Journey

This final essay, I will take it as more of a journal writing. In efforts to really show how much I have shaped my writing style for the better because of this class. Coming straight out of high school, there were a lot of things about writing that was embedded in my head. I was always a strong student when it came onto writing especially. I truly do enjoy writing essays for my classes, it has not changed since I started writing them. I learned to shape my writing to how it was before I entered this class. As much as that style spoke to me, it was just not enough tone embedded into the writing to really distinguish my work from the rest. My pieces were merely a different topic, the idea that my essays surrounded was what made it stand out, not so much the tone of it.

The first essay that we worked on, the Literacy Language Narrative, was the writing that really pushed me out of my shell. During my high school years, there was not a lot of peer review. I can say that it is safe to say that I was not used to getting feedback from anyone who was not my educator. With that said, the course learning objective 6, “Develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes” is one that I practiced with well in the first fun. The other essays were only with one peer, as for the LLN was with 2. At first, I was reluctant to use the edits of my peers. As I felt that my writing had gotten me this far, why should I change? However I failed to see that writing is like painting. There is no mastery level, as anyone can continue to practice and improve their work. My peer Christian Avila, said to me “I want to feel the passion that you felt in your essay”. This stuck to me, and it made me listen to what my peers had to say. In my LLN, there is a part, roughly in the first paragraph where I am describing the library of my elementary school years. Ryan had suggested that I made this for more detailed than it was already. So that the reader may feel like they’re walking into the library as their reading. This leads me onto the next learning course objective, 3 “Develop strategies for reading, drafting, revising, and editing”. Since I chose to really listen and heed the advice of my fellow peers, it allowed me to actually utilize the beauty of revising and editing an essay. Seeing the transition from first draft to my last draft really shows the difference in passion, detail and tone. Instead of just saying where everything was in the library, I directed the reader, how to get there, how the doors looked, what exactly was to the left of the entrance – to the right and so on and so forth.

The research exploratory essay, is by far one of my favorite essays that we have written over this course. It was when I realized that I can convert the paper to what I wish for the paper to be about. At first, I was confused, and was not sure what I was going to write. We had seen so many videos and presentations in class in regards to language and what a language means to people of different backgrounds. The one video that struck me, was the one by Melissa Lozada-Oliva – “My Spanish”. I really connected with this one video because I have grown up having my family think I was not smart enough because I did not ‘understand’ when they spoke to me in Spanish. The video helped me understand the first learning course objective, “Recognize the role of language attitudes and standards in empowering, oppressing, and hierarchizing languages and their users”. I don’t think I implemented this objective into my writing, however it did help with the motivation involved with writing my essay. It lead to the combination of my major – psychology- and this class creating the topic of my Research Exploratory Essay. This allowed me to use my prior knowledge, of our course learning objective number 8, “Locate research sources in the library’s databases/archives and on the internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, and bias”. Having using the library database previously, it was easy for me to navigate though. Though the course the learning objective that I did focus on was 7, “Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences”. After the one on one with Professor Miller, she helped me realize that my paper may have had too many technical ideas that catered more to a psychology field. Allowing me to really revise and look over my paper so that I can better explain my view to all audiences.

            The final essay, Critical Analysis Essay, is where I was really able to piece the learning objectives all into the one essay. It came to the point where there were a few objectives that in which I caught myself actually using and others that were left unnoticed. This essay really allowed for me to explore objective 2, “Explore and analyze in their own and other’s writing a variety of genres and rhetorical situations”. This objective I noticed when I was reading the article on Tiffany C. Martínez time and time again in order to really grasp as many ideas and perspectives off of it. The essay on its own was something I was not used to, as it involved summarizing. This leads to course learning objective, 5, “Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations”. I don’t think I focused on this one too much. However I felt that after utilizing the summarizing tool from the Phase 2 essay, I didn’t realize how easy it was for me to do for out last essay.  In editing this essay, which I did multiple times, unsure if I should make an imprint on not include a photo. Or feeling that I went against my thesis in order to prove appoint. It was quite a dilemma that I eventually worked out with.

After a number of drafts and worksheets that we completed over the course, I learned to truly step out of that ‘comfort’ zone of wiring without tone. Peer reviews, and one on one helped me realize just how lacking my papers were in regards to passion through the text. Though many of the course learning objectives were already exposed to me, there were few that truly aided me in this new journey with my writing. I felt that the course learning objectives all spoke out to me at some point during the course.