Samuel Thomas
Writing For the Social Science
Jennifer Buno
12/15/23
A Look At My Reflection
As the semester begins to end, I love being able to reflect on myself and look back at all of the work that I have done since the beginning of the semester. I have no doubt in my mind that I worked hard and gave it my all when it came to each assignment that was given to me. This course since the very first day pushed me to get out of my comfort zone and approach problems in ways I have never done before, and for that I am forever grateful. Thus as a token for my gratitude I would love to delve deeper into my reflections and state my experiences with each assignment.
The first major assignment for this semester was the Qualitative Interview Essay. This essay was one that I found the most unusual to write. I have never written an essay where the main centerpiece was a conversation that I had with someone else. At some point, I had difficulty navigating how I should write the essay in a way that can be interesting and also at the same time be informative for the reader. So, I had decided to write the essay as a story, a story that navigates the conversation I had while also importing my own statements and opinions on what my interviewee said. For me, this was the best possible way for me to write the essay and made it a hundred times easier. Through completing this, I have achieved the course learning objective of “strengthening your source use practices.” I believe that I was able to achieve this course learning objective because throughout the entirety of the essay I was able to greatly analyze my source in a way that made it easily digestible. The source that I used for this assignment was the conversation that I had with my interviewee where I would constantly put quotes from our conversations into the essay. From there I began analyzing what she had been saying by giving my own thoughts on what she had been saying and comparing it to larger issues. For example, “Adding on to her statements, I wholeheartedly agree that people of a younger age group should involve themselves in sustainability in any shape or form. As a part of a younger generation we are on the way towards inheriting the planet, and unfortunately the planet was not well taken care of by those of the older generation.” You can see here that I am giving a statement that seems to comment on what my interviewee has stated previously in the essay while also speaking on a higher issue, which is why I felt like I accomplished this Course Learning Outcome.
The Second Major assignment for this semester was the Observation Essay. I found this assignment the most uncomfortable to do. This assignment forced me to come out of my comfort zone and put me in a place that I found unfamiliar. For the sake of the assignment, I
had to interact with people I had no acquaintance with which allowed me to have a sort of uncomfortable but riveting experience. Uncomfortable because of the awkward conversations I had to have with people, but riveting due to the fact that I was doing something I have never done before in a writing assignment. Similar to my Qualitative Essay, I decided the best way to write this would be story-like. My experience in going into the place I was supposed to observe and my interactions with the people who work there. I believe by doing this, I achieved the course learning objective of “formulating and articulating a stance through and in my writing.” This course learning objective was achieved because I had a clear stance on my view of community gardens and formed my narrative to push that stance. My stance in my essay clearly being that community gardens are places that are greatly beneficial to the people that participate in them because it is a safe space that is there for any and everybody.
The Third and final major assignment for this semester was the Research essay. This assignment is the one that I had the most difficulty with. As I was jotting down this essay, I felt as if I could not articulate what I really wanted to say. I feel as if I have gotten too comfortable writing in a story like fashion that I have forgotten what it meant to write an actual proper essay. Nonetheless, I decided to take the experience of the previous assignment I have written and incorporate them in this essay. Writing this essay really pushed my writing capabilities and I am glad for the experience that it gave me.. The course learning objective that I have learned while writing the essay was “ practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing project.” I believe that I have achieved this course learning objective because this essay required you to be able to use multiple resources to find the information you need to support your claims. And for the claims that I have made about community gardens, that being that gardens are good for your physical and mental health, finding accurate data for it is something that is very important in order to inform your reader. Another course learning objective that I think I achieved thoroughly was “enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment.” I have the high opinion that I reached this goal because as I stated before, this essay was one that I had the most difficult time with. That being said, that required me to be more thoughtful of my writing and improve upon editing and revising said writing in order for the paper to be the best that it can possibly be.
Although the writing assignments for this class had pushed me to be a better writer, I certainly believe that I did not meet every single course learning requirement. The course learning requirements that I think that I did not achieve were multiple since I feel like they were not necessary for the essays in the class. Those course learning outcomes being, “acknowledge your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources, and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility”, and, “ negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation.” I did not meet these expectations because I personally feel that the essays were not structured around these CLO’s, so my work did not end up reflecting them. Nonetheless, even though I did not meet all of the course learning outcomes, I definitely was able to learn something.
In conclusion, this class really pushed me to go beyond my own capabilities and improve upon them by going outside of my comfort zone to write from a multitude of different perspectives. Thus, I am really grateful for this class because it made me a better writer.
