Ujan Bajracharya
Freshman Composition
12/1/2023
Self Assessment Essay
I’m someone whose English is their 4th language, and I’m not as confident with English as I would like myself to be. Overall this course was fun and interesting, it taught me things that I will use in the future, and it also cleared up some misconceptions that I used to have when it came to citing my sources. Some things that I was taught in this course that I find helpful are rhetorical analysis and things like that because it’s important to know these things and it helps me to get more out of an article. Another thing that I learned in the course is finding credible sources, this means finding trustworthy sources, and finding out if they’re reliable currently as well as it was back when it was written, using the CRAP test.
One of the most important things that I learned in this course was locating research sources and scholarly articles. This was done through the City College Library Archives, and the class made me realize how much information was here and how easily I could access the information and sources, along with there being a lot of scholarly articles that are peer-reviewed by other scholars of that certain topic. This was helpful when doing my research paper because it was the reason I found the scholarly articles that I needed for the topic. It’s also something that I plan on using in other classes for the rest of college. Finding out if the source is credible is something that I find can be used for the rest of my life, in many different ways such as just reading articles online or looking for sources online.
Some of the ways of locating research materials were taught by going to the computer lab in the library and learning about the CCNY Library online, which is a source that gives you trustworthy sources and also gives you scholarly articles. Other ways we learned about how to use resources was using the CRAP test which means Currency (How current the article or source is and if the currency of the article is still correct with what your topic is), Reliability (How trustworthy or reliable the source is), Authority (Where does this source come from, is it a government source?), and Purpose (What was the reason for this article or source to be written).
I did achieve this course objective because I feel like it was something important that I learned and I see myself using these tools in the future. For other classes or just my life in general where I have to write essays. So for me this is a valuable lesson that I’ll use for the rest of my life to see if the things I read as sources are reliable or not and to get more in depth with what the article is about or trying to say.
Something else that I learned from this course was the importance and the systemic application of citation conventions. This was important because it’s something that needs to be in every essay to tell the readers where the sources came from that supports your essay. The ways we achieved this was through learning about how to cite in class and the different rules and forms of citations. Another way we learned was using websites such as easybib to cite. I did achieve the course objective because I learned how to cite and the different ways to cite, along with the different methods.
Another thing we learned was how to compose texts that integrate a stance with appropriate sources, using strategies such as summary, analysis, synthesis, and argumentation. We learned and did this through lessons and examples. We made rhetorical analysis charts, did peer review, made thesis and peer reviewed with class, the synthesis was done for the sources to connect with other sources to see how they’re similar or different. I did achieve this course objective because I learned how to have a stance with sources and use them to create summary, analysis and argumentations.
Another thing I learned was how linguistic standards empowers and oppresses language users. This was done through many readings, with the thing to take away being that standard English is valued at the top of the English Hierarchy, with examples of how other Englishes are valued less, and are discriminated against in some cases. For example Amy Tan’s mother when she called and wasn’t respected, and another example when she was ordering something, but her requests weren’t respected. I have achieved the course objective because now I know about these injustices that occur outside of Standard English, when people use other English.
Developing strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising and editing was something else that we did in class. We did this through the lecture and peer review in groups mostly. Reading was done in lecture, presentations, groups, and almost everywhere in the class. Drafting we did for essays, such as the literacy essay and the research essay. Collaborating, revising and editing was done through peer review in groups of 3-4. I did achieve the course objective because I learned how to plan out your essay before doing the final and being organized. I learned the importance of organization because it saves you time and it is just neat in general.
