Self-Assessment
“Hello scholars, and welcome to our FIQWS class, Composition for Creative Expressions!” Twelve words that started an entire journey. When I first received this email on the 18th of August, I immediately felt a burst of excitement and anticipation. It was the first email I had received from any professor and officially marked the beginning of not only my academic career in this class, but in college as well. When signing up for this class, I couldn’t wait until the day I began as both Creative Expression and Composition combined two of my favorite subjects; Theater and English. Looking back on this academic journey now that it is coming to an end, I can honestly say there have been lessons, big and small, that I can take with me as I continue as a student.
My Personal Narrative
I really enjoyed this assignment. I appreciated the way we were able to learn and relate to one another with this project and presentation. Starting college alone was scary, but to start online added to it because I was afraid of not being able to connect or make friends with the other students in class. This assignment made me feel comfortable with our class and helped me feel less like I’m in a class with strangers. In addition to creating a better environment for the class, my personal narrative was a time in which I was able to play around with the tones and ways in which I wrote an essay. Typically, when writing an essay in an English class, I’ve had to stick with writing in a formal, scholarly tone. Unless I am writing a creative assignment or story, I haven’t had much of an opportunity to challenge myself by writing a scholarly essay but with more of a storytelling tone as I wrote about myself and my experiences. This essay allowed for me do so and learn how to write as if I am sitting and having a conversation with my audience instead of trying to prove a point or educate them on a certain topic which I really appreciated.
Finally, one of the most important aspects of the assignment that I will take with me is the multi-modal aspect. Throughout high school, I may have done what felt like a million essays and projects, they were always the same format where essays only included written components yet projects were more content heavy with different forms of media and lesser writing. The personal narrative assignment demonstrated to me the ways in which using different forms of media can enhance your writing by providing visual examples or aids. Not only did the multimodal aspect assist the audience by providing visual examples but it also assisted me in the writing process as it came with ease for me to write once I had pictures, poems, etc… to describe. Overall, the Personal Narrative assignment not only allowed me to feel comfortable with my peers in my class through sharing personal experiences that we can relate to, but it also introduced me to a new form of writing that I can use later in my academic career.
The Research Essay
The creation of my research paper highlighted a process that I want to implement in the future to other major essays as it assisted me in getting out of the bad habit of simply writing an essay within a day: research, draft, and final draft included. I will not lie, I don’t really like the process of physically having to research sources when writing an essay. I find it super tedious and frustrating at times when I have a certain argument in my head but have then have to look for sources that support it. Although I can’t say I enjoyed the process any more this time around, I will say that I was extremely grateful for having those library sessions that showed and taught me how to use the resources around me that make the process of finding reliable sources much easier. In addition to easing the research process, I found a structure that was useful for me in spreading out my work instead of bunching it all within a few days, or even hours. I know that especially now where my classes are online, I myself find it hard to maintain a good flow of completing assignments on time or having motivation to do so. But the way that the work for the research paper was broken up into finding 2-3 sources, thinking about topics, the annotated bibliography, two separate drafts instead of one, and peer review sprinkled in between everything really helped in the end. I know that if it wasn’t for these assignments I would have tried to cram writing the essay in a day or a few hours before it was due like I used to. I think that moving forward, I want to implement these assignments to any future essays I have to help me space out my work and not stress myself out.
