

As I mentioned prior, the course also emphasized on interactive and societal angles of

writing. In group discussions, peer reviews, and collaborative work, one thing has definitely stood

out: one can leverage the power of many brains over one when engaged in authorship activities. I

have learned a lot from fellow students by taking part actively in these group efforts thereby

influencing my writing positively, such as my technical description and fixing its format thanks

to another peer’s work. Additionally, teamwork is paramount for any good professional adult for

that matter that wants to succeed as it makes work easier in most contexts of life in general. But

before moving on to the next point, I want to point out that initially, I was actually quite hesitant

to engage in such group discussions, as well as sharing my work with others, and actively

participating in collaborative projects due to a fear of judgment and a lack of confidence in

myself you could say. But thankfully, I gradually and slowly immersed myself into the pool of

collaborative activities and interaction with my peers; I quickly began to overcome my introvert

ness and started to embrace the benefits of working with others, and this was all thanks to my

classmates themselves and teacher, since both provided an inclusive and welcoming environment

within the walls of the writing classroom, creating a safe space for me to step out of my comfort

zone, take risks, and challenge myself to grow as a writer.

Exploring Effective Writing Across Disciplinary Contexts

Genre analysis and multimodal composing were required to engage in effective writing

across disciplinary contexts, and it was made very clear at the beginning of the semester. And

sure, It was not easy for me initially because I found out that different areas required diverse

forms of writing which scarily had unfamiliar tones and formats such as APA; but later after

being exposed to various genres and mediums; I became more flexible in my approach when

writing such that I was impressed by my own adaptation as regards to styles of writing

depending on the audience subjects. Plus, multimodal composing I believe has also helped me

include other forms of communication my written works through videos, audios among others,

and even though it wasn’t an actual assignment; I wrote and voiced a quick story I wrote believe

it or not. So, to recap, engaging in genre analysis and multimodal composing has allowed me to

recognize the distinct conventions, audience expectations, and rhetorical strategies employed in

different disciplinary contexts. Let me give an example actually, take the writing conventions in

scientific research papers, and compare them to those from in literary analysis essays or business

reports, and you’ll see that they differ significantly, or maybe you are like I was, one who

couldn’t even differ the two before this class.

Formulating and Articulating a Stance

Throughout the semester, my writing assignments have required me to formulate and

articulate my opinions about different topics, since this is English class. But in the process of

creating and analyzing technical descriptions, composing lab reports, or writing persuasive

essays, I have been able to develop an ability to come up with strong arguments that are well

supported by evidence, such as conducting research and analysis to develop a well-informed

perspective. This involves critically evaluating sources, synthesizing information, and identifying

key arguments and evidence to overall support my paper. And by engaging with a diverse range

of sources and perspectives, I have learned to approach topics from multiple angles and develop

nuanced and well-supported arguments. And this is important because this has significantly

heightened my critical thinking and argumentation skills thereby enabling me to construct

persuasive narratives that can capture an audience’s imagination easier.

Strengthening Source Use Practices

In terms of academic writing a core component is the strengthening of source use

practices through such means as evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing,

synthesizing, analyzing, and citing them, and man did I struggle with this. At least now I know

that it is important to note that good source use practices in writing are reliant on stringent

evaluation of sources, information fusion, and seamless integration into one’s work, which help

enhance the credibility and persuasiveness of arguments. Let me tell you, navigating source use was

difficult for me because it always involved the use of direct quotations without clearly

understanding how to cite properly, as I was new to the format the class required us to use. An

example can be seen by my work in the technical description, where I failed to cite my images

correctly and lost points because of it. But by any means, I have learned to overcome this huge wall

of mine; Because first, I gained mastery in maneuvering through CCNY library databases and

catalog systems to find scholarly articles, books, and other than academic sources. This was of

course made possible by grasping various search techniques and using advanced search filters;

thereby assisting me in focusing my searches and pulling sources that truly relate to my research

ideas. Besides that, I also acquired skills that help me critically check out a source’s credibility as

well as its relevance towards the subject matter under discussion among others like time period.

Furthermore, I have broadened my research scope by exploiting internet-based databases away

from university library like academic journals; digital archives; specialized repositories etc. And

not to mention, these resources have actually enabled me get hold of vast piles of knowledge

around humanity mainly sourcing towards my specific inquiries. Overall, the ways online

engines help increase data on academic projects have been huge for me, since it simply consists

of searching using any browser or obtaining more multimedia format documents concerning

open systems, which many are freely available online, so no pennies were spent.

Perceptions on What Writing Is and Does

Lastly, or on the whole, you can say, I wanted to add an extra point that I think is

important; I believe have had a rather drastic change of mind about what writing is and does vs.

my early thinking of it as a single person’s work concerned only with bringing out facts. And this

came into being after in pretty much everything I mentioned prior: engaging in collaborative

writing as well as considering diverse genres and mediums; thus, I have greatly noticed that

writing should be seen as something more flexible and interactive involving a harmony of ideas

(negotiation), change (adaptation) and innovation (creativity) that encompasses sociability. With

such an impression of writing by using different languages, styles, or other forms of visual

means, one is able to realize how powerful it actually is when it comes to communicating,

persuading or advocating for social change, which is just fascinating.

So, to wrap it all up, I hope that this self-assessment essay can testify to my improvement

as a writer throughout this very semester. Additionally, meeting the requirements of the course

and reflecting on everything written in my life has helped me identify my strengths, and weaknesses

and where I should put more effort for my next semester even if I’m not taking English because

this information wide spreads to pretty much every corner of the planet. So, let’s recall, sorry, it’s

a must for the conclusion (skip if you want): First, I learned the importance of embracing

differences in language and developing a sense of rhetoric that can’t be overstated as these two

are necessary components of effective communication with diverse audiences. Therefore, I have

been able to identify several reading strategies, especially during drafting while putting more

emphasis on revision and editing; thereby refining how I write and introducing a deeper sense of

assessment into my work. On another note, negotiating writing goals and audience expectations

has enabled me to tailor my writing to meet the needs and expectations of specific audiences,

while also articulating my own stance and voice as a writer. And working as well as

collaborating with other writers has not only enriched my writing projects but also helped me

overcome introvertedness and fostered a sense of community and support. Moving on, it has

been through examining the concept of strong writing in interdisciplinary terms that has made

me appreciate its nature, additionally, while formulating and articulating a stance, it has

empowered me to express my thoughts, beliefs, and values confidently and persuasively.

Additionally, learning how to use different library sources including electronic ones such as

online databases from the internet and other sources in general to find information related to my

projects have enabled me to acquire basic research techniques and improve content quality in

academic papers. Lastly, when we speak about writing, we need to understand that it is not just

some technical skill or assignment given by teachers at school but rather an integral part of being

human and communicating with one another around us – shaping our worldview and helping us

locate ourselves within it. Alright, all done; as for my part, I will try my best to keep going ahead

in this journey; taking up new challenges by continuing to practice writing while at the same

time improving on the way I communicate messages around so as to become more analytical in

my thoughts and effective in transmitting information, and of course, thank you for everything

you’ve taught me, dear Jacobson.”