Kaitlyn Fernandez

Professor Crystal Rodwell

Composition For Creative Expression

December 13,2021

Compared to other English classes I’ve taken in the past, this class was very much more challenging. The grading was very strict but also very effective. Having a hard grader like Professor Rodwell really did benefit me as a writer. At the beginning of the course my writing wasn’t the best and for it being my first year I wasn’t really satisfied with my writing skills as they lacked some grammar issues or even just getting the whole entire topic wrong. Some of the assignment given were  Formal Letter of Introduction, Product Review Essay+self reflection, Leadership Presentation+self reflection, Annotated Bibliography, Researched Critical Analysis Essay its related +self reflection, Multimodal Presentation, also other components that helped me reach the course learning outcomes were a Discussion post, Feedback from another class and, a Group 1 post discussion. 

The Formal Letter Of Introduction assignment was to create a letter for Professor Rodwell discussing our major, writing strengths,writing weaknesses,who we are as a student to better help us as we continued our class for the semester. This being our first paper I got feedback on my letter to fix grammar mistakes. I took this feedback and I now go over my work and look specifically for  grammar mistakes or what I could change to make the writing better. I’ve developed a skill before giving in my work to revise and make sure that there isn’t anything I have to edit.

The Product Review assignment was to choose any item in our household and to take in the scientific knowledge and or innovation that made the design of your item possible. The point of this assignment was to teach me to think deeply but critically  about one item/object and its overall purpose. After doing a product review myself, my instructor mentioned not to make essays that aren’t about me, about me. Make it so I actually stay on topic. I’ve changed the way of my writing to focus and discuss more about what I need to rather than what I feel or see is right. After getting this feedback I learned how to focus on staying on topic and how. I have gained a skill when reading over my work to make sure I didn’t go more about me but rather stay on topic. The learning outcome I’ve gained was learning how to recognize when I’m getting off topic and editing my work. 

The Leadership presentation assignment was to Create a 5-10 minute presentation about our assigned topic given by the professor,plus a Q&A at the end for any questions.  My topic was MLA citations and formatting. After getting feedback on my presentation I was told that my sources weren’t so reliable, which led to work errors. I’ve learned that it’s important where it’s located, but also gained the knowledge of learning how a source is reliable or not. With this I’ve also learned to work with the college library database and to look for sources but evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias.

The Annotated Bibliography assignment was to create a document that held only your sources that you’ll use for your essay. For this assignment we were specially told to do it in MLA format,with this you also had to use MLA formatting when it came to citations for your sources. We also had to include a quick summary of the source and explain how it will be used in our essay. The main point of this assignment was for us to learn how to document our sources. After completing my own annotated bibliography I got the feedback to look into more sources by my instructor  because the sources I had weren’t as reliable. I learned what a reliable source is and what it includes. I have also expanded my learning when it comes to looking for a good source. The specific learning outcome I’ve gained was to “Locate research sources (including academic journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles) in the library’s databases or archives and on the Internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias.” I’ve given more attention to a source to see if it’s really useful but also reliable. 

The Research Critical Analysis outline was an assignment given to everyone to better help them prepare for the paper. For this assignment my way of doing an outline was just to label my paragraphs with numbers and questions below. After sharing it with my group, I got feedback from another student. I was told my outline wasn’t the standard outline. I didn’t really know what a standard outline was until after that feedback. What I did was look for the proper outline and see how it was supposed to be done. It expanded my outline process and made it more simple for me to break down my writing more. I was also offered advice from the professor to label my paragraphs with a title rather than a number because it sets you up  more to know where each part of the topic will go.Overall I’ve developed a skill to make the writing process more easier for me because now I know to always have an outline and have also learned how for certain writing assignments outlines may be different. 

The Researched Critical Analysis Essay was a writing assignment where we had to choose one topic to write about and go deeper into the whole idea as to why you believe what you do. For this assignment we needed to do our own research and use multiple sources to define our side but also come up with an argument others can come up with while reading your work. After getting feedback from my professor I was told my essay is more of an informative essay rather than a research critical analysis essay. Given this was my second to last writing assignment for this class I’ve taken this information and now moving forward I will be taking the learning outcome that I’ve gained which is to be able to analyze the assignment and develop strategies for drafting, revising, and editing.I decided that it was best for me to always go over what I have written and see if the information or idea I make is supported very well and to make sure my audience understands. 

The Multimodal Presentation project was to create a 10 to 15 minute presentation based on a topic related to the class or to furthermore explain your rca essay in presentation form. For this assignment we had the choice to either work with a group or individually. I decided to work with a group. Our project is known as “Braille”. Given feedback from our professor we did great but the thing we all needed to do better on was making sure when we had our slides in present mode to double check to make sure the audience can see everything. We got feedback from professor Rodwell that our instructions were set to be too small and that sometimes there’s too many words on one screen. Taking this information in the learning outcome I’ve gained as a student is to “Engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.” Working with a group of people I didn’t know if I was going to pair well with everyone but after giving it a shot we all worked well on our project and always made sure to set due dates for ourselves. This helped me for the future because now I am more skilled in knowing how to work well with others, especially online. 

The Self Reflection assignments that were due for the product review essay, leadership presentation assignment, and research critical analysis overall helped me grow as a writer. For the product review self reflection portion being one of my very first self reflection I got the comment that I did not actually complete the task. Taking this comment in, I’ve learned to actually read the entire directions and what’s needed from me as the writer. I’ve learned how to make my self reflections actually better by not making it more of how I felt, but how have I grown into a better writer. My leadership presentation self reflection I got feedback on how my work needs to be more organized. I developed the strategy of having an outline and how to follow the format of a paper. I’ve learned that breaking up each section of the writing and including relevant questions under is what works best with me. Lastly I was given the task to write a self reflection for my research critical analysis paper and I got the feedback that my topics were there but I did not structure my paper like I should have which is in paragraphs. Receiving this feedback I’ve learned to develop the habit of having a structured paper not just one straight essay without breaking points where needed. I’ve developed the strategy of learning how to draft and finalize which is making sure that my final piece matches with my outline and is broken up where it’s needed. 

During this class we had the opportunity to have a discussion board which allowed us students to interact with each other and talk about the assignments but also our thoughts towards that. In one of these discussions we needed to read Chimimanda Adichie – The Danger of a Single Story and we needed to discuss the main point and how this information from this reading supports our work in assistive technology,environment and our own writing. Afterwards we were told to discuss our answers and furthermore explain what we thought with other students. I decided to reply to one classmate asking a question but after receiving a comment made by the professor to ask but also answer my own question. I didn’t get why at first but after reviewing it I learned that not everyone is gonna have the same answer as me and it’s a way to expand my thinking but also others. The learning outcome from this was “Engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.” I’ve learned to expand my thoughts and when asking a question to others think of an answer myself and put it out there. 

Another great opportunity we had was before starting our writing process for the research critical analysis paper we were put into groups on the discussion boards so that we have support if needed when writing. We were told to come up with a thesis statement at first and share it with the group. After it being reviewed by my peer I got feedback on my thesis statement from my peer that it was more like an introduction rather than a thesis for my RCA essay. Taken from this information I’ve gained a better understanding of how long a thesis should be, which is one sentence. It also includes a clear argument in that sentence. “Engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.” This was the outcome I’ve learned after that. It was that from actually submitting work and having others read and give their opinion or suggest things, I’ve learned specifically from this how long a thesis should be and actually ways to say all that you want in a few sentences not a whole paragraph.

In one of my other classes I was given the task to write a paper focusing on one source. I had written this essay and was told I need to better summarize an article or information given. This feedback was useful especially now because I’m doing a lot of writing. I’ve gained more ability to cut down an article or information given for a better understanding. “Compose texts that integrate your stance with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary” I’ve gained more knowledge of how to cut down wording from an article or reading or even a document to make it shorter but still have great information and a great understanding.

In summary overall the Composition For Creative Expression class was hard to an extent but made me a better writer overall. I’ve developed skills I will now use for the rest of my academic career and more. I’ve seen my growth as a writer after ending this course. I now understand how some writing pieces can be good but there could be more improvements to be done.