The End

Throughout this semester, I further advanced my skillset when it comes to writing essays. I believe that I developed a voice and tried my best to engage with an audience. In the beginning, I was not that confident in writing, as stated in my Language and Literacy Narrative cover letter, from a do now prompt back in August 26 asking about strengths and weaknesses as a writer, “As dated in the first entry, “I would consider myself a decent writer. My strengths include introducing/explaining a topic, providing opinions, paraphrasing, and sometimes summarizing. Some of my challenges lie in making broad generalizations and writing more, specifically making sense of the flow”.” However, I feel more confident, as now I am able to voice my opinions to my audience, use rhetoric devices to convey my message, incorporate feedback while revising my essays, and credit my sources.

A skill I have learned during this semester in English 101 is how to voice my opinions to the audience. When brainstorming for topics, I often faced the challenge of trying to speak to only one group. I supposed I wanted everyone to be able to read what I had to say and also kept in mind that my peers would review it as well. In my first essay for this class, the Language and Literacy Narrative, my audience was my best friend, with whom I have shared the memory I’ve written about. When delving deeper into it and after receiving some peer feedback, I had established the fact that my writing was directed towards “people who’ve had to learn a language they didn’t see a point in learning before, specifically immigrant students” (from my cover letter of LLN). I believe I have successfully voiced my thoughts in my story, to my intended audience, as the peer reviews I had received from both my classmates and writing counselor brought about the feelings I intended to invoke, which was nostalgia and appreciation. Moving on to the synthesis essay, which I struggled with addressing my specific audience. I knew I was writing about Asian immigrant students, so obviously they were my target group. However, I initially wanted my essay to seem like a rant, but also incorporate the structural form public schools wanted students to follow in New York City. My introduction did include context and a thesis as per the RACE and APUSH introduction structure for essays, however, it lacked the audience factor. So to make it feel like I am actually talking to my audience, I added this sentence to the end to engage with Gen Z,

(from the introduction of my synthesis essay). I believe that these little shifts and feedback helped me convey my message better to my specific audience. Another skill I have mastered is utilizing rhetoric devices to convey my message. I mainly use anecdotes and syntax throughout my writings. In my Language and Literacy essay, this specific sentence from the first paragraph is as follows (in blue highlight only):

. The arrangement of my words display my frustration with the repetitive class structure. By using this rhetoric device, I am able to show my audience my perspective of Spanish class and the overall experience I had while learning another language. Moving on to anecdotes in my essay, I often use experiences from my life to better engage and connect with my target audience. The evidence below are from my synthesis essay:

, “From personal experiences, I have had to write short paragraphs using the RACE formula in elementary school. That led me to wonder why there was only one way to achieve full points for standardized tests, such as the State Exams. Additionally, leading me to struggle with proper grammar as I struggled to write and speak out according to their rules”(first body paragraph), and

. These parts from my synthesis essay allow me to relate to my specific audience group, which are Asian immigrant students. Thus, by effectively using rhetoric devices, such as anecdotes and syntax, I was able to communicate a point throughout my writings.

The third skill I further developed was incorporating feedback effectively when revising essays. At first, it did not dawn to me that I wasn’t actually talking about my literacy experience in the first essay. However, after meeting with the writing counselor, I realized that I metioned imagery more than what I felt or had to take away from Spanish class. Attached below is a screenshot of what my writing counselor had to say about our session together.

I believe that the boxed portion proves how I was able to turn the whole essay around to correctly center my essay on my language and literacy experience. Another feedback I had received from an individual in my peer review group, but on a different essay(synthesis) was about including an anecdote into my writing to better engage with the audience. The text highlighted in grey is the one she left a comment on and the text highlighted in yellow is me implementing the feedback.

Overall, I believe that the writing center and peer review class days have tremendously helped me improve my essays. With the chance given to hear others’ perspectives of my writing, I was able to view my weak points and strengthen my essays.

Finally, I have learned how to credit my sources. Focusing mainly on the synthesis essay, I was able to effectively introduce authors in order to present their credibility. By using A Breakdown of a Highly Structured 2-Sentence Summary document, I have successfully introduced an author from a reading done in this course. “Amy Tan, who is a Chinese American author and writer of the essay, “Mother Tongue”, explores the variations of English that shapes how the listener perceives an individual, through the experiences of her mother. Throughout this narrative, she explains how people were treating her mother poorly due to her usage of grammar and spoken sentence structures.”. By using this structure, I was able to introduce Amy Tan and explain the purpose of her essay. Another example of this is depicted through my usage of a meme, “posted on LinkedIn by Alvin Foo, who is a senior internet and mobile media executive and entrepreneur with 20 years of experience. This image shows that the symbol of success to Asian parents is money.”. Thus, I have become better at crediting my sources by following the guidelines. 

To conclude, this semester has shown me how much I can grow when I take risks with my writing and remain open to feedback. I began the course unsure of my voice and hesitant about how to reach an audience. By learning to direct my writing by using rhetorical devices, revising with peer and counselor feedback, and properly crediting sources, I have built a stronger foundation as both a student and a writer. More importantly, I have realized that writing is not just about meeting requirements, it is about using my words as a tool for communication and impact, and I am proud of the progress I have made.